More Unintended Consequences

Sunday Althouse asked:

Why can't I buy gas without ethanol in it?


Like Ms. Althouse, I've noticed the dramatic decrease in mpg as a result of burning a mixture of gasoline and ethanol. I've seen between a 10 and 20% reduction in my Tundra's mpg. (The exact decrease is variable and depends upon how much ethanol is in the mix. Since all the pumps say "up to 10%, it's tough to figure what you're going to get with each tankful.) At first I thought it was just due to the cold and use of the 4-wheel drive more frequently, but now.... I've also heard some horror stories about ethanol and gaskets. Not. Compatible.

Instead of getting 360 miles on a tank of fuel, I'm getting closer to 270-300 miles. That means I have to burn more fuel to cover the same distance. It would seem to me that if the goal of greenies was to find an alternative fuel, one that did not produce 20% more gases for the same distance traveled would be preferred.

Go on and read the comments at Althouse's post. No one is happy.

Today, Althouse asks:

But what if I don't want my car running on cheese?

Yeah, she's in Wisconsin but still.... I mean, is there nothing cheese can't do?

It's the Law...

...of Unintended Consequences, that is.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Environmental protection of Sydney's beaches and harbor has created a cleaner marine environment, but is attracting sharks closer to shore chasing fish, say marine experts, after two shark attacks in two days.

Cleaner waters attract sharks

First it's gators in the southeast, cougars in California, then bears in New Jersey and wolves in Montana and Wyoming and now sharks.

There are times exploitation and pollution can be your friend. Take greenhouse gases. I'd rather have a bit more warmth than cold, thank you very much!

UPDATE: And Detroit's got an active beaver lodge in an intake canal at Detroit Edison's Conners Creek power plant on Detroit's east riverfront.

I blame the Canadians!

The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes once more!

Cleaner air to worsen droughts in Amazon: study

Curbing a notorious form of industrial pollution may ironically harm Amazonia, one of the world's natural treasures and a key buffer against global warming, a study released Wednesday has found.

Its authors see a strong link between a decrease in sulphur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants and a rise in sea temperature in the northern Atlantic that was blamed for wreaking a devastating drought in western Amazonia in 2005.

Quick everbody! Forget ethanol, wind power or nuclear plants. Go out and build coal fired power plants to save the Amazon!

And no scrubbers on the stacks, ya hear! We need to get those sulphur dioxide molecules up there and the aerosols too.

We really need to try--at least try--to think these things through before we make emotional rather than scientific decisions. This world is a complex place and no one knows the effects of the winds caused by the flapping of one butterfly's wings. And anyone who trys to tell you that they do, is a frelkin' liar.

Unintended Consequences

Cleaner Air Means a Warmer Europe

Yep, you read that right.

Europe is heating up much faster than climate researchers expected, and now they think they know why: air made dramatically cleaner by anti-pollution programs. With less particle pollution clouding the air, more sunlight is coming through and the continent is getting warmer.

[emphasis added]

The article goes on to say that because of the efforts to cut emissions from auto exhaust and factories, there’s more sunlight reaching the surface of the earth and that causes warmer temperatures.

The dwindling clouds of pollution are apparently the reason that Europe is heating faster than other mid-latitude regions. Since 1980, the average surface air temperature between the Bosporus and the Bay of Biscay has risen by almost an entire degree Celsius -- twice as much as expected. The reasons for this were until recently a matter of heated dispute. Greenhouse gases could explain half that increase, at best. But now climate researchers in Germany, Switzerland and the United States, using data and computer simulations, claim that the rise in temperatures has been caused most directly by a decline in sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere.

The sulfates, they say, act as sunlight filters. Sure, acid rain from those very sulfates was/is damaging to plants and material structures, but the next time someone starts spouting about how man-made greenhouse gases are causing global warming, remember to consider the economic costs and ponder what just might happen to the climate should we succeed. It appears the computer modeling currently being used is, shall we say, questionable.

The findings of this particular study are:

"Our findings contradict the IPCC," said Rolf Philipona of MeteoSwiss, Switzerland's national weather service. He and his colleague Christian Ruckstuhl, who now works as a researcher in California, analyzed data from 25 weather stations in northern Germany and eight in Switzerland.

"We found that the increase in radiation on the ground is considerably greater under a cloudless sky than a clouded one,"

The IPCC questioned the effect that sulfate aerosols have on the atmosphere.

But there is good news—of a sorts:

Europe's air is not likely to get much cleaner than it is now -- neither in summer or in winter. "The concentration of aerosol is stabile," said ETH Zurich's Wild. And Philipona of the Swiss weather service, is sure that "this increase in temperature, as we saw in Europe in the 1980s, will not happen again."

So the amount of sunlight reaching the ground should not increase appreciably. (Unless, as has been suggested, the sun alters its own output.)

The article does end with what has become the standard doom-and-gloom warning.

But this is by no means an announcement that the danger has passed. Greenhouse gases are still represent a threat, and increasing and unchecked emissions will almost certainly warm the Earth's atmosphere. The German Meteorological Society (DMG) claims that the median temperature in Europe in 2040 will be 1.7 degrees Celsius higher than the median temperature before the Industrial Revolution. Frequent heat waves, severe storms and other extreme weather are a foregone conclusion.

