ECONOMICS PROFESSOR TALKS ABOUT
ONTARIO’S FINANCIAL CATASTROPHE
23 minutes well spent. Should be required viewing for ANYONE thinking of voting Liberal or NDP.
wind and solar
Another Wind Turbine Manufacturer Takes a Dive!
Crime Doesn’t Pay – Crooked Chinese Wind Turbine Maker,
Sinovel, Hits the Wall!
May 21, 2014 by
China is held up by eco-fascists as a paragon of “green” energy virtue. They point to the fact that China is home to some of the largest giant fan makers in the world – and that it pumps out millions of rooftop solar panels – which are both exported around the globe. But they conveniently ignore the fact that China produces a mere 0.23 percent of its energy from renewables and that that piddling proportion is unlikely to increase anytime soon.
The Chinese are no fools – if you’re looking to drag 1 billion or so people out of abject poverty and into the first world, you don’t lumber your economy with the most unreliable and expensive electricity known to man.
Instead – you do exactly what the Chinese have done – and build as many coal/thermal power generation plants as you can; as fast you can. Australia has made $billions shipping the coal that China uses in those plants to keep their homes brightly lit and their factories humming.
Now, whether it’s down to the fact that the Chinese would rather build a system of cheap, reliable power generation, rather than slinging up giant fans to please foreign ideologues; or, perhaps, the fact that its turbines just don’t come up to scratch, Chinese giant fan maker, Sinovel is in diabolical financial trouble.
Here’s Windpower Offshore on Sinovel’s imminent collapse.
Shanghai exchange confirms Sinovel suspension
Windpower Offshore
Jianxiang Yang
14 May 2014
CHINA: China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has decided to maintain the suspension of Sinovel’s two bonds.
In a statement posted on the SSE website, Sinovel said it had received a formal letter from the stock exchange notifying it of the ruling.
The two bonds have had their designations altered, replaced by new names “Rui 01 Zanting” and “Rui 02 Zanting”. The Chinese “Zanting” literally means “suspended”. But their code numbers remain unchanged.
The two bonds were issued in December 2011, totalling CNY 2.8 billion in value. They were temporarily suspended on 30 April, seven working days before SSE’s final ruling landed.
The suspension came in accordance with China’s regulatory rules on stock listing. This stipulates that a listed company will have special treatment if it reports negative net profit in two consecutive years.
On 5 May “Huarui Fengdian”, the designation of the Sinovel stock, was also changed into “*ST Ruidian”. ST stands for “special treatment” and the asterisk mark warns investors of the highly risky nature of the stock. The share will surely be delisted if the company fails to make a profit in the following year, an SSE analyst said.
The Chinese manufacturer posted a loss of CNY 3.45 billion ($559 million) in 2013, more than twice the previous year’s loss of CNY 583 million.
It is not known how long the suspension period for the two bonds will last. In the above mentioned statement, Sinovel said it would continue to fulfill the legal obligations associated with the listed bonds.
Sinovel’s annual report said the firm had canvassed 303MW in new orders in 2013, including 30MW from the international market. Shipments of wind turbines was expected to reach 200MW this year, roughly double that of last year, Sinovel president Liu Zhengqi said earlier this month.
“The priority of the company is to turn deficit-running into profit-making this year. We have confidence that no debt default will occur,” Liu said.
Windpower Offshore
That Sinovel has been unable to make a buck out of the great wind power fraud isn’t for a want of trying.
These hucksters are “ways and means” kinda guys – ready to do whatever it takes to stiff the other guy, provided there’s an advantage to be won. Sounds like the wind industry all over, really.
Here’s The Boston Globe on some of Sinovel’s earlier shenanigans.
Files trace betrayal of a prized China-Mass. partnership: Software theft jolted Mass. firm
The Boston Globe
Erin Ailworth
10 July 2013
On a Thursday evening three Junes ago, Dejan Karabasevic desperately needed to contact his former wife. Karabasevic, a top engineer in American Superconductor Corp.’s offices in Klagenfurt, Austria, had been summoned to work, then confronted by police, who suspected him of selling his company’s proprietary software to a Chinese wind turbine maker.
