WOULD YOU CARE FOR SOME TEA?
Thursday, September 24
A Dust Storm?
Apparently there was a dust storm in Sydney yesterday. The dust storm was mostly in the early morning, and later on it was just windy, so I missed most of it. All I knew until I saw the pictures later was that the sky was a bit of a funny colour (which was also true last week when they were burning undergrowth near where I live) and that my hayfever was going crazy (which was also true last week when...)
Apparently the sky was bright orange. I missed it all. I can see the stuff on my floor now, though. I wiped some of it up with a tissue and it is a distinct salmon colour, rather than the usual grey of household dust. I'll have to mop and vacuum the place - but maybe not just yet, because it's expected to return this weekend.
Apparently there was a dust storm in Sydney yesterday. The dust storm was mostly in the early morning, and later on it was just windy, so I missed most of it. All I knew until I saw the pictures later was that the sky was a bit of a funny colour (which was also true last week when they were burning undergrowth near where I live) and that my hayfever was going crazy (which was also true last week when...)
Apparently the sky was bright orange. I missed it all. I can see the stuff on my floor now, though. I wiped some of it up with a tissue and it is a distinct salmon colour, rather than the usual grey of household dust. I'll have to mop and vacuum the place - but maybe not just yet, because it's expected to return this weekend.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
05:58 PM
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Tuesday, September 15
Doing Your Part
A while back I calculated, very back-of-the-envelopely, that we could offset carbon dioxide emissions if we all bought (and kept) three books a week. But I didn't show my work, and I'm not sure my numbers are right.
So, let's see. From here there's a net of 4 billion tons of CO2 added to the atmosphere every year. That represents just over a billion tons of carbon - CO2 is 27% carbon by weight.
If everyone on Earth bought three books a week, that's a trillion books a year, more or less (156 books per person x 6.7 billion people = 1.045 trillion books). If each book weighs one kilogram (so we're not talking paperbacks here, unless the author is Neal Stephenson) that's a billion tons of paper. But paper (well, I'm using cellulose for my numbers) is only 44% carbon by weight, so that's not actually a billion tons of sequestered carbon. I think that's where I went astray before.
So, dividing 3 books by .44 to get the real number, we learn that a book a day keeps global warming at bay.
A while back I calculated, very back-of-the-envelopely, that we could offset carbon dioxide emissions if we all bought (and kept) three books a week. But I didn't show my work, and I'm not sure my numbers are right.
So, let's see. From here there's a net of 4 billion tons of CO2 added to the atmosphere every year. That represents just over a billion tons of carbon - CO2 is 27% carbon by weight.
If everyone on Earth bought three books a week, that's a trillion books a year, more or less (156 books per person x 6.7 billion people = 1.045 trillion books). If each book weighs one kilogram (so we're not talking paperbacks here, unless the author is Neal Stephenson) that's a billion tons of paper. But paper (well, I'm using cellulose for my numbers) is only 44% carbon by weight, so that's not actually a billion tons of sequestered carbon. I think that's where I went astray before.
So, dividing 3 books by .44 to get the real number, we learn that a book a day keeps global warming at bay.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
10:46 PM
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