Earth 'heading for 6C' of warming

** Earth 'heading for 6C' of warming **

CO2 emissions rose by a quarter in the last decade, setting the course for a world up to 6C warmer, according to research. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/8364926.stm

Emissions rose by 29% between 2000 and 2008, most of it came from the developing nations though a quarter of it was driven by demand and consumption in the industrialized nations. This alarming finding reiterates the need for urgency in political discussions.

China's new found development has ramped the CO2 emissions in recent years. The study said there are still possibility of reaching 2C if things are done urgently, but at the current pace - 6C is a reality we will have to face.

Missions to moon:

With India’s big leap into the league of countries aiming for the moon via its Chandrayan program, I was exploring the web to look into the history of mankind’s attempt to touch our only natural satellite. The complete history is given in the following link from NASA website.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/lunartimeline.html

Some interesting observations:

Russia started the lunar race in late 50’s. USA finally overtook them and landed the first man at the moon in 1969 10 years after it all started. USA stopped most of its work in 1972 after its Apollo-17 crewed landing. USA is the only country to have people landing in the moon (having done it 7 times).

Japan entered the race with “Hiten” flyby and orbiter in the 90’s. The European space agency did a lunar orbiter in late 2003. China followed it with a lunar orbiter in October 2007. India did it in October 2008 one year after China.

India thus joined the elite group of nations to leave their mark with journey towards the moon. Well that’s what makes me extremely proud.

Arctic holds 90 billion barrels of oil: US

http://www.ndtvprofit.com/2008/07/24130139/Arctic-holds-90-billion-barrel.html

News excerpts from NDTV:

"The area north of the Arctic Circle has an estimated 90 billion barrels of recoverable oil, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has said.

Included in the Artic bonanza is 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, the USGS said in a statement posted on its website.

The Arctic Circle is the name given to the region around the North Pole. It includes the Arctic Ocean, the northern parts of Europe, Asia, North America and the Russian Far East."

No wonder Russia has been making claims to all the resources in the Arctic region.

"Before we can make decisions about our future use of oil and gas and related decisions about protecting endangered species, native communities and the health of our planet, we need to know what's out there," said USGS director Mark Myers.

This is something which is very true in the current scenario. Global warming has already become a monster which is directly affecting the Arctic endangered species. The quest of energy hungry world should not cause additional irreversible damage to these ecosystem.

DEFINE ENGINEERING

This is something I read somewhere a long time ago and noted down in my diary during my engineering grad school. I am sorry for not providing the original reference, I don't have it.

"While Science has not yet completely explained the actual mechanism of fatigue, the Engineer must still design things that does not fail.

In a sense this is a classic example of the meaning of Engineering as contrasted with Science. Engineers use science to solve their problem if the Science is available. But available or NOT, the problem must be solved, and whatever form the solution takes place under this conditions is called Engineering"