The questioning lasted past midnight. When he finally reached his former wife, he instructed her to delete all the e-mails in his Google account. But authorities stopped her before she could.
The e-mails proved the basis for Karabasevic’s subsequent arrest and conviction in an Austrian court on charges of revealing trade secrets. His case marked what would be the opening round of a two-year fight by the Devens-based technology firm known as AMSC to defend its intellectual property rights — even as it lost millions of dollars and laid off hundreds of workers as the result of the software theft.
It would also open a window on the sometimes tawdry world of economic espionage between companies battling for preeminence in emerging energy markets.
The saga — pieced together with court records, financial filings, and interviews — took private and federal investigators from a wind farm in China to corporate offices in Austria and Middleton, Wis., and ultimately back to Massachusetts. Here, less than 40 miles from the headquarters of AMSC, FBI agents found a key piece of evidence that helped persuade a federal grand jury recently to indict Sinovel Wind Group Co. of Beijing, two of its employees, and Karabasevic on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, and the theft of trade secrets.
The giveaway: a bit of pirated software found in a Sinovel-made turbine in Charlestown. Authorities believe the Chinese manufacturer stole the software from the Devens company, installed it in Sinovel turbines, and then sold the illegally equipped turbines in the United States at a profit.
A Sinovel lawyer, Matthew Jacobs, declined to comment.
The indictment underscores one of the most contentious issues in Sino-American relations, the protection of the intellectual property of companies doing business in China. How this criminal case — as well as four suits that AMSC filed against Sinovel in Chinese courts — plays out could influence relations between the two countries for years to come.
“It’s important because a lot of people lost their jobs all over the country,” said Timothy O’Shea, an assistant US attorney in the Western District of Wisconsin, where the indictment was filed. “It’s important to protect intellectual property so that people have an incentive to innovate and invest.”
Sinovel was founded less than a decade ago, initially financed by a Chinese government that has aggressively pursued alternative energy to satisfy the nation’s hunger for power and establish China’s leadership in an emerging technology. As with many businesses in strategic industries targeted by Chinese planners, Sinovel sought the know-how of a foreign partner.
Sinovel built the wind turbines, and AMSC supplied the software to control their operations. By 2009, Sinovel had become one of world’s leading wind turbine makers, and the partnership with AMSC was so successful that President Obama touted it as a model for other US companies to follow.
AMSC’s revenues soared, and by 2011 Sinovel accounted for nearly 80 percent of its sales. AMSC opened offices around the world, adding jobs and expanding its global workforce. The company’s stock price climbed, too, during this period, more than doubling to about $25 a share.
It appeared to be the perfect partnership, a true collaboration between the Massachusetts company and the Chinese manufacturer, and a boon to alternative energy. But Sinovel, court records show, would soon decide that it was time to cut AMSC out of the deal. Sometime around February 2011, it began wooing Karabasevic, a Serbian national working in AMSC’s Austrian office, ultimately promising him a six-year, $1.7 million contract with Sinovel and “all the human contact” he could want, “in particular, female co-workers.”
The engineer used his laptop and the Internet to access an AMSC computer in Middleton and download proprietary software code, court documents and other records show. Karabasevic then e-mailed that code and subsequent updates to Sinovel employees.
AMSC got its first hint that something was wrong in March 2011, when Sinovel abruptly refused contracted shipments from the Devens firm, complaining that the software did not meet new power grid requirements in China. With the loss of Sinovel’s business, the company’s stock plunged, and its $1.6 billion market value shrank to just $200 million. More than half of AMSC’s workforce — some 500 employees — was laid off.
By then, Karabasevic was e-mailing and instant messaging regularly with two Sinovel employees, disabling AMSC’s encryptions as the trio worked to adapt the software to turbines in China.
“If you succeed,” Karabasevic wrote in one chat, “Sinovel can separate from AMSC.”
But the scheme began to unravel a month later, when an AMSC field crew doing maintenance on turbines in China noticed blades spinning on a test-version of a Sinovel machine that was supposed to be out of commission. Inside, they found a modified version of software that AMSC had designed.
