Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
According to the National Center for Biotechnology information, we have:
“Nitrogen dioxide (NO2). A highly poisonous gas. Exposure produces inflammation of lungs that may only cause slight pain or pass unnoticed, but resulting edema several days later may cause death. (From Merck, 11th ed) Nitrogen dioxide is a major atmospheric pollutant that is able to absorb UV light that does not reach the earth’s surface.
And the US Environmental Protection Agency says:
Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) is one of a group of highly reactive gases known as oxides of nitrogen or nitrogen oxides (NOx). Other nitrogen oxides include nitrous acid and nitric acid. NO2 is used as the indicator for the larger group of nitrogen oxides. NO2 primarily gets in the air from the burning of fuel.
These days, we can track the sources of NO2 worldwide using the TEMIS satellite data. And here is what one of the many groups looking at the data has to say, in their map entitled “NO2 Hotspots” (click to enlarge):
These people are tying the NO2 concentrations to “thermal power plants”, meaning those fired by coal, oil or gas. And from inspection of the map, it sure looks like the power plants are to blame.
But upon closer examination, there are some strange things going on with this map. First off, the biggest source of NO2 seems to be … Angola, shown in the upper part of the graphic below.
I haven’t found anyone who has explained that hot-spot in Angola. However, someone probably has discussed it, I just couldn’t come up with an explanation.
However, there’s something that is even more curious. This is that the map-makers are playing fast and loose with the power-plant data. For example, here’s their map of Australia:
Now, if we’re to believe the map-makers, there are only about ten thermal power plants in all of Australia. Nor is this the only oddity. Much of Russia is shown as having no thermal power plants, and the same is true of other countries.
So what is going on here? Well, the satellite data is being used for political purposes. The map-makers are doing their best to convince us that power plants are the main source of nitrogen dioxide. But in fact, half or more of the NO2 in the air comes from transportation—cars, trucks, and buses. And although you have to look carefully at the map to see it, many thermal power plants don’t put out much NO2.
However, noting all of that would be detrimental to the map-makers’ goal of vilifying fossil-fuel-fired electricity, and thus advancing the cause of the expensive and intermittent alternate sources, wind and solar. It is advocacy cleverly disguised as science.
And who made the map? Well … on the map itself, it doesn’t say. And there’s no link to their home page … me, I don’t trust folks who don’t sign their work.
But when I go to the home page, by chopping off all but the first part of the URL, I arrive here and I find the following …
This is my shocked face …
w.
PS—When you comment, please quote the exact words you are discussing, so that we can all be clear on the exact subject you are talking about.
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An interesting feature of that map is that the dots for power plants remain the same size as you zoom, so when looking at the entire world the dots are frequently more visible that the NO2 levels. So the USA looks very red, until you zoom in and realise that it is oil fired power plant dots, not high NO2 levels.
Lost of oddities, e.g. what is happening in Finland? There is a modest concentration over almost the entire country, including the sparsely populated north.
BillP October 30, 2018 at 2:07 am
I can’t say for other states but Conn is way wrong. It lists all the Gas fired plants as oil burning.
It the 1970s most of the coal fired plants were converted to natural gas. There was a Nuclear power station also built.
michael
Yes, what is happening in the land of the thousand lakes (Finland).
As you says BillP, almost the entire country.
A country with mostly forrest and lakes, that must be hard to explain.
So, according to these results, the world’s two largest oil shale-fired thermal power plants in Narva, Estonia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narva_Power_Plants ) are not producing any NO2 emissions?
At the same time, Helsinki at the other side of Gulf of Finland seems to some kind of minor hot spot. If these results are for Jun-Aug, this is quite odd – coal is used only for district heating and electricity generation during winter.
Until I discovered induction hobs, I was a great fan of (natural) gas cookers and, at a guess, 50% of UK households use one.
What always had me wondering was, with those naked flames burning away in what was often a fairly small space, why more people weren’t poisoned.
Not least of course by carbon monoxide but surely a lot of NOx was coming off those hobs.
Maybe they are being, might explain some of the ongoing ‘stupid’
Being of the group ‘peasant’ and ‘stix dweller’ I’ve never been connected to mains gas and can only smile at stories now about Condensing Gas Boilers – thanks to AGW are now a de-rigueur requirement in UK homes.
Especially that the condensing part of them only works briefly at start-up but that the condensate is soo acidic it rots the boilers so badly they *MUST* be inspected annually.
