Interesting Facts

16th February 2005 - The Kyoto Protocol, initially adopted for use on 11 December 1997, came into force.

2nd February 2007 - Hundreds of scientists who had taken part in a U.N.-sponsored study concluded in a report that human activity was to blame for global warming, largely through greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.

According to a review by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), the health of the world’s oceans is deteriorating. (The problems have been known for some time, but the deterioration is happening even faster than had previously been thought. The oceans face many threats; climate change means they are warming, and slowly turning less alkaline by absorbing CO2.  Additional problems include over-fishing, pollution, siltation and toxic algal blooms. If that's not bad enough, dead zones are being formed by fertilizer run off pollution.)

According to research from scientists at  Oregon State University , t emperatures on earth are higher than at any time in at least 4,000 years. (Over the coming decades temperatures are likely to surpass levels higher than at any time before the last ice age. Then why is it so cold here?) Source

According to a study by British scientists, dinosaurs may have farted their way to extinction. (The study, which appears in the journal Current Biology, estimates that an average argentinosaurus, weighing around 90 tons and measuring 140 feet, munched its way through half a ton of plant material a day, its gut produced clouds of methane. The scientists worked out that this resulted in 520 million tons of methane gas being "released" into the atmosphere every year. Nowadays cows and other farm animals globally contribute up to 100 million tons a year, and many scientists believe that this methane is contributing to global warming and climate change now.) This appears in Fun With English too, thanks to Russell Howard:-

According to a study published in the journal Nature, phytoplankton, the microscopic plants that support all life in the oceans, are dying off at a dramatic rate. (Studies have shown that the phytoplankton of the oceans has declined by about 40 per cent over the past century, with much of the loss occurring since the 1950s. They believe the change is linked with rising sea temperatures and global warming. If you think this won't affect you, according to Dr Boyce, "A decline of phytoplankton affects everything up the food chain", and we are up the food chain.)

According to the UK government's new chief energy scientist, Professor David MacKay, greenhouse gas emissions created by Britons are probably twice as bad as figures suggest. (The main reason for this is that developing countries manufacture the goods that Britain buys. It is increasingly difficult to "Buy British".)

With a population of 150 million, Bangladesh is the most crowded place on Earth. (Worryingly it will become even more packed as global warming affects sea levels, and a predicted 20% of the country will be under water in the next 30 years.)

According to a report in Science journal, climate change is causing a breed of wild sheep in Scotland to shrink. (Classic evolutionary theory would predict that wild sheep gradually get bigger, as the stronger, larger animals survive into adulthood and reproduce, but milder winters caused by global warming, have helped smaller sheep survive, and breed, causing a decrease in size of the overall population. A bit like washing a jumper in a hot wash.)

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), the Arctic ice cap is thinner than ever. On the other side of the world, an ice bridge linking a shelf of ice the size of Jamaica to two islands in Antarctica has snapped. Scientists say the collapse could mean the Wilkins Ice Shelf is on the brink of breaking away, and provides further evidence of rapid change in the region. (Recent satellite observations indicates that sea ice cover continues to shrink due to global warming.)

According to US physicist Alex Wissner-Gross, a typical Google search on a desktop computer produces about 7g CO2. (This means that two search requests on the internet produces "as much carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle". Google says that a a typical search produced only 0.2g of carbon dioxide. I want to know what a typical search is!)

According to the Suddeutsche Zeitung, between 1990 and 2008 Germany reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 22.4%. (Unfortunately the German coal industry is exempt from requirements under the EU internal emission trading system. Claudia Kemfert, an energy professor at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin said, "For all its support for a clean environment and the Kyoto Protocol, the cabinet decision is very disappointing." Which is a bit of an understatement.)

According to a report in the journal Nature Geoscience the number of foggy and misty days in Europe is falling. (Scientists say that these changes may have increased the temperatures across Europe, just not this winter.)

Scientists say that in 2008 the world was cooler than at any time since the turn of the century. (Cooling La Nina conditions in the Pacific brought temperatures down to levels last seen in the year 2000. That said the average global temperature is still about 0.7C above pre-industrial times. So, is it global warming or global cooling?)

The temperature in remote regions of outer space is about 2.7 Kelvin (-270C; -454F). (But a vast physics experiment built in a tunnel below the French-Swiss border is fast becoming one of the coolest places in the Universe. The Large Hadron Collider is entering the final stages of being lowered to a temperature of 1.9 Kelvin (-271C; -456F) - colder than deep space. Brrrrr.)

A UK/Finnish team which has built a computer model linking temperatures to sea levels for the last two millennia, has forecast that sea levels will rise a massive one-and-a-half metres by the end of this century. (If you are planning on buying that lovely little house by the sea, you might want to rethink.)

BBC South East has revealed that airlines deliberately fly longer routes over the Atlantic Ocean to avoid paying air traffic control charges. (These routes are known as tango routes, and they can produce an extra three tonnes of carbon dioxide.)

56 countries account for 90 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions (A new report shows that Sweden is doing the best job in tackling carbon emissions, Germany second best, the UK was seventh, whilst the US ranked second worst only topped by Saudi Arabia who were deemed the most irresponsible emitters among the world's major economies.

Fruit can be made into a 'powerful fuel'. (US scientists have said that the sugar, fructose, found in fruit such as apples and oranges can be converted into a new type of low-carbon fuel for cars. According to an article in the journal Nature, the fuel contains far more energy than ethanol. Another, British report on biofuels says all types of waste products, including plastic bags, can be used to make biodiesel fuel.)

Britons waste the equivalent of around two power stations' worth of electricity each year by leaving electrical appliances on standby. (A survey by the Energy Saving Trust found that more than seven out of 10 people leave appliances on standby. A new product called "Bye Bye Standby" cuts power to any devices plugged into it when they’re not in use. According to their web site, the average UK household wastes £37 each year by leaving appliances on standby. I'm not sure how much this device costs, but I'm sure it would pay for itself in no time, especially if you have kids.)