AMSC hired private investigators, who quickly narrowed the list of suspects to the handful of employees who had access to the stolen software code. By the end of June 2011, they had closed in on Karabasevic, who was arrested by Austrian police.
Ten days before the engineer’s trial in September 2011, AMSC issued a late press release saying that it would sue Sinovel over intellectual property theft. Coincidentally, just hours before AMSC’s announcement, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority sent out its own release, highlighting its new 1.5 megawatt wind turbine delivered by Sinovel two days earlier.
Lumus Construction of Woburn was hired by the MWRA to assemble the turbine. When the company president, Sumul Shah, received a news alert about AMSC’s charges, he contacted Sinovel, hoping to verify that the machine would run on software made by the Devens company — and not a pirated version.
“Obviously, I was concerned, the MWRA was concerned,” said Shah, recalling that he received assurances from Sinovel. “They said, yep, they’re AMSC components.”
So the $4.7 million project, financed by stimulus money, went forward. Sinovel had one of its employees load the control system software into the 364-foot-tall machine that October, waiting to spin its blades outside the DeLauri Sewer Pump Station in Charlestown.
Five months later, agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrived at the site, search warrant in hand, and climbed the turbine to seize digital evidence of stolen technology. Shah would also lead agents to three more Sinovel turbines in Massachusetts, ordered before AMSC’s accusations became public, and each allegedly running with the pirated software.
“They reimported stolen goods into our home state,” said Daniel P. McGahn, AMSC chief executive. Despite what investigators say is strong evidence against Sinovel, there will be no easy end to AMSC’s drama. The legal case against Sinovel, its employees, and Karabasevic will be difficult to pursue. The United States has no extradition treaty with China, and Karabasevic, after serving a year in Austrian jail, has returned to Serbia, which also has no US extradition treaty.
AMSC has only begun to recover from its losses, and its stock — trading at roughly $2.50 — remains far below its peak during happier days as Sinovel’s partner. But McGahn remains positive that his company will rebound.
“It has been a crazy two years for us,” he said following Sinovel’s indictment. “But we have a criminal indictment, and that opens up a clear path for compensation.”
The Boston Globe
Why pay for someone else’s hard work, when you can just steal it?
Bird Deaths by Wind Turbines….NOT Sustainable!
Red kite with broken wing, waiting for a slow death under a wind turbine – courtesy of GURELUR*.
HOW MUCH WILDLIFE CAN USA AFFORD TO KILL?
APRIL 2014
America’s wind farms are actually slaughtering millions of birds and bats annually
By Mark Duchamp
Originally published by The ECO Report
The Obama administration is issuing 30-year permits for “taking” (killing) bald and golden eagles. The great birds will be legally slaughtered “unintentionally” by lethal wind turbines installed in their breeding territories, and in “dispersion areas” where their young congregate (e.g. Altamont Pass).
By chance (if you believe in coincidences), a timely government study claims wind farms will kill “only” 1.4 million birds yearly by 2030 (1). This new report is just one of many, financed with taxpayers’ money, aimed at convincing the public that additional mortality caused by wind plants is sustainable. – It is not.
Dr. Shawn Smallwood’s 2004 study, spanning four years, estimated that California’s Altamont Pass wind “farm” killed an average of 116 Golden Eagles annually (2). This adds up to 2,900 dead “goldies” since it was built 25 years ago. Altamont is the biggest sinkhole for the species, but not the only one, and industry-financed research claiming that California’s GE population is stable is but a white-wash.
Golden eagle remains, Altamont Pass windfarm, California – courtesy of Darryl Mueller
Eagles are not the only victims. Smallwood also estimated that Altamont killed an average of 300 red-tailed hawks, 333 American kestrels and 380 burrowing owls annually – plus even more non-raptors, including 2,526 rock doves and 2,557 western meadowlarks.
In 2012, breaking the European omerta on wind farm mortality, the Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO/Birdlife) reviewed actual carcass counts from 136 monitoring studies. They concluded that Spain’s 18,000 wind turbines are killing 6-18 million birds and bats yearly (3).
