Growing degree days (GDD), also called growing degree units (GDUs), are a heuristic tool in phenology. GDD are a measure of heat accumulation used by horticulturists, gardeners, and farmers to predict plant and pest development rates such as the date that a flower will bloom or a crop reach maturity. ref. wikipedia
Considering there is so much talk about Climate Change and Global Warming, you may be surprised to hear about another source of heat which has not been taken into account.
This is not my idea, but the research of Dr Michal Kravcik, People and Water NGO, Slovakia and Professor Wilhelm Ripl of the Technical University of Berlin. I met both at a Sydney University seminar.
Prof. Ripl says,"What is overlooked is the fact that intact vegetation 'actively' helps manage the small water cycle, and keep the earth cool by converting sensible heat to the latent heat of evaporation".
Chances are if your city is located near the sea, rainwater is directed to flow along gutters into stormwater pipes and out into the ocean, well that's how it is in Sydney Australia. It is said, rainwater would flood the city if this practice wasn't followed, it would fill up like the bath, and all that water has to go down the plug-hole... unless managed it would flood causing disruption in the city centre.
Prior to this practice (massive cities) rain soaked the land and replenished the water table.
As Prof. Ripl said, "What is overlooked is the fact that intact vegetation 'actively' helps manage the small water cycle, and keep the earth cool by converting sensible heat to the latent heat of evaporation", but what does that mean?
Land that is soaked with water can evaporate, and evaporation is cooling. Without water there can be no relief by evaporation. Unless more rain falls to rehydrate the land, eventually it dries out. Land without water accumulates heat.
Not unlike the human body, the planet is about 2/3rd's water. We easily become hot and thirsty in the sun and without water we easily dehydrate, just as land, until water returns to provide cooling.
Water is the thermoregulator of all things. Without water to cool things, things get hot. I could say "everything" but I might be wrong, then again it's probably everything.
The energy that the sun produces in one hour is enough to power the entire planet for a year.
An Urban Heat Island (concrete) can be 6-8 degrees F hotter than its surrounding areas (land).
Land without water is not too dissimilar to concrete when it comes to heat accumulation and that amount of heat stored and reflected is yet to be included as a global heat source.
December 15, 2011 - Professor Ian Clark testifies at the Canadian Senate Hearing. Water Vapour is a greenhouse gas too... some 95% more effective than CO2.
In this video, "The Science Behind Global Warming", Professor Ian Clark sites "water vapour" as the significant greenhouse gas that is the warming agent, and how CO2 is insignificant. Increased sun activity - heat driving water vapour - is significantly more effective greenhouse gas than CO2... and lack of water in land accumulates heat.
If water vapour has increased, which is what Professor Ian Clark is saying, increased sun activity increases evaporation - and more water becomes vapour - then Professor Ian Clark confirms from a top down view - both camps would agree the management of "water vapour", by sequestering it back into the land, is part of the solution to climate change.
It's significant to grasp, the resource is available (it literally falls from the sky for free) and the objective is to "retain" more water in the land and "use it" before letting it run off back into the ocean.
The amount of energy expelled to produce rain is squandered if we allow the good rain water to dissolve back into the sea without using it once. It is the epitome of waste.
International Climate Science Coalition Supports Canada's Decision to Formally Withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol.
Ottawa, Canada, December 13, 2011: "The Canadian Government's decision to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol is an important victory for common sense and one we hope all Canadians will applaud," said Tom Harris, executive director of ICSC which is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. "The Protocol is based on an incorrect interpretation of the science of climate change and should never have been ratified by Canada, or any other country."
http://www.climatescienceinternational.org/
RESEARCH
We are riding a new wave of industrial revolution into the RENEWABLE ENERGY AGE. Renewable Energies bring only advantages and no burden to the world.
The ECO SUSTAINABLE PLANET and ECO SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY sections often overlap - as crops become fuel and microorganisms make electricity - the line is blurred and indeed that is the desired 'interconnectedness' effect.
All these exciting new green technologies could become marketable at any time. To clarify exactly what is available now, you'll find WAPSEC is in the business of WATER & POWER SECURITY. WAPSEC supplies 'wholistec' solutions with leading-edge technology from Germany and Australia.
ECO SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY Ecology and Technology working together in synergy. SUSTAINABLE is 24 x 7. ECO SUSTAINABLE is when there's no waste. The waste product of one process is fuel for the next.
THE AGE of ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY - inspiration leads to innovation, and solutions provide engineers and architects methodologies to green the world. Man learns to live with the planet.
ECO SUSTAINABLE PLANET
ECO SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY
Not unlike the human body, the planet is about 2/3rd's water. We easily become hot and thirsty in the sun and without water we easily dehydrate, just as land, until water returns to provide cooling.
