Global Warming Issues

ENERGY is an integral input to modern life. The lack of it could also thwart thumping victories with equal force. The energy crisis all over the world has already demonstrated it. In fact, per capita consumption of energy level would go to explain the level of development of a country.

Bangladesh is poor simply because it cannot provide its population with required energy so much needed to raise productivity and cost effectiveness. The higher the consumption, the greater is development. But household income level determines the range of fuel options. The various energy carriers form what is commonly referred to as an energy ladder. Each rung corresponds to the dominant fuel used by successive income groups. The lowest rung — applicable by the poor — is represented by wood, dung, and other bio-mass.

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Most folks understand climate change is happening, but some continue to dispute if this is the case. So here are some points I would like you to consider.

Many parts of British Columbia have been warming at a rate that is twice the global average. Eleven of the last 12 years were among the warmest ever, since 1850. Over the last century British Columbia has lost 50 per cent of its snow packs and glaciers have melted away.

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Nothing in the near future will take the smoke and haze out of the valleys of western Nevada and it could get worse, the National Weather Service warned Friday.

“There are signs that early next week the westerly winds are going to kick in again, and that would allow more to come on over,” said Shane Snyder, a Weather Service meteorologist.

Washoe County was in a Stage 1 pollution alert on Friday and was expected to be a Stage 1 today. Stage 1 is the lowest level of alerts.

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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., spoke out against President Bush this morning attacking his administration for its failure to counter global warming emissions.

“This administration did not believe in global warming,” Schwarzenegger told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview that will air Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

“They just didn’t believe in it or they didn’t believe that they should do anything about it, since China is not doing anything about it and since India is not willing to do the same thing, so why should we do the same thing?” Schwarzenegger said.

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Twenty Russian scientists are to be evacuated from their camp on a drifting ice-floe in the Arctic after it started disintegrating sooner than expected.

The Russians had set up research station “North Pole 35″ on the floe last September when it measured a safe five kilometres long and three kilometres wide, and their original plan was to stay on it until this September.

But after enduring the permanent night of the Arctic winter and surviving the threat of polar bears, the scientists now find that their temporary home has shrunk to just 600m by 300m and faces complete break-up as it drifts towards a current known to contain relatively warm waters.

These camps have been operated since the 1930s

An icebreaker and another vessel are on their way to the scene, about 30-40km from the Spitsbergen islands, to begin the evacuation in the next few days and return the scientists to the Russian Arctic port of Murmansk.

The expedition’s organisers, Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute based in St Petersburg, told the BBC that the scientists were safe and well, and that they had completed their studies.

This evacuation comes as Canadian researchers report that the melting of the Arctic ice this year started at least four weeks ahead of the long-term average.

Separate teams of scientists in Canada and the US have forecast that this year’s seasonal melt of Arctic sea-ice may well reach or exceed last year’s record thaw in which the ice retreated to an extent not predicted for several decades.

The stations allow for a range of Arctic studies

Russian researchers have a long history of setting up camps on drifting ice-floes, the first being undertaken in 1937. When this latest expedition was launched last year at the time of the record melt, it took the team three weeks to find a suitable piece of ice on which to establish a base.

According to Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University, a veteran of Arctic research, the Russians usually prefer to set up their camps on ice at least three metres thick but the thaw was so extensive that they had to settle for a floe that was only around 1.5m thick.

He said that given the floe’s thin ice and the fact that it is approaching the East Spitsbergen Current, which is known to be warmer than surrounding waters, the Russians “have got to get off pretty fast - that current would be very dangerous for them”.

The bears are in charge of global markets, with one notable exception - the green tech sector. In what is being called the new “green gold rush,” global investment in renewable energy has powered ahead by 60 per cent to $155 billion in 2007.

Buoyed by soaring fossil-fuel prices and concerns over the carbon dioxide emissions that fuel global warming, investment in clean energy from sources like wind, solar and biofuels last year rose three times faster then predicted by the UN Environmental Program (UNEP).

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“Certain home shapes and roof types can make a big difference,” she said.

She recommends the following for anyone building in high wind regions.

Design buildings with square, hexagonal or even octagonal floor plans. “Such designs reduce wind loads,” she said.

Roofs with multiple slopes such as a four-sloped hip roof perform better under wind forces than gable roofs with two slopes. Gable roofs are common only because they are cheaper to build. Research and testing show that a 30-degree roof slope has the best results, she said.

Wind forces on a roof tend to be uplift. “This explains why roofs blow off during extreme wind events,” she said. To combat uplift, she advises connecting roofs to walls with nails, not staples. Stapled roofs were banned in Florida after Hurricane Andrew.

Aim for strong connections between the structure and foundation. Structural failure is often progressive where the failure of one structural element triggers the failure of another. Connections can be inexpensively strengthened.

Roof overhangs are subject to wind uplift forces which could trigger a roof failure. In the design of the hurricane-resistant home, the length of these overhangs should be limited to about 20 inches.

The design of the researched cyclonic home includes simple systems to reduce the local wind stresses at the roof’s lower edges such as a notched frieze or a horizontal grid. Install the latter at the level of the gutters along the homes’ perimeter.

An elevated structure on an open foundation reduces the risk of damage from flooding and storm-driven water.

Taher also teaches some courses to help prepare architecture graduates for the Architect Registration Exam. She is the author of a new book about structural systems for the exam. Last year her article about the design of low-rise buildings for extreme wind events appeared in the Journal of Architectural Engineering.