Extrapolating that and similar (little publicized) German and Swedish studies, 39,000 U.S. wind turbines would not be killing “only” 440,000 birds (USFWS, 2009) or “just” 573,000 birds and 888,000 bats (Smallwood, 2013) (4), but 13-39 million birds and bats every year!
However, this carnage is being covered up by self-serving and/or politically motivated government agencies, wind industry lobbyists, environmental groups and ornithologists, under a pile of misleading studies paid for with more taxpayer money.
Wildlife expert Jim Wiegand has documented how areas searched under wind turbines are still confined to 200-foot radiuses, even though modern monster turbines catapult 90% of bird and bat carcasses much further. Windfarm owners, operating under voluntary(!) USFWS guidelines, commission studies that search much-too-small areas, look only once every 30-90 days, ensuring that scavengers remove most carcasses, and ignore wounded birds that happen to be found within search perimeters (5).
These research protocols are designed to guarantee extremely low mortality statistics, hiding the true death tolls – and the USFWS seems inclined to let the deception continue. In addition, bird mortality data are now considered to be the property of windfarm owners, which means the public no longer has a right to know.
Nevertheless, news has leaked that eagles are being hacked to death all across America. This is hardly surprising, as raptors are attracted to wind turbines. They perch on them to rest or scan for prey. They come because turbines are often built in habitats that have abundant food (live or carrion) and good winds for gliding (6).
Save the Eagles International (STEI) has posted photographs of raptors perched on nacelles or nonmoving blades, and ospreys building a nest on a decommissioned turbine. Moving blades don’t deter them either: videos show a turkey vulture perched on the hub of a spinning turbine, and a griffon vulture being struck (6). Birds perceive areas traveled by spinning blades as open space, unaware that blade tips are moving at up to 180 mph. Many are focused on prey. These factors make wind turbines “ecological death traps,” wherever they are located.
Courtesy of Jefferson’s Leaning Left blog
By 2030, the United States plans to produce 20% of its electricity from wind. That’s nearly six times as much as today, from three or four times as many turbines, striking more flying creatures due to their bigger size (even the mendacious study predicting 1.4 million bird kills recognizes this). Using the higher but still underestimated level of mortality published by Smallwood in 2013, by 2030 our wind turbines would be killing over 3 million birds and 5 million bats annually.
But this is shy of reality by a factor of ten, because 90% of casualties land outside the search perimeter and are not counted. We are thus really talking about an unsustainable death toll of 30 million birds and 50 million bats a year – and more still if we factor in other hide-the-mortality tricks documented by STEI.
This carnage includes protected species that cars and cats rarely kill: eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, condors, whooping cranes, geese, bats and many others. The raptor slaughter will cause rodent populations to soar. Butchery of bats (7), already being decimated by White Nose Syndrome (8), will hammer agriculture.
Griffon vultures killed by wind turbine, Spain – courtesy of GURELUR*
The U.S. Geological Survey says the value of pest-control services to US agriculture provided by bats ranges from $3.7 billion to as much as $53 billion yearly (9). These chiropters alsocontrol forest pests and serve as pollinators. Swedish studies have documented theirattraction from nine miles away to insects that swarm around wind turbines (10). Hence the slaughter.
Wind lobbyists claim they need “regulatory certainty.” However, eagle “take” permits will also ensure extinction certainty – and ecological, agricultural, economic and social disasters that America cannot afford.
* GURELUR is an association of ecologists based in Pamplona, Navarre, Spain.
____________
Mark Duchamp is President of Save the Eagles International, and Chairman of the World Council for Nature
Industrial Wind Turbines are NOT Cost-Effective!
Liberals are idiots on green energy
Liberal MPP and former energy minister Brad Duguid says Tory Leader Tim Hudak is “completely irresponsible and out of his mind” for trying to extricate taxpayers and hydro consumers from the Liberals’ green energy disaster.
In fact, the only people who were completely out of their minds on the green energy file were Dalton McGuinty, Kathleen Wynne, Duguid and the entire Liberal cabinet and caucus.
First, their criticism of Hudak is a straw man.
They charge Hudak would be irresponsible to tear up absurdly generous, 20-year contracts the Liberals signed with wind and solar power developers for expensive and unreliable electricity.
