Global Warming Updat…

Global Warming Update:

Industry has dramatically cut its emissions of pollutants, called volatile organic compounds.

That first sentence would probably shock Kyoto-proponents. The second sentence will give them a heart attack.

But those cuts have been more than offset by the amount of VOCs churned out by trees.

You heard it right. Trees are putting out pollution faster than industry can (dramatically) cut it.

The revelation challenges the notion that planting trees is a good way to clean up the atmosphere.

…and is likely to cause mass hysteria among environmentalist radicals.

When fossil fuels used in industry and automobiles fail to combust completely, they generate VOCs, which react with nitrogen oxides and sunlight to form poisonous ozone in the lower atmosphere. In the past few decades, the introduction of more efficient engines and catalytic converters has dramatically reduced these emissions.

But trees also produce VOCs, which tend to be ignored by scientists modelling the effects of ozone on pollution. So a team led by Drew Purves at Princeton University investigated the impact of newly planted forests on VOC levels in the US.

Translation: They tend to be ignored by scientists who have the rather unscientific idea of a “pre-conceived notion”. As I’ve said many times before, beware of setting public policy based on computer models. You may become the victim of someone’s prejudices.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!