(h/t Jungle Trader.)

Unintended Consequences

It was such a good idea. What could possibly go wrong?

Regulation 1774/2002 -- dates from the year 2002. At that time, the fear of BSE or mad cow disease was rampant in Europe and the EU issued a number of new directives to protect the population as much as possible from exposure to the epidemic. Scientists believe humans can contract the disease, in the form of the fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), if they consume infected meat.

As part of these new regulations, it was decreed that dead cows, sheep, goats and horses would in the future need to be disposed of in a licensed animal disposal facilities.

Sounds pretty reasonable. Concern for human health and all that, led to clean disposal of dead beasties from the farm. But…

Up until that time, this had by no means been the usual practice, particularly in Mediterranean countries. Animals who died in remote mountain pastures or in far-flung highland valleys were either left where they were or were taken to designated carcass dumps. This was the case in Spain, for example, where such dumps are known as "muladares." Eagles, vultures, wolves and, in particular, brown bears used to look forward to finding carrion -- when it was still available.
For bears, the carcasses were particularly important. Before going into hibernation in the fall and even more so when they emerge in the spring, bears have great problems finding food.

So eagles, vultures, wolves and bears are getting short shrift. Big deal, I hear you say. Ah, but it is. You see, in most of Europe, these are endangered species and their getting more endangered every day.

Go on over to ready what’s happening: EU Carcass Laws Starve Europe's Scavengers

h/t to the Jungle Trader

Stating the obvious.

Ethanol from food crops has been shown to create more pollution and higher food prices as well as the destruction of wildlife habitats, the call for biodiesel fuels ahs sparked the destruction of rainforests to grow palm oil, and now this:
Plug-in cars could actually increase air pollution

That's because a plug-in's lower tailpipe emissions may be offset by smokestack emissions from the utility generating plants supplying electricity to recharge the big batteries that allow plug-ins to run up to 40 miles without kicking on their gasoline engines. Plug-ins, called PHEVs, are partly powered, in effect, by the fuel used to generate the electricity.

This is a look at the Emperor's new clothes (or lack there of) that was--or should have been--obvious from the start.

Ain’t nothing free in this world, baby, and the more we screw around with the natural systems looking for solutions that aren’t needed because nature takes care of her own in ways far more complex than we mere mortals are as yet able to understand, the more we are going to learn harsh lesson after harsh lesson.

Biodiesel, the great rainforest killer
Biodiesel - the most destructive project on Earth

Ethanol Demand Threatens Food Prices
Why Ethanol Production Will Drive World Food Prices Even Higher in 2008

Whoosh!

3rd manmade Grand Canyon flood planned

PHOENIX - For the third time since 1996, officials plan to unleash a manmade flood in the Grand Canyon next month in an effort to restore an ecosystem that was altered by a dam constructed on the Colorado River decades ago.

When Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell were constructed it changed the flow of water through the Canyon. Waters released by the dam are usually from the bottom of Lake Powell, where temperatures are cooler. Silt and sediments are trapped by the still waters of Lake Powell and they do not flow down the Colorado into the Canyon. The Water flowing through the Canyon is, therefore, cooler and less muddy than it was before the Glen Canyon Dam was constructed.

So what, you ask. The water is clearer and cooler. Big deal.
Ah, but it is a big deal to the native species that grew up in that warm muddy water and depended upon the silt and sediment to provide nutrients and sand bars.

Without spring floods to flush the system and help rebuild beaches and fish habitat, native species suffered even as non-native fish thrived. The shift helped speed the extinction of four fish species and push two others, including the endangered humpback chub, near the edge.

Okay, you got that. Several species of fish have finned their way off this mortal coil because the dam has altered the ecosystem where they lived. (Apparently the Grand Canyon is the only place they lived.

What to do about those that are still threatened? Why, create a replica of the annual spring floods, of course. That ought to do the trick!

If approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior, next month's flood will scour and reshape miles of sandy banks on the floor of the Grand Canyon. The department's decision is expected this week.

If approved, flows in the Grand Canyon would increase to 41,000 cubic feet per second for nearly three days — four to five times the normal amount of water released from the Glen Canyon Dam. What scientists and environmentalists want to see is what will happen to the fish and the canyon when the gates close at dam and the staged flood recedes.

As the headline says, they’ve done this twice before starting in 1996. Huge amounts of water are released from Glen Canyon Dam. It scours the Canyon and reshapes the sand bars and beaches in the little nooks and crannies. No word of how the fish fare, Do they get flushed as well, like some belly up goldfish won at the local carnival?

Where’s all that “flushed” material go? Why to the next impoundment downstream, of course. That would be Lake Mead. You know, the major electrical for Las Vegas and water source for half of the southwest. No mention of the troublesome sedimentation filling Lake Mead, however.