Except Hudak didn’t say that. He said he won’t cancel approved projects that are already supplying power to the electricity grid because it would cost even more to walk away from them.
He did say he won’t approve new contracts and will review on a case by case basis contracts awaiting final approval from the energy minister.
Both of these measures are common sense, aimed at minimizing the enormous economic damage the Liberals have already inflicted on taxpayers, hydro consumers and manufacturers through their irresponsible green energy boondoggle.
Indeed, the only people who tore up signed energy deals in Ontario were the Liberals, who cancelled the Oakville and Mississauga gas-fired electricity plants at a public cost of up to $1.1 billion, to save five Liberal seats in the 2011 election.
The $1.1 billion figure comes from the non-partisan Auditor General of Ontario, who also concluded the premier’s office and energy ministry knee-capped provincial negotiators trying to reach a deal with the private developer building the plant, when they insisted all of its costs should be compensated before the negotiations had even started.
The auditor general further noted the Liberals ignored the advice of their own energy experts when they blundered into green energy without a business plan, thus adding billions of dollars in costs to taxpayers and hydro ratepayers for generations to come.
Finally, the Liberals didn’t need wind or solar power to eliminate coal-fired electricity, which they actually did by using nuclear power and natural gas.
In other words, only an idiot would have done exactly what the Liberals did on the green energy file.
Kathleen Wynne Tries to Woo Rural Ontarians….Too Little, Too Late!
KATHLEEN WYNNE HOPES HER “FARMS FOREVER”
MESSAGE WILL BRIDGE RURAL/URBAN DIVIDE *GAG*
Richard J. Brennan — Toronto Star — May 19, 2014
BRANTFORD, ONT.—Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne is hoping that red rubber boots, a few kind words and lots of money will bridge the gap between urban and rural Ontario.Wynne, who is agriculture minister as well as premier, visited a cattle farm just outside of Brantford Tuesday where she recommitted the $400 million over 10 years contained in the budget to help farmer and the agri-food industry.Wooing Tory blue areas outside theGTA is a major focus for the mostly urban supported Liberals.
“I am here because it is so critical that we understand the importance of the agri-food industry in Ontario,” she told reporters, who had successfully dodged cow patties.“This is a $34 billion industry. There are thousands of farmers in Ontario . . . every one of them is important to the economy of the province,” she said.Farmers have been suspicious of Wynne, a Toronto MPP, taking on the role of agriculture minister.Wynne said she has heard time and again in her travels that farmers are concerned “about farmland staying farmland.”“So another part of our plan is a farms forever plan that would facilitate agriculture easements so farmland can stay as farmland.” Continue reading and LEAVE A COMMENT here…..
The Great Global Warming Swindle – Full Movie!
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Wind Turbine Victims, Tell Their Stories!
“Vertigo so bad, I couldn’t drive or walk through
my house, without holding onto walls” (Falmouth, MA)
May 19, 2014
— Sharon in Falmouth, Mass. (5/18/14)
I have just gone through three weeks of vertigo that was so bad, I could not drive, walk through my house without holding onto walls, and dizziness even lying down. Another portion of my life, gone. I just turned 61 and never had a diagnosis of vertigo until the Falmouth wind turbines went up 3 to 4 years ago. The first time lasted 1.5 years.
My mother of 83 said they should build them next to the politicians who were all for them in the first place. God, I love my mom. Such practicial wisdom and common sense — something missing in our government as well as in most people I read about these days.
I believe one day, scientists and doctors will come together to study the impact of sound, its various levels, duration and distance, etc., on humans and wildlife. We already are aware of sleep deprivation and its negative impact on the human body and mind.
Unfortunately, the ignorance of these fields takes so long, they leave a wake of misery and death in their wake. I speak of events like multiple sclerosis, Lyme Disease, PTSD, and the list goes on.
Nevertheless, I believe in the old adage, “the squeaky wheel gets oiled.” I will not be silenced and will continue to write and vote against these wind turbines being located too near us.
Community Members Prepare to Defend Themselves Against Industrial Wind Turbines!
