Showing posts with label Paris climate conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paris climate conference. Show all posts

Friday, January 1, 2016

MUENCHHAUSEN, Jan. 1, 2016


MUENCHHAUSEN

AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS
By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON(at)VERIZON.NET
===========================================================
January 1, 2016
===========================================================
WELCOME!
The Green Baron (TGB) welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications. 
The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above.

HAPPY NEW YEAR (?)
TGB wishes whatever readers he may have a Happy New Year. Please excuse his general pessimism, but given the state of matters in the world today, and as they developed in recent years, TGB questions just how happy, healthy, and prosperous this New Year may turn out to be. Any happiness or lack of may well be reflected in results of the coming general elections to be held, if TGB is correct, on November 8, 2016. Given how things are today, he refuses to guarantee 100% that there indeed will be elections.
COP21
Nothing to do with any police forces. COP21 is the name of the recently concluded climate conference in Paris (ended December 12, 2015, correct?). Given that there are no sanctions involved against those countries that fail to comply with the terms of such agreement as was reached at COP21, perhaps it can be evaluated, generally, as a cipher. Is it possible that its terms can be "enforced" through moral suasion and international public shaming of those nations that do not comply or make a credible effort to do so? Maybe, but TGB would not recommend holding one's breath. Meanwhile, in cities such as Beijing, New Delhi, and Tehran, one might often be doing well by holding one's breath. Given that this is not a viable option, folks in those cities wear face masks and, yes, even purchase cans of air from non-polluted places.
cop21-logo
By the way, why was COP21 not carried out as negotiations for a treaty? One possible reason: The US Constitution requires American ratification of an international treaty by two-thirds of members of the US Senate present and voting. Under current circumstances, it is unlikely that such ratification would have been voted.

LESS EFFECTIVE DRUGS
It is becoming evident that drugs being used against many bacterial infections--namely antibiotics--are becoming decreasingly effective. Perhaps future research may uncover ways to combat such microbial resistance to these drugs. The best means for an individual to avoid the need for them is to avoid contracting a bacterial disease if that is at all possible. 
Again, Happy New Year! Sleep well, if you can.

Monday, December 21, 2015

MUENCHHAUSEN, December 21, 2015

MUENCHHAUSEN
AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS
By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON(at)VERIZON.NET
===========================================================
December 21, 2015
===========================================================
WELCOME!
The Green Baron (TGB) welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications.

The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above.

WINTER SOLSTICE
Today is the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere (and Summer Solstice in the Southern). Very interestingly, some nacreous ("mother-of-pearl") and even noctilucent clouds have been spotted in northern Scandinavia where polar night currently prevails. These clouds can float as high as 70,000 feet above mean sea level--so high that they reflect sunlight even at the high latitudes where they are observed. Some scientists say that though noctilucent and nacreous clouds may exhibit a nearly ineffable beauty, they can potentially reduce levels of stratospheric ozone.

Noctilucent clouds over Arctic (1)


CLIMATE--PARIS

The much vaunted Paris climate conference or COP21 lasted from November 30 to December 11. There has been much political-type hoopla about this conclave. What portions of the agreement (?) reached will prove to be binding and observed and by whom is anyone's guess. One can state with complete truth that certain Paris hotels and restaurants did a land-office business. Stories about it that have appeared in the popular press--and TGB has numerous clippings and downloadings--so far leaves him in a quandary. There is, however, much to discuss if one can figure out what actually has been decided or resolved.
Meanwhile, horrific pollution episodes have been taking place in cities as diverse as Beijing, New Delhi, and Tehran.
155782966__1_.0 (1)
Air pollution episode in India (2)

BACTERIAL DRUG RESISTANCE
Articles on the growing danger of bacterial resistance to drugs, or "R", are being seen increasingly not only in the popular press, but also in publications aimed at diplomats. TGB has seen stories in publications as diverse as the popular PARADE and the specialized Washington Diplomat. Moreover, "R" in bacteria is rapidly becoming multiple; i.e., a given species of bacteria becomes resistant to more than one class of antibiotics. WASH YOUR HANDS! That's the first line of defense.


REFERENCES
1. NASA. https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=637&q=noctilucent+clouds&oq=noctilu&gs_l=img.1.0.0l10.1907.5311.0.10590.8.7.0.1.1.0.160.856.0j7.7.0....0...
1ac.1.64.img..0.8.852.05GFONp9lec#imgrc=LuepM99leFAh4M%3A

2. El Dinamo (Chile). http://www.eldinamo.cl/ambiente/2015/06/05/no-solo-chile-esta-bajo-el-humo-estas-son-las-10-ciudades-mas-contaminadas-del-mundo/

Saturday, November 28, 2015

MUENCHHAUSEN, Nov. 28, 2015

MUENCHHAUSEN
AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS
By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON(at)VERIZON.NET
===========================================================
November 28, 2015
===========================================================
WELCOME!
The Green Baron (TGB) welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications.

The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above.

PARIS MONDAY
Well, the big international climate conference opens in Paris this Monday--that's November 30, and it lasts until December 11, if all goes according to plan. The United States goes there riding on its moral high horse, being in the process of closing down the coal industry and leading the charge away from (or retreat from?) fossil fuel use. Please don't misunderstand TGB. He is truly all in favor of the use of renewable sources of energy to power the economies of the various nations of the world. May he presume to inquire how such energy is to be accumulated, stored, and distributed to drive our various economies? 

Additionally, with 100+ nations being represented at the Paris conference, including many heads of state of heads of government, will this grand conference be deemed a total success, a partial success, or, effectively, a failure? That remains to be seen and how those who report on it spin their stories. Meanwhile, TGB reads that there has been one of the worst air pollution episodes in Beijing, China, in a long time, and in a city that experiences air pollution incidents frequently (1). Numbers? The US Embassy in Beijing reported particulate matter levels at PM2.5 = 391 micrograms per cubic meter. The World Health Organization places the safe level at 25 micrograms per cubic meter. Reportedly, visibility was reduced to "a few hundred meters" (1). TGB believes that the Chinese delegates to the Paris conference will give strong lip service to reduction of air pollution levels and other environmental problems. Whether and when this lip service will evolve into actual results is what TGB hesitates to speculate.

Beijing and China Air Pollution Travel and Air Pollution In Beijing & China
Cough, cough! (3)

Here's another one from the Financial Times: "India has blocked G20 efforts to pave the way towards an ambitious global climate change accord, in a sign of the deep divisions confronting negotiators just weeks before delegates from nearly 200 nations meet in Paris" (2). This is worth a read if one can read the whole story, which TGB has on a flash drive. Who knows how many other parallel examples there may be, with some hemming and hawing, and "we wholeheartedly support combating climate change, but, ah, we do have certain, er, problems that we need to address first." Well, you get the picture.

And just to add some icing to the cake (and TGB likes icing on cake, take that, Sugar Police!), imagine the security measures that will be taken in Paris, given the events of Friday, Nov. 13! Stay tuned!

REFERENCES
1. Air pollution in Beijing hits hazardous levels". http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Air-pollution-in-Beijing-hits-hazardous-levels-6661328.php, Nov. 28, 2015.
2. Barker, A., Clark, P. "India stance slows progress towards climate change deal". Financial Times, Nov. 17, 2015, p. 6. 
3. http://chinatravelgo.com/travel-air-pollution-in-beijing-and-china/