According to an article in the Goat, a High Country News blog:

Lake Powell, on the Arizona-Utah border, was created to benefit Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Three hundred miles away, on the Arizona-Nevada border, Lake Mead stores Colorado River water for Arizona, California and Nevada

So water will be pulled from one groups supply and dumped (along with lots of mud and other rubbish) into the holding tank of another group. Doesn’t sound so bad, especially when BOTH reservoirs are only at about half their capacity do to 1) drought and 2) over use. (The former problem may be alleviated slightly this spring when all that snow in the Rockies melts. See: Wet Snowpack Holding for Now from February 22, 2008 for an idea of what the problem might be come April and early May—Hint: it won’t be drought. “…over a wide area of the Rocky Mountains. Statewide, the snowpack is 132 percent of normal, with the highest levels recorded across the southern half.”)

Hopefully, the current snowpack will be absorbed by both the reserve capacities of the manmade lakes all up and down the western rivers and the thirsty soils of the agricultural areas. Otherwise, we’ll be reading about gargantuan flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers—again. (Who am I kidding? There will be flooding as there is every spring whether the snowpack is above or below average. With some luck, however, the melt may be a long, slow event and there won’t be the serious flooding that occurs from a rapid warm spell.)

See The Future Is Drying Up, published in the NY Times last October 21, 2007, for an interesting look at the usage of and claims upon the water supply in the American southwest.
Also from the NY Times of December 10, 2007: Western States Agree to Water-Sharing Pact

The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again!

UN Warns of Biofuels' Environmental Risk

The world's rush to embrace biofuels is causing a spike in the price of corn and other crops and could worsen water shortages and force poor communities off their land, a U.N. official said Wednesday

And here in the US we are seeing a rise in food prices and fuel costs created by the sale of corn as an ethanol source. You’d almost think the politicians rushing to making these decisions didn’t anticipate the consequences.

Idiots.

Oops!

Japan launch 'prince fish' catch-and-eat drive

Fifty years ago Mayor Daly of Chicago presented the Japanese Crown Prince a gift of the Illinois state fish…the bluegill. The Crown Prince brought them home and began a breeding program in the hope folks would have a new food source. What could go wrong? How about the prolific little buggers are eating up many native species. That’s really quite a common occurrence in such situations.

Emperor Akihito, a fish expert, brought the bluegill from the United States a half-century ago when he was crown prince, hoping to offer a new source of food to Japan.

But the bluegill, once celebrated as "prince fish," has turned into a nuisance in Japanese rivers and lakes by feeding on native species, leading the emperor to offer unusually personal comments of regret earlier this month.

They are trying to encourage people to eat the bluegills they catch. A web site (not linked in the article, possibly because it’s in Japanese) offers tips in filleting and cooking what is called a “pan fish” in the USA for obvious reasons. Simply gut and scale the little buggers and put them in a cast iron skillet with a bit of oil and you’ve got some of the sweetest tasting fish you’ll ever have. Yeah, you can fillet them and make fish cakes out of the meat and maybe a dozen other recipes, but a pan fish was meant for the pan, gol darn it!

Water Troubles

So, last week we were sweltering under sunny skies and 90+ degrees (only into the 70s at night) here at the Aerie. Then, sudden like, the wind switched around and started blowing out of the north-northwest. Thunder boomers swept through and the temperatures plummeted. Now the humidity has also plunged, the highs are in the 70s during the day, the lows are into the 50s at night and the wind is still coming out of the north. In short, the weather is gorgeous.

Before the rains came, I took pity on the grass that was struggling to grow out of the packed red clay that is the fill around the house and hooked up the sprinkler for an hour or so. I shouldn’t have. Oh, not because the rains came. No, that should have been expected—kinda like washing your car on a sunny day only to have an unforecasted monsoon pop up to visit for the next week. No, I should not have watered the grass because of the limitations of the Aerie’s water system.

You see, we have a very shallow well—only 140 feet or so—that produces only 1-1/2 to 2 gallons a minute. (Sounds like a lot, but it isn’t.) To ensure enough water for showers, toilets, washers, etc. we have a 500 gallon cistern in the basement. This is set up to draw water from the well when about ¼ of the cistern is emptied and so always has around 300 gallons of water in surplus. A filter on the line from the well is supposed to trap any red clay particles moving through the shale/slate substrate 20 microns or larger in size.

I didn’t change the filter on July 1 as I should have and, as a result of putting heavy demand on the system by watering the lawn, it sorta failed to do its duty. I now have a cistern filled with watery red sludge and water coming through the pipes that is just slightly reddish (much of the stuff has settled to the bottom of the cistern). The only thing to do is to empty the cistern, clean it out, and slowly, slowly refill it one agonizing inch at a time. Last time we filled it we did so one inch every hour or so to give any sediment in the well a chance to settle before drawing from the well to fill the tank. Did I mention the cistern is about 30 inches deep? That translates into about 30 hours to fill the tank. I can’t do it right now because Don needs water to mix mortar and clean his tools while applying stone to the chimney’s exterior. He wasn’t sure I could get the tank emptied, cleaned and refilled between Friday afternoon and Monday morning, so the process has been delayed. But it will have to be done as soon as all the stone is in place. I don’t think Terry wants to do any laundry until the water is a bit less...well...pink.

Label this as either “unintended consequences” or “my own damn fault.” In any event, it is a lesson learned the hard way.