Chinese coal blamed for global er... cooling !

easychair wrote: »

According to Ray Bates, of the Meterology & Climate Center of UCD, he says the Artic ice is floating n the sea, and if it melts will cause no increase in sea levels, due to Archimedes Principle. He further goes on to say that ice on Greenland, if it melts, probably will add to sea levels, but that’s counteracted by the fact that the Antartic is doing the opposite of the Artic and is actually getting colder and the areas of ice are increasing.

7. Land-based Ice
Unlike the melting of sea ice, which does not directly influence sea level, the melting of land-
based ice does contribute directly to sea level rise. The melting of many glaciers along the
margins of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is accelerating (Pritchard et al., 2009;
Velicogna, I., 2009). Globally, ice losses are estimated to contribute 1.8 mm yr-1 to sea level
rise, the remainder of the total of 3.5 mm yr-1 being due to thermal expansion (see Section 8).
Ice loss as a result of accelerated ice-sheet flow is so poorly understood that its potential
contribution to sea level over the twenty-first century remains unpredictable.

easychair wrote: »

Coincidentally, we were watching this last evening, http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00818zy/The_Blue_Planet_Frozen_Seas/ in which David Attenborough claims the the Artic is a "Frozen Sea".

easychair wrote: »

I was asked for a reference, and I gave it.

Acid rain is such an evocative term and was much in use in the 1980's when were all terrified that acid rain was going to destroy the forests of Europe. Thank heavens most of the forests seem to have escaped unscathed, and acid rain seems to have been consigned to history. Is it a particular problem in China?

"Increased sulphur dioxide emissions meant that one-third of China's territory was affected by acid rain, posing a major threat to soil and food safety," Sheng Huaren of the standing committee, was quoted by state media as saying.

The situation is much the same in the northeastern United States and Canada, though further advanced. There, natural buffers -- calcium magnesium in soils and bedrock -- are so depleted from half a century of acid rain that forests continue to suffer to this day, even though federal regulations regulations have cut acid deposition in half.

At this rate it's just a matter of time until China's dusty protection is gone, too.

China, the world's largest consumer of coal, is paying a heavy price for its rapid development, with 258 of its cities experiencing acid rains due to excessive emission of sulphur dioxide, causing health hazards and damage to buildings and scenic spots, according to official statistics.

The study of the changing weather pattern in Xiamen in the southeastern part of Fujian province, regarded as one of the best places to live or visit in China, shows that the city is witnessing continuous acid rains, staining its centuries-old colonial buildings and the world's biggest Buddhist statue.

"Official statistics show every drop of rain in Xiamen in the first half of 2010 was acidic, recording pH levels of less than 5.6 (neutral is 7)," Zhuang Mazhan, chief engineer at Xiamen's Environmental Monitoring Central Station said.