High oil prices are causing reduced flights and reduced fuel
consumption by the airlines. The sudden and dramatic reduction in
flights and simultaneous decrease in dimming in the US in the days
subsequent to 9/11/2001 is a strong indication that it will happen
again to the degree airline fuel consumption is reduced. It is thus
reasonable that the US can expect to be in for a hotter summer and
more weather extremes, increasingly so as the airlines cut back their
fuel consumption and go bankrupt.
It may be a wise move for the US government to bail out the airlines
by providing fuel. This might buy us an extra year to figure out
some kind of solution to the energy crisis before things go beyond
recoverable. It may also reduce the crop failures we can already
expect, as well as keep some airlines viable.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4171591.stm
“...the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth's surface has been
gradually falling
... the decline in sunlight may mean that global warming is a far
greater threat to
society than previously thought.”
More on global dimming:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun/about.html
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2004/09/22/keen-dimming/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1108853,00.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/
dimming_prog_summary.shtml
http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/GlobalWarming/globaldimming.asp
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0513-01.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2005/s1325819.htm
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
