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Air & Environmental Quality
Posted by Mark Broomfield, Consultant on 17 April 2012
Hydraulic fracturing – or “fracking” – is currently
on hold in the UK. That’s because hydraulic fracturing
carried out at a site near Blackpool last year coincided
with some minor earth tremors recorded by the British
Geological Survey. Coincidence? The operator of the site
commissioned a study to investigate the earth tremors, and
found that it was no coincidence – or as the report
authors said, “most likely, the repeated seismicity was
induced by direct injection of fluid into the same fault
zone.”
Posted by Geoff Dollard, Practice Director: Air & Environmental Quality on 13 February 2012
... back in bed I was trying to pick up the thread from last
time; got it - spider webs, yes – thats it: Stoke’s
law and PM2.5 particles. However, this thought was then
hijacked by recollecting an email sent to me earlier by my
colleague Paul Willis - pointing out the impact of PM2.5
measurements undertaken by the U.S. EPA on the roof of the
Chinese Embassy in Beijing:
Posted by Geoff Dollard, Practice Director: Air & Environmental Quality on 1 February 2012 on 3 February 2012
Well, unlike Wednesday[[sitetree_link id=1270]] I didn’t
wake at 4 am yesterday. Instead, it was a few hours later
when a friendly knee in the back from my wife reminded me I
was late. Up and out, cold and frosty, a bluish
exhaust-plume from a neighbour’s old diesel car reminding
me immediately of the PM2.5 pollution particles that AEA’s
forecasters had tracked heading towards the UK yesterday;
its bluish because the particles are about the same size as
the wavelength of blue light.
Posted by Geoff Dollard, Practice Director: Air & Environmental Quality on 1 February 2012
...Maybe it was a spooky coincidence that I was dreaming
about last night’s weather forecast when I awoke about 4
am - the time of AEA’s daily download of meteorological
data from NOAA.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Forecast_System[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Forecast_System]).
Whatever caused it, I did wake early with the image in mind
of cold easterly air over my roof in the south of England
doing battle with warmer westerly air – with the eventual
skirmish line making the difference of several degrees in
temperature..... so what about the pollution I thought?
Posted by Mark Broomfield, Consultant on 3 November 2011
Exploration and extraction of shale gas uses a technique
known as “hydraulic fracturing,” or fracturing. At
present, exploration in the UK is on hold because of
concerns that exploration of a site in Lancashire operated
by Cuadrilla Resources Ltd could have given rise to minor
earth tremors in the spring of 2011.
Posted by Mark Broomfield, Consultant on 10 July 2011
Think for a moment – what do you consider to be more
dangerous: air pollution or traffic accidents? Would you be
surpised if I tell you that air pollution is responsible for
more than ten times as many deaths each year than traffic
accidents: see
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/04/air-quality-pollution-campaign-eu-uk?
