Dust storms around the world.

Here in western Canada we don't think we have dust storms but that is not quite true. The Sahara desert is the birth place of the largest dust storms and sometimes this dust goes twice around the world. So the whole world gets dust from these storms.

As you can see from the pictures these storms can ruin your day. They also remove millions of tons of topsoil because the topsoil is the lightest type of dust. The cause huge cleaning bills in areas where the dust is bad. They can transmit viruses over long distances. They are hard on machinery and other mechanical devices, like computers and they are increasing world wide.

The bottom pictures shows Australia where dust storms have increased significantly over the past decade. Sydney Australia had two serious dust storms in the last month. Visibility in the city at that time was less than one mile.

China has had more dust storms and these are blamed on poor forestation and farming practices in large parts of China.

In spite of this increase in storms governments around the world still promote the cutting of forests while doing little to reforest newly created deserts.

The worlds largest???

OK, this is the worlds largest ??

A hint, it is part of something that weights 2,200 metric tons.

Neat buildings

Architecture often the design of buildings and there are many interesting designs. Here are a few very different ones. Often buildings are unusual or special when the people doing the building have a lot of money.

The first building is the head office if ING, a Dutch bank.

The second picture is a library parking garage which is covered with large books. They may have to change this in the future if books change to an electronic format.

The last picture is a gallery in Germany with an upside down house stuck on to the top of it.

There are many neat buildings and architecture would be a very interesting career.

Funiculaire de Montmartre

This was a train in Paris France that operated without an engine and without energy. It carried over one million passengers per year and operated between 1900 and 1930.

The system was very simple, very reliable and very safe but with the introduction of cheap energy the authorities decided to do away with something that was impossible to improve on.

There were many trains like this and they all operated in the same way. There were two cars, when one went up the hill the other car went down. In this way most of the energy was provided by one car pulling the other. But extra energy was needed to overcome friction and other energy losses. Therefore the car that was going down carried water equal to the passenger load being carried. This helped gravity and only gravity was used to move both the cars. There were brakes on the cars if they went too fast. When the top car got to the bottom they would empty the water and add water to the other car at the top. So this train was operated only by gravity and it worked great.

Pretty neat eh? and pollution free!!

The World Bank again!!

The World Bank is spending billions of dollars subsidising new coal-fired power plants in developing countries despite claiming that burning fossil fuels exposes the poor to catastrophic climate change.

Although the number of coal fired power plants has slowed in the more prosperous countries many more are being built in poorer countries. China, to name just one country, is building one new coal fired power plant every week.

It is no wonder that global atmospheric carbon levels continue to increase. Not only are they increasing they are increasing at an ever greater rate. There is a growing scientific consensus that the atmosphere level of CO2 must not exceed 350 ppm. Currently it is 385.92 and increasing about 2ppm per year. That means that in 50 years the level could be almost 500 ppm and every atmospheric scientist agrees that this will be a disaster for planet earth.

Wherever man goes he messes up!

These are computer generated images of space junk. 19,000 objects, 10 cm or larger that no longer serve a useful purpose in space. Of course none of these existed before man first launched things into space. Running into a piece of space junk can be deadly as these pieces are traveling very quickly and can punch a hole in a space ship.

In the first picture which shows high earth orbit, a distinct line can be seen abut 40,000 kms out from the earth. This is the place where satellites can remain stationary over a spot on the earths surface. Of course they are not stationary as they spin around the earth as quickly as the earth rotates.

In the second picture the space junk in a low earth orbit are shown. This is much more congested than the high earth orbit. Not so long ago two satellites collided and both were destroyed. Satellites have also been moved to avoid running into a piece of space junk.

So it is crazy but humans pollute everywhere they go, including space.

Super Typhoon Choi-Wan

Hurricanes are called typhoons in the far east. This one is one of the biggest ever. A category 5 storm, the strongest rating, with sustained winds of 260 kph or 160 mph. Because it is located over the north west Pacific ocean it has not generated much public interest. If it was going to hit Florida it would be big news world wide.

It is expected that these storms will become stronger as ocean temperatures increase due to global warming.

Worlds largest navy is unknown.

Off the coast of Singapore is the worlds largest fleet of ships. They have no crews, no cargo and no destination.

They are parked here because of the global recession that governments around the world would rather that you ignore.

The rates for shipping have declined drastically in the last 10 months. Back then it used to cost about $50,000 a day to charter a 80,000 ton ship now it is about $6,000 a day.