And if/when it is escorted off the premises, it will burn holes in concrete blocks/flags/paths.
It is, or can be, very hairy scary stuff.
But, similar to the sulphur story recently, (water soluble) nitrogen is at the very base of the food chain.
I’d assert that it, plus oxides of sulphur combined with dust off modern farmland is what is causing Global Greening – yet another epic sensationalist misnomer – the greening is *only* really happening where highly organic soils are receiving fertiliser for the first time in their history.
My question to these folks might be: Where did the nitrogen in the ‘Primordial Soup’ come from and what are the essential elements that go into making things called Vitamins.
Thiamine for example: C12H17N4OS+
It would appear that the UK is now following the US in adding Folate to all white flour, Niacin having been an essential addition for some time.
Why?
Remember, these are things that act on brain and nervous function – they make ‘who’ we are, what we think, our intelligence & memories, they change our personalities…………
Peta
Nitrogen is very unreactive. Ordinary burning produces negligible quantities of NOx. It takes high-temperature, high-pressure combustion, which is why IC engines do produce some NOx. Gas Hobs don’t.
The main natural non-living source incidentally is lightning bolts. Which by the way answers where the nitrogen in the “primordial soup” came from until cyanobacteria evolved.
“the greening is *only* really happening where highly organic soils are receiving fertiliser for the first time in their history.”
You got to be joking. You mean that places like Sahel, Kalahari, Didi Galgala and Pilbarra have “highly organic soils receiving fertilizer”? They are deserts or semi deserts. Not being farmed. Not being fertilized. But being greened:
Why not go to Temis, download the satellite data and compute it yourself?
You find the data at: http://www.temis.nl/index.php
/Jan
Let’s put some of these modern values in to perspective shall we?
Take a look at the official UK Government statistics for Atmospheric Pollution shown here
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/681315/trends_in_air_emissions_2016.csv/preview
The lower chart is the percentage based on 1970 being 100%.
Also keep in mind that this was years after the 1955 Clean Air Act had already cleaned up the great Smogs of the 1950s.
So by 2016 the following values are shown compared to 1970
Nox reduced by 71.7%
Sulphur Dioxide reduced by 97.2%
PM10 Particles reduced by 73.3%
PM2.5 Particles reduced by 78.3%
So tell me just how did all us war time and post war kids ever survive living in the cities to now be in our 60s, 70s & 80s.
Also remember there is far more Asthma and Allergies in our kids now than there ever was in thoe days of the great smogs.
Yet again actual historic data makes liars of the current scaremongerers.
I am curious about the very red west coast of Saudi Arabia. There are power plants in Jeddah and Abha, as well and Medina and Mecca. There are also a few desalinization plants. But it’s hard to believe that the whole coast is that “hot.”
w. ==> Nice detective work. Big Rule — “Always Consider the Source.”
Beg rule: always find the context before jumping to conclusions. GP were not suggesting thermal was the main cause. That was Willis attempting telepathy.
Someone dug out the article and they were saying transport was not the ONLY cause, contrary to what many people think.
I have another map.
The solution is not pleasant!
Well done, Willis. Kudos.
Willis,
Couple of questions.
I think it’s the case that lightening fixes atmospheric Nitrogen as NO2. There are 8 million lightening strikes per day, mainly in the tropics. Is there any data how much NO2 is produced by lightening and is there a fingerprint in the maps.
Good questions, Ben, and I don’t know the answer to either one. Always more to learn …
w.
Hi Ben, I thought your question was so interesting that I googeled it a bit, and I found this: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223260729_Estimations_of_global_NOx_emissions_and_their_uncertainties
It says that lightening produce 5 Tg annually, and fossil fuel combustion 22 Tg annually.
/Jan
Why the large blob in northern Saskatchewan
A quick look at the toxicology is always useful, as it gets a grip on the scale of the problem we face, which is not at 1ppb or so but much much higher. NO2 is being made out to be a mega problem which it is not.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK230446/
Question to the gurus: Any chance this is related to regional & seasonal climate?
A previous post mentioned the data is from Jun-Aug.
It’s usually very dry in that part of South Africa at that time of year…therefore very little of the NOx being rained out.
It would be interesting to compare with China in wet/dry seasons.
How clever. The power plants are identified by small black or red dots that auto-size so that they remain small as you zoom in. That makes them very hard to spot if they don’t happen to be sitting on a lighter colored area that shows the NOx levels.