by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The warming on a global scale that the world has been experiencing until recently could, if we are looking at anything that man might have contributed to it, have reasons other that any CO2 emissions.
No one seems to have ever, as yet, mentioned, or considered even, that the loss of heat from poorly – and most are – insulated buildings, whether domestic or commercial, as well as from street-lighting, etc. could be a major contributor to heating up the environment with the possibility of catastrophic consequences.
Every street lamp also adds to this heat, of that we can be certain. We also know, and this is a fact, that every town and city is a “heat island” and has its very own micro climate, some more so than others. No one can tell me that none of that heat is not also part of the warming around it and in the country, and world even, as a whole.
Heat pollution is like light pollution, for instance, and as light pollution is visible from great distances I would suggest that the heat from towns and cities and from the street lamps of the old kind all radiates into the atmosphere, thereby also helping to warm the Planet.
Heat pollution from homes and other buildings is not just warming the environment, it is losing money, and is having a serious impact on resources.
The greatest culprits when it comes to buildings, and here especially homes, are, in the UK, for instance, the local authorities and the housing associations who just refuse to pay out the money to put in double glazing (better would still be triple glazing), loft insulations, and other such energy saving measures, and that despite the availability of grants for such projects. No wonder we are having problems with attitudes like that even in local authorities.
So, while no scientists, I still consider that the heat that we are actually losing into the atmosphere, together with heat from cooling towers and such like, is having an impact as to heating up the Planet and that without any need for greenhouse gases and the like.
© 2009
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