Joe
I've been heavily involved in environmental matters and the electronics
industry for decades. Without blowing my own trumpet too loudly, I
believe I was among the first to warn the industry about using
halocarbon solvents for defluxing over 25 years ago. I believe that the
electronics industry can do a lot to reduce global warming emissions
and, yes, I do believe that undue use of fossil fuels is a real issue.
OTOH, I believe that lead-free soldering is a non-issue as far as the
environment is concerned and is largely based on emotion and commercial
interests. However, the kind of mass-media report that you quote here
is, I think, somewhat out-of-place because a) it has no direct
connection with the forum and b) it is based on non-scientific wording,
designed for public consumption, assuming that all average global
temperature rise is anthropogenic, which has not been proved, at all.
All the atmospheric scientists are saying is that there appears to be a
correlation between the rise and man-made pollutants, such as CO2, CH4,
fluorocarbons, etc. As such, there is a prima facie case that one may be
the cause of the other, but no scientist will say that one IS the cause
of the other. As modelling is fined down, the hypothesis is becoming
more highly probable but no one should be too categorical either that
climate change is 100% man-made or to forecast the future scenarii (even
the IPCC offer several possibilities).
In the meanwhile, we, in the electronics industry have a major role to
play to reduce fossil fuel emissions (which, categorically, cause more
global disease than AIDS, quite apart from the climate-change aspects).
We can do this by ensuring that:
- the power consumption of every device we manufacture is minimised
- the power consumed in the manufacturing process is minimised (and
lead-free soldering is counter-productive, here)
- we apply electronics in other sectors to help them reduce their power
consumption
- we minimise emissions of chemicals, especially those with fluorine in
their molecules
- we recycle as much as we reasonably can, without taking things to
extremes
- we ensure that everything we cannot recycle is disposed of in an
environmentally-correct manner (e.g., incinerated in a suitable device
to produce electricity)
- we promote the design of more efficient means of conversion of
renewable energy to a usable form
- etc.
If we do all this, then we shall help reduce the global cost of health
care and now we are talking big bucks, much more than energy issues.
So, if we must talk environment here, let's do so within the context of
our industry.
Sorry, Joe, but let's not get embroiled in the abstruse. It is less easy
to keep our feet on the ground than our heads in the (diminishing) ozone
layer.
Brian
Joseph Fjelstad wrote:
>
> Hello friends,
>
> Here is something that landed in my inbox today that might be on
> interest in our collective and continuing search for answers.
>
> Kindest regards to all,
> Joe
>
> -----------------
> Forwarded Message:
> Subj: Earth Policy News - 2nd Warmest Year
> Date: 12/18/01 1:03:58 PM Pacific Standard Time
>
> From: [log in to unmask] (Reah Janise Kauffman)
> Sender: [log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> NEWS FROM EARTH POLICY INSTITUTE.
>
> Eco-Economy Update 2001-4
> For Immediate Release
> December 18, 2001
> Copyright Earth Policy Institute 2001
>
> THIS YEAR MAY BE SECOND WARMEST ON RECORD
>
> Lester R. Brown
>
> Global temperature data for the first 10 months of 2001 indicate that
> it
> likely will be the second warmest year since recordkeeping began in
> 1867.
> Following the all-time high of 1998, this year's near-record extends a
>
> strong trend of rising temperatures that began in the late 1970s. The
> 15
> warmest years since 1867 have all come since 1980.
>
> This additional year of temperature data provides further evidence
> that a
> new trend of rising temperature is bringing to an end the period of
> relative
> climate stability that has prevailed since shortly after the last Ice
> Age
> ended and agriculture began some 11,000 years ago.
>
> Monthly global temperature data compiled by NASA's Goddard Institute
> for
> Space Studies in a series based on meteorological station estimates
> going
> back to 1867 show that September 2001 was the warmest September on
> record.
> August and October temperatures in 2001 were each the second warmest
> on
> record.
>
> Based on data for the first 10 months, the global average temperature
> for
> 2001 is calculated at 14.51 degrees Celsius (58.1 degrees Fahrenheit).
> The
> all-time high in 1998 was 14.68 degrees Celsius. (See figure
> http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update4_data.htm.)
>
> Looking back over the last century, the average global temperature
> climbed
> from 13.88 degrees Celsius in 1899-1901 to 14.45 degrees in 1999-2001,
> an
> increase of 0.57 degrees. Fully two thirds of this gain--more than 0.4
>
> degrees--occurred in the century's two closing decades.
