Sunday, September 03, 2006
pumping gas
Agit-prop against global warming. It is difficult to use photography to highlight what is happening with global warming in a reasonably scientific and unemotional way. Every now and then I feel moved enough to give it a try. Two hundred miles from Heathrow and yet we are beneath the flight path to the US and Canada. The climatic conditions on this day resulted in an effect akin to overlaying individual exposures as the contrails stacked up.
Permalink / posted by and copyright of John Ellis : 12:25 PM
Comments:
By 2050 contrails will be having a great deal more of an impact on global warming than the CO2 emissions from aircraft engines
19 October 2002 New Scientist
I tried to find something I had read which gave the rate of rise of contrails. I didn't find that but found these pictures on the BBC website. (link)
How does one photograph global warming? It's something I've given some thought to as well, and I'm not sure I have an answer.
I would have considered myself fairly well educated about global warming - my father's a cloud physicist, so I should be - but I wasn't aware that contrails had such an impact on the issue. So if nothing else, your photograph has led to one slightly more informed person.
This reminds me of Rex's picture of the polytunnels. Are you sure that you haven't made this sky just a little too pretty?
Like Matt, I was unaware that contrails caused global warming. Guess I gotta look that one up.
Like the shot. I am a bit distracted by the silhouette in the lower-right corner, but I'm a sucker for sky shots. Black and white is very appropriate for this one.
Auspicious - that is the difficult bit: how do you convince people that the nominally attractive makes an impact? I took this in February because I just couldn't believe how many planes were passing over, all amplified by the atmospheric conditions.
Matt and Bruce - I didn't intend to highlight the impact of contrails! That was Rex's input. My title shows where I was headed. I wanted to focus on CO2. After all, without the CO2 the impact of contrails would be different.
Bruce - the silhouette served two purposes: first to minimise the contrast by blocking out the lightest part of the sky and second to make the composition more interesting, particularly as it paralleled the lines of the contrails! The first part worked!
same here...wasn't aware of the global warming link. As such I can't comment on it's environmental impact. However, with that strong sky and strong diagonals it works as a piece of art. But that small intrusion bottom left corner needed to be more along the bottom...else seomthing else just to give me a point from which the contrails eminate from.
Post a Comment
19 October 2002 New Scientist
I tried to find something I had read which gave the rate of rise of contrails. I didn't find that but found these pictures on the BBC website. (link)
I would have considered myself fairly well educated about global warming - my father's a cloud physicist, so I should be - but I wasn't aware that contrails had such an impact on the issue. So if nothing else, your photograph has led to one slightly more informed person.
Like the shot. I am a bit distracted by the silhouette in the lower-right corner, but I'm a sucker for sky shots. Black and white is very appropriate for this one.
Matt and Bruce - I didn't intend to highlight the impact of contrails! That was Rex's input. My title shows where I was headed. I wanted to focus on CO2. After all, without the CO2 the impact of contrails would be different.
Bruce - the silhouette served two purposes: first to minimise the contrast by blocking out the lightest part of the sky and second to make the composition more interesting, particularly as it paralleled the lines of the contrails! The first part worked!