contrails affect global warming

[Paul mabbott]

Odd, I remember no experts saying these things. I saw a lot of rubbish in the papers though .... Bad science ....

An exception - the ozone layer problem. The hole in the ozone layer in the southern hemisphere did lead to more skin and eye cancers; the reasons for the depletion of the ozone layer were detected and publicised; the way to cure it were discussed. There were a lot of people (industrialists mainly) who said, "It's not happening", "It has nothing to do with CFCs", "It's unavoidable, we can't live without CFCs", "There are no substitutes to CFCs", "You won't be able to persuade other countries to go along with it" ...... Yet, oddly enough, scientific advice and international action on it avoided the disaster.

Originally Posted by Bullseye

You know,we should all be really concerned about the state of the planet.Because for the last 40 years I remember we've been told by "leading scientists" that (and in the 1970's and 80's these catastrophies would happen by 2001), "The Oceans will be devoid of life", "The land will be so polluted that life will not survive", "It will be constant winter because the sunlight will not pass through the polluted atmosphere", "Acid rain will burn the skin from our bodies", "We will all get skin cancer because of no Ozone Layer","Oil,coal and gas will run out by the year,.....well take your pick from 2001 onwards", plus all the pandemics like flu's,AIDS, mutant virus's wipeing out between 10 to 50% of the population.Nowadays I find myself becoming a teeny weeny bit sceptical about anything a "leading scientist" says,but there again todays scientists rely on concensus (and trying to please whoever pays their funding) not actual science,so they must be better !. "What's that Sooty ?,you think I'm a bit cynical ?,only when the Bullsh*tometer goes of the scale Sooty,only then".

[captaincarot]

don't remeber where i read it either new scientist or nature. about 18 months later, there were no conclusions drawn on it just an aside on the observed temperatures.
during the time the planes were and weren't flying.
the only way to show any conclusive links would be to reproduce the experiment, which probably isn't going to happen.
not till the oil runs out at least anyway

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by captaincarot

don't remeber where i read it either new scientist or nature. about 18 months later, there were no conclusions drawn on it just an aside on the observed temperatures.
during the time the planes were and weren't flying.
the only way to show any conclusive links would be to reproduce the experiment, which probably isn't going to happen.
not till the oil runs out at least anyway

Yes, it was a rather short-lived experiment!

[richnfamous]

I found a bit of info on this:

Global Dimming (Contrails) - Video

CNN.com - 9/11 study: Air traffic affects climate - August 8, 2002

While I'd agree with some of the posters that it's probably too late to stop climate change, it's not too late to start planning for a future that deals with it, and the loss of cheap (fossil) energy.