>
> After fluctuating around 14 degrees Celsius (57.2 degrees Fahrenheit)
> during
> most of the century, the temperature has been above this level every
> year
> since 1976. During the last several years, the earth's temperature has
>
> fluctuated around 14.4-14.6 degrees Celsius.
>
> The rise of nearly 0.6 degrees Celsius during the last century is
> quite
> small compared with the projected temperature rise over the next
> century of
> 1.4-5.8 degrees Celsius (2.5-10.4 degrees Fahrenheit) according to the
>
> Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Even the lower
> figure in
> that range would be more than double the increase of the last century.
> The
> upper-end projection of 5.8 degrees Celsius would be nearly 10 times
> as
> much.
>
> The contrast in sea level rise for the last century and that projected
> for
> this one is similarly worrying. During the last century, sea level
> rose an
> estimated 0.2-0.3 meters (8-12 inches). The IPCC projects that during
> this
> century sea level will rise from 0.1-0.9 meters (4-36 inches).
>
> The temperature rise of recent decades follows on the heels of rising
> atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal
> greenhouse
> gas responsible for global warming. During the first two centuries of
> the
> Industrial Revolution from 1760 to 1960, atmospheric CO2 levels
> climbed from
> an estimated 277 parts per million (ppm) to 317 ppm--a rise of 40 ppm.
> But
> during the four decades from 1960 to 2001, CO2 concentrations climbed
> from
> 317 ppm to 371 ppm, a gain of 54 ppm. (See figure
> http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update4_data.htm.) This
> accelerating
> rise in recent decades corresponds closely with the growth in fossil
> fuel
> burning during this period.
>
> Rising temperature is not an irrelevant abstraction. It brings
> countless
> physical changes--from more intense heat waves, more severe droughts,
> and
> ice melting to more powerful storms, more destructive floods, and
> rising sea
> level. These changes in turn affect not only such obvious things as
> food
> security and the habitability of low-lying regions, but also the
> species
> composition of local ecosystems.
>
> Agriculture is particularly vulnerable to climate change. For example,
> in
> the summer of 1988, record heat and drought in the American Midwest
> pulled
> the U.S. grain harvest below consumption for the first time in
> history.
> Fortunately for the scores of countries that import grain from the
> United
> States, the nation had a large grain reserve at the time and was able
> to
> satisfy importers' needs by drawing down these reserves.
>
> Climate change affects food security in many ways. In 2000, the World
> Bank
> published a map of Bangladesh showing that a 1-meter rise in sea level
> would
> inundate half of that country's riceland. Bangladesh would lose not
> only
> half its rice supply but also the livelihoods of part of its
> population. The
> combination of a population of 134 million expanding by 2.7 million a
> year
> and a shrinking cropland base is not a reassuring prospect for
> Bangladesh.
>
> Climate change is also triggering widespread changes in ecosystems.
> Recent
> years have brought heavy investments by governments and environmental
> organizations to protect particular ecosystems by converting them into
> parks
> or reserves. But if the rise in temperature cannot be checked, there
> is not
> an ecosystem on earth that can be saved. Everything will change.
>
> An additional year of temperature data reinforces the concerns
> expressed by
> the team of eminent scientists who produced the latest IPCC report,
> Climate
> Change 2001. They make clear what is now becoming obvious even to
> non-scientists: that fossil fuel burning is changing the earth's
> climate.
>
> The bottom line is that altering the earth's climate is serious
> business--not something to be taken lightly. We can curb climate
> change by
> shifting from a carbon-based energy economy to one based on hydrogen.
> We now
> have the technologies to do it. The economics are falling into place.
> At
> issue is whether we can restructure the energy economy before climate
> change
> spirals out of control.
>
> # # #
>
> Additional data and information sources http://www.earth-policy.org or
>
> contact [log in to unmask]
> For reprint permissions contact [log in to unmask]
>
> For more information on climate change or the emerging solar/hydrogen
> economy, see chapters 2 and 5, respectively, of Eco-Economy: Building
> an
> Economy for the Earth.
> http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/index.htm
>
> Given the worldwide interest in ECO-ECONOMY, we have put it online for
> FREE
> downloading.
>
> If you find this "Eco-Economy Update" of interest, please share it
> with your
> friends and colleagues. Perhaps they would like to subscribe to our
> listserv
> http://www.earth-policy.org/Subscribe/index.htm
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