These wind turbines are threatening watersheds & economy
- Published Date Monday, 19 May 2014 08:24
Where’s the story?
1 Points Mentioned
1 Points MentionedTo The Daily Sun,
It’s unusual that a $500 million investment in the Newfound Lake community is being greeted with such community concern. After all, when was the last time anyone invested that much money here?
Make no mistake about it, Newfound Lake is under attack, and it’s coming in the form of 500-foot industrial wind turbines on our ridge lines with all electricity being routed to southern states.
Newfound Lake and Cardigan residents are overwhelmingly united in their opposition to newly proposed industrial wind plants. And Concord is very well aware of our community stance against additional wind development through our direct testimonies and detailed objections. Residents have officially voted twice against additional development and have also voted-in a new “Rights Based Ordinances” laws. And yes, for much of this past winter our voices have been raised and our tempers have flared at these town hall meetings.
Remember there is no shortage of electricity in N.H. N.H. has been exporting excess electricity to southern states for decades. It’s a very successful model — and many residents are questioning why we would consider hurting that model. But the million dollar question that remains is: “Why are we paying for any of this?”
Our story is very different. These turbines are threatening our watersheds, threatening our tourism, threatening our local economy and is threatening our “Natural Rights” and our “Quality of Place”.
We are not going down without a fight and we want your support. Summer residents and visitors alike should voice their concerns. Educate yourself this Sunday, May 25th at The Inn on Newfound Lake from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. It’s a critical information update meeting. Everyone is welcome. There is no charge to attend this event.
I hope to see you all there! Bring a friend…
Ray Cunningham
Bridgewater
People in Maine Catching On to the Futility of Wind Turbines!
Maine poll exposes softness in wind energy support
Credit: Wind Poll Results: Learn More, Like Less | Friends of Maine’s Mountains | May 20, 2014 | www.friendsofmainesmountains.org ~~
(Portland, Maine) Answers to questions asked recently by an independent, nonpartisan polling firm indicate that support for building industrial wind turbines in Maine is not as strong as wind power cheerleaders have led policy makers and the public to believe.
Friends of Maine’s Mountains (FMM), a group that opposes industrial wind turbine projects, commissioned Critical Insights of Portland, Maine to ask three questions about wind energy in its semi-annual Tracking Poll. The company completed 601 telephone interviews (including cell phones) with randomly selected voters across the state between April 16th and April 24th, 2014. CLICK HERE for a PDF of the results, which indicate that support for building industrial wind turbines declines appreciably when respondents learn that:
- Building industrial wind turbines does not significantly reduce Maine’s reliance on nuclear energy, coal or oil;
- Building industrial wind turbines in Maine yields only a negligible reduction in carbon dioxide emissions;
- Maine may not experience positive benefits from the proliferation of industrial wind turbines on the state’s mountains.
(Click HERE for PDF of supporting information, and click HERE for PDF of Maine generation sources.)
Chris O’Neil, spokesperson for Friends of Maine’s Mountains, said the results raise questions about the extremely positive approval numbers that wind developers routinely cite when they attempt to justify steep taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies.
“For years wind developers have peddled the general benefits of wind energy, and they have a lot of financial resources behind them that we’ll never match,” O’Neil said. “People certainly want to believe it’s all good. But impacts to Maine exceed the benefits, and these poll results point out weak support for industrial wind when that shortfall is understood. Mainers expect tangible benefits for the enormous investment the government is forcing taxpayers and ratepayers to make in wind energy.”
O’Neil noted that almost 80% of respondents reported that they’re less likely to support building industrial wind turbines “if the development will not positively impact Maine.”
O’Neil said skepticism about wind energy is increasing, and as a result Maine policy makers are starting to ask much tougher questions about the benefits of industrial wind turbines in sensitive mountain areas. He pointed to several anti-wind bills in the last Legislative session that fared well, including legislation that would have eliminated the state’s “megawatt goals” and replaced them with a policy objective of demonstrated and “tangible” benefits.
“Now that policy makers have driven a new car off the lot, they’re finally kicking the tires and looking underneath the hood. Expect to see much tougher scrutiny of proposed wind projects in the future,” O’Neil said.
