Real Talk!

Earth Week… and the words Kyoto, green house gas, emissions, energy (and others like them) seem to drift through the government, schools, media, businesses and households, much like spring pollen of budding trees and plants.

Somewhere, I read that cell phones are killing the bee population. Whatever the cause, around the world bee-people have recognized a sharp decline in bee numbers and there are concerns it could sting the fruit growers (and eaters, I can imagine).

Have you seen “An Inconvenient Truth” yet?

Recently, John Baird has been grilled in the press for inciting fear over Canada’s requirement, under the Kyoto Accord, requiring that we cut greenhouse emissions.

Pessimists say the economy will shrink, hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost, electricity costs will jump 50%, gasoline costs will rise by 60% and home heating oil costs will double.

Optimists cite job creation in the new energy efficiency sectors and point to European countries having already instituted many of the changes without suffering any apparent economic hardship as a result. They also believe that there is an awful lot of fear-mongering taking place.

I just keep wondering, how many wars are going on… right now… globally? The United Nations classifies a major war, as being one in which there are 1,000 battlefield deaths per year. It appears that in 1965 there were approximately 10 clashes… in 2006 there were more than twice as many serious conflicts.

Drawn as I am, to surf and to sift through the information (which takes some deliberation). I looked for fuel consumption statistics on things like tanks, ships, airplanes, helicopters and other such vehicles. I noticed that consumption was quoted in gallons per hour, feet per gallon, litres per kilometer, pounds of fuel per thrust, per unit time and other mysterious measures.

Here are some interesting stats that I uncovered:

TANKS:
The average tank takes 6-8 litres of fuel for ignition. They use anywhere from 8-16 litres of fuel per kilometer of travel.

SHIPS:
The Queen Mary requires a gallon of fuel for every 13 feet of travel.
U.S. Naval combat support ships (carrying mostly fuel) burn 9,527 gallons of fuel per hour when all boilers are going at 100%. Ferry Boats use about 5 ¼ gallons of fuel per hour at 80% throttle. Aircraft Carriers average about 100,000 gallons of jet fuel a day.
Acceleration in combat operations increases fuel consumption by a factor of 5.

AIRPLANES:

Average consumption is somewhere around 5 gallons per hour to 17 litres per hour. Long haul aircraft use 7.5 tons of fuel per hour.

SPACE SHUTTLE:

The shuttle requires 2.3 million pounds of solid propellant on launch. It also uses 2 million pounds of liquid fuel on a trip.

HELICOPTERS

A small helicopter uses between 8 and 22 gallons of fuel per hour. A large helicopter uses some 190 litres of fuel per hour.

Interesting stuff.

I also found statistics about jet fuel consumption. In 1974 the United States was quoted as using 32 million gallons per day. In 1999 the United States was quoted as using 70 million gallons per day. In 1998 the entire world used about 178 million gallons per day, with the U.S. using about 38% of that total.

I didn’t find any statistics on emissions from firearms, assault weapons or bombs.

I didn’t find any statistics on the numbers of ships that travel the waterways per day, just for pleasure or shipping. In the United States, there are approximately 28537 commercial air flights per day-on an average day.

I did see a particularly creepy graphic image of global air flight patterns and it wasn’t surprising that it was particularly heavy over the northern sections of the United States, across the Atlantic, to Europe. Hmmm… I seem to remember something, years back, about a hole in the ozone layer.

British scientists began their measurements of Antarctic ozone in 1957. By 1984 fingers were pointing. This phenomenon it was decided, was the result of emissions, mainly in the northern hemisphere, of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons-gases that were in widespread use in refrigeration, industrial solvents and fire control.

How many refrigerators does it take to move a ship 13 feet?

Okay, I’m happy to use energy efficient appliances and light bulbs. I think before I drive and I wait and take one trip for my multitude of errands. I recycle. I have seen “An Inconvenient Truth” (more than once). My fifteen-year-old daughter was read earth and eco friendly books from infancy. I will continue to do my bit.

Are war machine and weapon emissions counted in the expected reductions? What industry is the number one polluter? Should we broaden the definition of war criminals?

Oh… I should mention that I’ve realized that I made a mistake in my record keeping and Abigail Nims was actually my 6th gr-grandmother and Josiah Rising my 6th gr-grandfather. I've done more active research on the politics of the era and related cultures- and I can understand why they decided to maintain their adopted native idenities.