The number of ships joining this fleet continue to expand and is now over 500. While shipping declines by 8% a year new ships that equal 12% of global capacity are still being built . That means that the surplus of ships is growing due to orders that were placed up to 3 years ago.

The Baltic Dry Index measures all this and this shows that global shipping is still in decline and the global economy cannot improve if this is the case.

Annapurna 1

This is a view of Annapurna 1 taken from the north. This mountain is the 10th highest on our planet but has the worse climbing fatality rate. 40% of the people who have tried to climb this mountain have died in the attempt. This totals over 60 climbers 5 of which have just disappeared, never to be seen again. Most of the deaths were caused by avalanches which are very common on this mountain.
The mountain which has the dubious distinction of having the second highest fatality rate is K2. K2 is the worlds second highest mountain but does not have so many avalanches. Serious climbing like this is probably the worlds most dangerous activity and certainly the worlds most dangerous sport.

Stick charts

These may look like simple stick decorations but they had a much more serious purpose.

The Polynesians were spread out over thousands of islands in the central and southern Pacific ocean. They were master navigators who made their way over this vast expanse of empty ocean without any of the navigation aids we associate with navigation.

This was only possible because they were keenly aware of the ocean, winds, weather and stars and they used that knowledge to determine which way to go. Individual navigators made 'stick charts' using cowrie shells to represent islands, thin strips of palm fronds displayed the routes and wave patterns. These charts were not taken on these long voyages but the navigator memorized what he needed to know. This knowledge was passed on to others on the voyages and it took many years of experience to become a master navigator. Some of these voyages have been duplicated in recent years but like many of the skills that previous generations perfected the art of navigating by listening to the environment is mostly lost in Polynesia.

CCD, Coloney collapse disorder

In 2007 honey bees suffered from the worst fatality rate ever known. In many case over 50% of the bees died whereas 20 years ago less than 10% was normal. In the last two years the reasons for CCD have become better known and it turns out that there are a number of causes. Mites are a bigger problem. The bees are more stressed due to their higher workload and this makes them more vulnerable to viruses. Some colonies have three viruses and this makes the stressed bees less likely to survive. The bees nutritional health has deteriorated and this means that the bees are less able to fight the problems that may come their way.
As a result of CCD beekeepers are now taking better care of their bees and their health is improving. In the last two years the winter loss rate has been about 35 and 30 percent. Not good but getting better. Pesticides are also a factor and obviously this is something bees did not have to deal with before the introduction of pesticides. Another factor that was covered in a recent post is the vast part of North America that is now paved or built on. Obviously bees cannot survive in a concrete jungle.
There are two things that many people can do to help the bees. Plant lots of flowers and stop using pesticides. The research is incomplete but the wild bees have also been seriously affected by the deteriorating environment that we hmans have caused.

Fastest human ever

On July 6, 2006, 'Fast Freddie' Markhan pedaled 53.43 miles in one hour to set a new worlds speed record for human powered travel. Fast Freddie was the first person to travel 50, 60 and 65 miles per hour using muscle power alone and Fast Freddie was almost 50 years old at the time.

The picture shows his bike and the bike in the background is the same kind of bike without the cover on. As you can see it is a very aerodynamic bike and the reason Fast Freddie was so fast.

First full pressure suit.

This pressure suit was designed and built by Spanish Colonel Don Emilio Herrera Linares in 1934 and 1935. He was going to use it in an open balloon which he want to fly into the stratosphere. This would have been higher than any one else had flown at that time. This effort was canceled when the Spanish Civil War started in 1936. Although this war was a disaster for millions of people it may have save the colonel's life as many things could have gone wrong on his planned flight.

Pavement, lotsa pavement.

Roads and payment in North America total about 100,000,000 acres. This is about 90,000 times more than greater Vancouver. Not only was a huge amount of energy used to create all this paved land but an even larger amount of energy is used move cars and trucks along this pavement.

With this money a very efficient train system could have been built using about 20% of the land and energy we use today. This train system would not only be much more efficient but it would also be much faster. In many large cites the commuting car traffic is actually slower than horses were before the car was invented.

So it is a great shame that the leadership in many countries has so little vision and so frequently make such poor long term decisions. Here in British Columbia the government has announced that it will replace a bridge with a new 10 lane bridge at a cost of almost $4 billion. Or as Everett Dirksen was supposed to have said, "A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you are talking real money."