An Introduction to Climate Change
Engineering and science are mitigating climate change. As the recent, but temporary drop in atmospheric CO2 content during the first pandemic lockdown shows, climate change may not be such an intractable problem as its promoter’s claim. Changes in the fuel used for surface transport are already gaining pace and may keep the rise in the CO2 level at a much lower rate than in the recent past. We are also not investigating the role of Mother Nature, remember it is only circa 12,000 years since the last Ice Age which physically separated Britain from the Continent and turned a green Egypt, into desert.
I also think that certain sectors of the scientific community have gained ever more generous research grants by dramatic and scary, headline claims.
This obscures some of the basics that we are ignoring. The recent flooding tragedy in Germany illustrates some of the issues, we blame Climate Change for, but are ignoring Nature's rules by building on flood plains and natural wetlands. Homes must be well insulated as they are in really cold countries, such as Norway.
Rather than politicians trying to change the habits of billions of people by setting blanket bans on what we can drive & what we can burn & how often we can fly & next on what we can eat, it is far easier to invest in Engineering R&D.
The UK is leading the way in decarbonising electricity. But that is relatively easy, given the rapid developments in the engineering of solar and wind energy. Good progress is being made in changing the fuels used in transport, but there is still a large amount of private investment in legacy vehicles. But someone has to pay to provide sufficient electrical energy to be provided at every car park. parking meter and even lamp post. The really hard bit will be private housing. Retrofitting poorly insulated homes using gas to heat and cook is a mammoth task and according to The Economist page 20 dated Feb. 20th 2021, the Government has no plan for this. Hydrogen is in the frame for being the “white knight,” but it has a much lower energy density than gas, so requires major investment in larger mains and pumps, by whom?.
So, I suggest that we must keep our domestic restrictions for climate change in line with the major polluters, the USA, China, and India. Local groups are already beginning to object to multiple-acre solar farms and that will have to grow but will create a dependency for more imported food. The UK is just 1% of the world output of Green House Gases (GHG). The latest figures in The Economist, page 16 Feb 20th, 2021, show that China produces 5 times more than the EU27 and the USA over twice as much as the EU. The UK’s CO2 output is puny in comparison.
Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter @20ccnorman, where I have posted the 600 messages on engineering developments that tackle climate change issues.