For more information about Friends of Maine’s Mountains, visit www.FriendsOfMainesMountains.org. For more information about Critical Insights, visit www.CriticalInsights.com.
Trees are Much Better for the Environment, than Wind Turbines!
RESEARCH BY CERN INDICATES TREES AND CO2 HELP KEEP THE EARTH IN BALANCE
Investigate Magazine — May 18, 2014
Research by CERN on how clouds form has found emissions by trees and galactic cosmic rays are two primary drivers of cloud formation, which in turn helps cool the planet by reflecting sunlight off the cloud layer.
Although not expressly stated so bluntly, the research suggests a CO2 cycle has kept earth in balance – the more CO2 in the atmosphere, the faster and bigger that plants grow, and the more that plants grow the more their emissions help form planet-cooling clouds.
The full press release from CERN follows:
Geneva 16 May 2014. In a paper published in the journal Science today, CERN’s* CLOUD** experiment has shown that biogenic vapours emitted by trees and oxidised in the atmosphere have a significant impact on the formation of clouds, thus helping to cool the planet. These biogenic aerosols are what give forests seen from afar their characteristic blue haze. The CLOUD study shows that the oxidised biogenic vapours bind with sulphuric acid to form embryonic particles which can then grow to become the seeds on which cloud droplets can form. This result follows previous measurements from CLOUD showing that sulphuric acid alone could not form new particles in the atmosphere as had been previously assumed.
“This is a very important result,” said CLOUD spokesperson Jasper Kirkby, “since it identifies a key ingredient responsible for formation of new aerosol particles over a large part of the atmosphere – and aerosols and their impact on clouds have been identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as the largest source of uncertainty in current climate models.”
Cloud droplets form on aerosol particles that can either be directly emitted, such as evaporated sea spray, or else form through a process known as nucleation, in which trace atmospheric vapours cluster together to form new particles that may grow to become cloud seeds. Around half of all cloud seeds are thought to originate from nucleated particles, but the process of nucleation is poorly understood.
The CLOUD chamber has achieved much lower concentrations of contaminants than previous experiments, allowing nucleation to be measured in the laboratory under precisely controlled atmospheric conditions. The experiment has several unique aspects, including the ability to control the “cosmic ray” beam intensity from the CERN PS, the capability to suppress ions completely by means of a strong electric clearing-field, precise adjustment of “sunlight” from a UV fibre-optic system, and highly-stable operation at any temperature in the atmosphere.
Sulphuric acid is thought to play a key role, but previous CLOUD experiments have shown that, on its own, sulphuric acid has a much smaller effect than had been assumed. Sulphuric acid in the atmosphere originates from sulphur dioxide, for which fossil fuels are the predominant source. The new result shows that oxidised biogenic vapours derived from alpha-pinene emitted by trees rapidly form new particles with sulphuric acid. Ions produced in the atmosphere by galactic cosmic rays are found to enhance the formation rate of these particles significantly, but only when the concentrations of sulphuric acid and oxidised organic vapours are relatively low. The CLOUD paper includes global modelling studies which show how this new process can account for the observed seasonal variations in atmospheric aerosol particles, which result from higher global tree emissions in the northern hemisphere summer.
“The reason why it has taken so long to understand the vapours responsible for new particle formation in the atmosphere is that they are present in minute amounts near one molecule per trillion air molecules”, explains Jasper Kirkby. “Reaching this level of cleanliness and control in a laboratory experiment is at the limit of current technology, and CERN know-how has been crucial for CLOUD being the first experiment to achieve this performance.”
Biogenic vapours join another class of trace vapours, known as amines, that have previously been shown by CLOUD to cluster with sulphuric acid to produce new aerosol particles in the atmosphere. Amines, however, are only found close to their primary sources such as animal husbandry, whereas alpha-pinene is ubiquitous over landmasses. This latest result from CLOUD could therefore explain a large fraction of the birth of cloud seeds in the lower atmosphere around the world. It shows that sulphuric acid aerosols do indeed have a significant influence on the formation of clouds, but they need the help of trees.
"Mothers Against Wind Turbines™" Phoenix Rising... 