Mind the Gap

Mind the gap

(Image: Arz/Wiki Commons)

Most of us I’m sure must have often heard the voice on the London Underground warning us to “mind the gap” as we get off and on the train. As far as I’m aware nobody has ever been killed or badly injured by not minding these gaps but as I watched the videos of the interviews with scientists who were present at COP 21, I became aware of the much more dangerous gap that we had on our hands as we struggle with the CO2 problem. As always, the scientists were a bit cautious, but their message was very clear, about 98% of the scientists who are directly involved in climate research agree that if we carry on as we are doing, this century could well be our last one. On the flip side, we have the ordinary citizens, and there we have about 98% of them who are either outright deniers or who just couldn’t care less.

If we are to win this battle (fight for life?) before it’s too late, we have to start closing this enormous gap by harnessing the power of the media and getting more and more ordinary people knowledgeable and involved. Quite rightly the media has frequently highlighted the dangers to our children’s health from the amount of sugar in fizzy drinks and confectionary. All very important, but let me put it to all these nice responsible Mums and Dads who believe and act on these warnings. The danger to your children’s health from too much sugar is minimal compared to the dangers to their health and life if we don’t get the CO2 levels down and get the earth’s energy balance back under control.

Too much CO2 and too much sugar can both damage our health and both can kill us, the first from over-production and the second from over-consumption.

As the production of CO2 is by far the most dangerous of the two, I recalled an article written by the Guardian in early 2015 with the heading:

Climate change: why the Guardian is putting threat to Earth front and centre

First let me tell the Guardian of another milestone that we have just passed as we all Sleepwalk down the Road to Armageddon. December 2015 was the first month since records began (March 1958) that the average December CO2 level in that year went up by 3 ppm more than the December figure for the previous year 2014. This is not a criticism of the Guardian’s extensive and excellent reporting of the sugar problem, but if we get our priorities right, then the reporting of the recent milestone, which I believe falls in the category “Threat to Earth” should get the front and centre’ page treatment which the Guardian said it would get. As a bonus, the newspaper could also display on the front page the little Atmospheric CO2 widget shown on this blog, accurately calculated by co2.earth and updated every month.


One final bit of information and comment. In December 1958 the CO2 level was 314.67 ppm and in December 1959 it was 315.58 ppm, an annual increase of only 0.91 ppm. Over the next 56 years the annual difference has increased exponentially to the present day 3 ppm and is still increasing in the same way.

If we continue in this same business as usual way for the rest of the present century, please believe me when I say that eating too much sugar will certainly be the least of our grandchildren and future generations problems.

By way of explanation in case you think that Hawaii is just a place you go to top up your tan, let me tell you, the Island has a mountain called Mauna Loa which is more than 4,000 m high. At about the 3,300 m level there is an observatory which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-Earth System Research laboratory (ESRL)-Global Monitoring Division-(GMD).

Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO) is a premier atmospheric research facility that has been continuously monitoring and collecting data related to atmospheric change since the 1950’s. The undisturbed air, remote location, and minimal influences of vegetation and human activity at MLO are ideal for monitoring constituents in the atmosphere that can cause climate change. [1]

Mauna LoaCO2 Dec15

(Image: Co2.Earth)

[1] The observatory is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) – Global Monitoring Division (GMD)

COP 21: Paving the road to hell?

French_Foreign_Minister,_UN_Secretary-General_Ban,_and_French_President_Hollande_Raise_Their_Hands_After_Representatives_of_196_Countries_Approved_a_Sweeping_Environmental_Agreement_at_COP21_in_Paris_(23076185424)

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius – President of the COP21 climate change conference – raises his hands along with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and French President Francois Hollande on December 12, 2015, after representatives of 196 countries approved a sweeping environmental agreement during a multinational meeting at LeBourget Airport in Paris, France. (Image: U.S. Department of State/ Wiki Commons)

Having gone through the COP 2 Agreement a number of times, it seems to me that it’s like “The Road to Hell”, and is just paved with good intentions. I find its only redeeming feature is that at last the world leaders appear to accept the fact that we do now have a big problem.

During the Cold War back in the 1950/60s when Russia and America faced each other, with fingers on their respective nuclear buttons, we knew that if one or other of these buttons was pressed, the other side would immediately follow, and the resulting nuclear holocaust was described very simply as M.A.D, being short for Mutually Assured Destruction.

Global Warming has now taken over as the one activity which has the capacity if left un-checked to wipe out all flora and fauna on our planet, and that includes us. It no longer matters which of our countries is pumping out the most or the least amounts of CO2, the effect will be global and once again the resulting M.A.D will be the same for all of us.

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Misleading reporting on CO2 emissions

On the 5th December I published a post on this blog: Some of my thoughts on COP 21 – Keep it simple.

I’ll now just repeat below one of these particular thoughts which I had on the role of the media.

We must all now accept that atmospheric global warming is definitely caused by CO2, and we must get the media on-side and persuade them that their daily reporting of the world stock markets is not nearly as important as a daily update of the Keeling Curve which shows the CO2 levels and is published daily in co2.earth. Increases in world stock markets will only speed us down the Road to Armageddon, but a daily showing of the Keeling Curve will keep us informed as to whether we are making progress in saving this much abused planet of ours or not.

atmoo co2

(Image: CO2.Earth)

Although the owner is not one of my favourite persons, I take the Sunday Times every week, and on Sunday 7 December, the large bold front page headline read – Revealed: greenhouse gases to fall. Just to be sure I was keeping abreast of Global Warming developments, I went into co2now.org and got the hot off the press month of November graph which I show on the right.

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Some of my thoughts on COP 21 – Keep it simple

world leaders

30th November 2015, Paris: More than 150 world leaders meet under heightened security, for the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Image: Presidencia de la República Mexicana/Wiki Commons)

As the Global Warming Conference gets under way in Paris, I hear nothing in the opening speeches by world leaders that make me confident that this time we’ll get it right. We are simply not getting the message across that 2015 must be seen as the turning point. It must be the year when we stop the talking and start to take the necessary drastic action.

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Part 1: Rise and fall of North British Rubber Company

I was intrigued to discover that the North British Rubber Company is the subject of a very interesting exhibition currently being held by the Edinburgh Printmakers, Remembering the North British Rubber Company. I certainly do remember the old manufacturing company and the Castle Mill Works in Fountainbridge very well indeed because I worked there as an engineer from 1957 till 1960. In our house as I was growing up ‘The Mill’ was often a frequent topic of conversation as my mother, Elizabeth Robb, had worked in the hot water bottle department there from leaving school in 1912 till she married my father in 1926. Every Wednesday an old friend and colleague of my mother from ‘The Mill’, Isa McNeil, came and had tea with us, and the gift she brought was always a packet of Toblerone chocolate. My mother’s Uncle, Willie Gilbert (my Great Uncle), also worked there so when I joined the company I became the third generation to work there.

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Women at the North British Rubber Company working on the hot water bottles, 1900 (Image reproduction: Evening News via STV/NBR Wrinklies)

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