Off Topic - Global Warming - my challenge to engineers.

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thefatlady

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Here’s a challenge for you engineers. Take a sphere with a mass of several zillion tons. It is pretty hot in the middle. Its outer layer has variable (liquid and solid) composition and thermal conductivity. The temperature difference between the surface and its surroundings is some 270K plus or minus about 50K, depending on where on the surface and at what time measurements are taken. It is warmed by a radiant heat source, from which the energy reaching the sphere varies by a few percent, both cyclically and randomly. An insulating layer surrounding the sphere varies in its thermal conductivity and reflectivity. Oh, and there are local hotspots, changing surface activity, you can’t use identical measuring equipment at all points or times, and a few other things I haven’t thought of yet. Control the average surface temperature to a fraction of a degree.

As a practice run, try it with a chicken on a spit. Servo systems and consistent measurements are allowed. Answers on a postcard to your local environmental expert.
 
Before I can answer I must ask whether my job and the huge funding I may receive is dependant on the answer? My answer may also depend on how much TAX you need to raise.
 
Dont forget the convenience of having something to blame for every variation in environmental condition. Especially the media, who have never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
 
Yup, wrong forum but very elegantly put. My thoughts exactly but you're not allowed to say this type of thing these days for fear of being branded a heretic by the tree huggers
 
How much global warming is caused by volcanoes and other natural phenomenon, how did the ice age change to more temperate conditions? what type of gas guzzlers did they drive in the ice age to cause it to get so much warmer? How much money do hotels save by not washing your towels, [to save the environment] These are the research questions that need to be asked
 
and why is the incidence of asthma increasing, especially in children, and is higher in the UK than in any other country? Don't tell me it's because of some climatic cycle. Sorry, wrong forum, but the "I don't give a s*&t about the environment brigade" on this forum get up my nose. Is this another US import?
 
No, I wasn't American last time I looked. Could still happen, though, if Tony gets his way.
Apologies about the wrong forum - I'm new and ignorant.

Old fogies like me will remember:
In the 60s all bad weather was blamed on the atomic bomb.
In the 70s another ice age was forecast.
In the late 80s eruptions (Mt Henderson, Mt Pinatubo) would cause global cooling for the next decade.
The nineties saw the hole in the ozone layer - a disaster which seems to have gone very quiet (although the hole is still there).
Now we have global warming.
Oops! I forgot that prophesy of doom, the Millenium Bug, not to mention Ibola virus, Lassa fever and now Bird Flu.

ArthurWood - please don't confuse pollution with global warming. Local pollution problems have occurred for centuries - I have seventeenth century books which decry sulphur and arsenic pollution which, with the language modernised, could have been written now. Think about the London smogs of the 50s which killed thousands, now a thing of the past thanks to anti-pollution laws.

By the way, Mainmarine, my life began again at 51 thanks to bypass op. I immediately retired and bought a bigger boat. That was 8 years ago.
 
Whether pollution and global warming are connected is open to debate. The link you give does not establish that, in fact I cannot see that it even proposes it. It does discuss the various hypotheses.

However, there is, I believe, a link between pollution and asthma. Hence my comment. I support efforts to reduce pollution.

On global warming, it has been shown in January this year (McIntyre and McKitrick, Energy and Environment Vol 16, No.1. 2005) that the algorithm used to produce the famous hockey stick curve, which is used (by the IPCC amongst others) to demonstrate global warming, will produce a hockey stick curve even if random data (red noise) is fed in.

I am being deliberately provocative, but I didn't intend it to get too heavy.
 
Our local envirolmentists amazed me, here in deapest Lancashire.

When I was a kid, all the rivers changed colour, each day, dependant on what dye was being used. The fog from the chimneys got so thick, I got the job of walking infront of trucks, to feel the way. Then course, all the mills closed down, cos it was cheaper to make cotton things abroad. Every one got central heating, so no coal fires anymore.

Then the envirolmentalists came along and made it a smokeless zone. But there was no smoke. They also fished a bit of crap out of the rivers and sent Richard Branson along to put fish in.

But the fish had already come back. Because the mills had gone bust, and nothing at all to do with there meddling

Course they said, look how wonderfull we are!! /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
you seem to have plenty of time!! Here,s one for you.Put a rope right round the earth, add one foot how far from the earth,s surface does it now come.work it out you will be amazed.
 
That's an old one. Divide by 2 x pi.
Answer 1.90986 inches working with pi to 5 decimal places. Also assuming the earth is a sphere and not, as it actually is, an oblate spheroid.
 
"and why is the incidence of asthma increasing, especially in children, and is higher in the UK than in any other country? Don't tell me it's because of some climatic cycle. "

Well lots of reasons I guess

Firstly because someone is making a nice living by measuring it and making lots of noise to ensure nice living continues until age 60 followed by nice state funded pension.

Secondly because fewer children are dying of other things before noticing that they have asthma.

Thirdly because asthma is a convenient label for hard pressd GPs to put on coughs, colds and sniffles that are simple virus infections that they can't cure but mum demands it has a name and a prescription given.

Because it has become fashionable.

Hows that - cynicism on wheels!

Now ducking for cover
 
[ QUOTE ]
Put a rope right round the earth, add one foot how far from the earth,s surface does it now come.work it out you will be amazed.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was amazed. I guessed it would be about 2 inches. S'funny how wrong you can be. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Don't worry, if you take a longer time period you'll find we are actually in a long-term trend of global cooling with relatively short-term periods against the trend. So wait a bit and we'll all be huddled around the hole in the ozone layer trying to keep warm.

You can prove what you want with stats..... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
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