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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (6907)	7/6/2006 9:09:20 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36917

Coke and coal use... Industrial revolution began in ...Humphrey Gainsborough produced a model condensing steam engine in the 1760s, which he showed to James Watt of Glasgow Green, Scotland. In 1769 Watt patented the first significant improvements to the Newcomen type vacuum engine that made it much more fuel efficient. Watt's leap was to separate the condensing phase of the vacuum engine into a separate chamber, while keeping the piston and cylinder at the temperature of the steam. Watt, together with his business partner Matthew Boulton, developed these patents into the Watt steam engine in Birmingham, England. The increased efficiency of the Watt engine finally led to the general acceptance and use of steam power in industry. Additionally, unlike the Newcomen engine, the Watt engine operated smoothly enough to be connected to a drive shaft—via sun and planet gears—to provide rotary power. In early steam engines the piston is usually connected to a balanced beam, rather than directly to a connecting rod, and these engines are therefore known as beam engines en.wikipedia.org The use of coke as a fuel was pioneered in 17th century England in response to the ever-growing problem of European deforestation. Wood was becoming increasingly scarce and expensive, and coal's fumes, particularly smoke and sulfur compounds, disqualified it from many applications, including cooking and iron smelting. In 1603, Sir Henry Platt suggested that coal might be charred in a manner analogous to the way charcoal is produced from wood. This process was not put into practice, however, until 1642, when coke was used for roasting malt in Derbyshire. (Coal could not be used in brewing, because its sulfurous fumes would impart a foul taste to the resulting beer.) Perhaps more significantly, in 1709, Abraham Darby set up a coke-fired blast furnace to produce cast iron. The ensuing availability of inexpensive iron was one of the factors leading to the European industrial revolution. en.wikipedia.org Why does the Law Dome Antarctica Ice Core show that atmospheric CO2 began a significant increase around 1750, a century before significant fossil fuel burning began during the Industrial Revolution? — Ken Schlichte, Tumwater Wallace: You can see the ice core curves for yourself by typing "co2 ice core" into Google and choose "images". Most ice cores show an increase beginning around the middle of the 1800s. A few may show slight wiggles before then, but I wouldn't pay much attention to such small fluctuations. It isn't really until the middle of the 1800s that you see things getting beyond the levels where you can really say there's a change. seattletimes.nwsource.com Add a little polar amplification to the mix... Polar Amplification Filed under: Climate Science Greenhouse gases Climate modelling Arctic and Antarctic— group @ 3:42 pm Guest commentary by Cecilia Bitz, University of Washington "Polar amplification' usually refers to greater climate change near the pole compared to the rest of the hemisphere or globe in response to a change in global climate forcing, such as the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) or solar output (see e.g. Moritz et al 2002). Polar amplification is thought to result primarily from positive feedbacks from the retreat of ice and snow. There are a host of other lesser reasons that are associated with the atmospheric temperature profile at the poles, temperature dependence of global feedbacks, moisture transport, etc. Observations and models indicate that the equilibrium temperature change poleward of 70N or 70S can be a factor of two or more greater than the global average. realclimate.org