[sustran] fwd: Atmospheric Issues e-newsletter

[SUSTRAN Resource Centre]

Dear sustran-discussers

The UK-based electronic newsletter, Atmospheric Issues, is a useful
resource on recent news in air pollution and atmospheric impacts.  I
include below some of  items from the latest issue. 

Paul
SUSTRAN Resource Centre
P. O. Box 11501,
50748 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel/Fax: +60 3 2742590,  E-mail: sustran at po.jaring.my
Web: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/


From: "Joe Buchdahl" <J.Buchdahl at mmu.ac.uk>
Organization: Manchester Metropolitan University
To: "Atmospheric Issues" <aric at mmu.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 14:32:16 GMT
Subject: May newsletter
Reply-to: j.buchdahl at mmu.ac.uk

Dear Reader,

Below is May's edition of Atmospheric Issues (also attached as a text 
file).

Joe Buchdahl
ARIC

Sue Hare / Joe Buchdahl - Coordinators

Dept. of Environmental & Geographical Sciences
Manchester Metropolitan University
Chester Street
Manchester M1 5GD

Tel: 0161 247 1590/3, Fax: 0161 247 6332
E-mail: aric at mmu.ac.uk
Internet: http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/aric/arichome.html

Atmospheric Issues

May 1999 	Volume 5, Issue 2

.......

NEW DIESEL CATALYST

The US manufacturer Engelhard is to market a new diesel exhaust after
treatment device in the UK. The device reduces particulates and other
pollutants and is likely to bring strong competition for Eminox, the
main competitor on the market. The Engelhard DPX catalysts will cost
£3,000, compared to a cost of £3500+ for the Eminox CRT (a similar
device that requires the use of ultra low sulphur diesel).

The DPX catalysed soot filter uses an active catalyst surface
deposited on a ceramic particulate filter. This combines a particulate
filter with the function of an oxidation catalyst. 95% of carbon
monoxide and hydrocarbons can be oxidised by the DPX filters and 90%
of particulate matter is removed.

The Vehicle Certification Agency has approved the product, and says it
will allow commercial vehicle users to qualify for the £1,000 per year
excise duty rebate for green vehicles.

Source: Air Quality Management, April 1999.

.......

NEW UK CLIMATE CHANGE TAX TO BE LAUNCHED IN 2001

>From April 2001, the UK government plans to introduce a tax on the
business use of energy. The new tax is set to deliver about a quarter
of the greenhouse gas reduction targets for Britain. The tax will
apply to coal, natural gas and electricity used by businesses, the
public sector and agriculture. It will not apply to electricity
producers or the transport sector. It is expected that £1.75 billion
will be generated by the tax in the first year and carbon emissions
are expected to reduce by 1.5 million metric tonnes a year by 2010.

The government has promised to make the new tax fiscally neutral by
putting money back into companies through energy efficiency programs,
support for the use of renewables and cuts in employers' national
insurance contributions.

>From the 1st June, excise duties for large cars and light goods
vehicles will increase, whilst duties for smaller cleaner cars will be
cut. Next year, a shift in the tax system based on CO2 emissions will
take place and duties on gasoline will rise by 6% to favour the use of
low-sulphur diesel. More tax measures will follow in the future to
promote the use of non-car commuting.

Source: Global Environmental Change Report, 12th March 1999; DETR News
Release, 29th March 1999


1998 - THE WARMEST YEAR OF THE MILLENIUM

1998 was recorded as the warmest year to date in the observational
record of surface temperatures. According to a report in the 15th
March issue of Geophysical Research Letters (vol. 26, pp. 1759-1762),
1998 may also be the warmest year of the past 1000 years. Extending
previous research that showed the 20th century was the warmest of the
past six centuries, Michael Mann of the University of Massachusetts
and colleagues analysed tree ring and ice core back to AD 1000. The
analysis showed that there was a cooling in surface temperature until
around 1900 of 0.2°C per century, followed by a dramatic temperature
rise.

The warmest decade prior to the 1990s is said to be 1166-1175 and the
1990s are seen to be significantly warmer than this time. 1998 is seen
to be significantly warmer than 1249, the warmest year prior to the
1990s. This supports the researchers' conclusion that "both the past
decades and past years are likely to be the warmest for the Northern
Hemisphere this millennium". Source: Global Environmental Change
Report, 12th March 1999


SOLAR VARIATION ALONE COULD NOT PRODUCE CURRENT GLOBAL WARMING

The past few decades have seen a rapid warming in the temperatures at
the Earth's surface. According to a report in the 27 January issue of
Journal of Geophysical Research, solar variation alone could not have
been responsible for this warming. Researchers David Rind, Judith Lean
and R. Healy of Goddard Space Flight Centre (USA) used computer models
to discover what impact solar variations had on global temperatures.
They concluded that changes in solar output on their own would not be
sufficient to produce the rapid warming during the last few decades.
According to the researchers, changes in energy output from the Sun
account for a temperature increase of approximately 0.2°C over the
past century, or about one third of the observed temperature increase,
and a 0.45°C increase since 1600.

Source: Global Environmental Change Report, 12th March 1999


IS URBAN WARMING RESPONSIBLE FOR BIASING GLOBAL TEMPERATURE  TRENDS?

Thomas Peterson of the National Climatic Data Center (Ashville, North
Caroliner, USA) and colleagues have used data from the Global
Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) to show that global warming is
not biased by urban warming. Many temperature-recording stations are
based in urban areas and hence skeptics have suggested that urban
warming has skewed overall temperature trends. 

The researchers used two different methods to classify the 7280
stations in the GHCN network as urban or rural. Then they performed an
analysis of global temperatures using only the stations that qualified
as rural under both classifications. They compared the result trends
to those seen in the complete data set and found no significant
difference in trends between the two data sets. The researchers
concluded that "the global land surface air temperature signal is
robust and not affected by urban warming".

Source: Global Environmental Change Report, 12th March 1999