20 May 2007

Rail fare rises punishes those who want to cut carbon emissions

South West Trains market dominance has allowed them to exploit their passengers.

"They are creating another, unfair tier of rail fares. As it stands, it's expensive to travel before 10, and cheaper after. Now, it will still be out of reach for most people to travel to London before midday.

"This price rise sends the wrong message, consumers who want to cut their carbon emissions are being priced off the railways and on to the roads, adding to congestion and pollution.

"For those of us who don't drive Stage coach, the SW train operators, monopoly power is going to hit us hard in the pocket.


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Looks very bad in terms of the news on global ecology, the Oceans seem to be losing their ability to absorb carbon dioxide effeciently, this is extremely worrying.
"This is the first time that we’ve been able to say that climate change itself is responsible for the saturation of the Southern Ocean sink. This is serious," said lead author Dr. Corinne Le Quere of the University of East Anglia and the British Antarctic Survey.


Dr. Corinne Le Quere is on the faculty of the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia and is a strategic alliance senior fellow at the British Antarctic Survey.

"All climate models predict that this kind of feedback will continue and intensify during this century," said Dr. Le Quere.
"The Earth’s carbon sinks – of which the Southern Ocean accounts for 15 percent – absorb about half of all human carbon emissions. With the Southern Ocean reaching its saturation point more CO2 will stay in our atmosphere," she said.

Such weakening of one of the Earth’s major carbon dioxide sinks will lead to higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the long term.

And the study suggests that stabilization of atmospheric carbon dioxide is even more difficult to achieve than previously thought.

Additionally, acidification in the Southern Ocean is likely to reach dangerous levels earlier than the projected date of 2050, the scientists said.


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Ecology is indeed about the approach of a comet on a collison course with the Earth, if it turns out to be a tiny cinder all to the good but the future is not assured.

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