The answer lies in the… superconducting magnets

Superconducting electrical motors could replace conventional aircraft engines, and if run on hydrogen could offer low-carbon air transport, a team of US researchers claim.

“We could potentially build a superconducting motor and generator smaller than a gas turbine, which would make possible electric propulsion,” says [Phillppe] Masson [of Florida State University]. Electrical propulsion would not only decrease emissions but also reduce to a minimum the needs for maintenance as all hydraulic systems would be eliminated, he adds. The team has designed such systems with high fidelity models and optimization tools. Masson adds that the team is now looking for an industrial partner to build a prototype of the superconducting turbofan. “The technology is there,” he says, “it is a matter of finding a source of funding.”

Meanwhile, the UK Telegraph investigates the rush to green air travel…

Never mind the farts, it’s the fert that matters

The Sustainability Council of NZ has just published the wittily titled report A Convenient Untruth [PDF], which finds that half of NZ’s Kyoto liabilities might be met if farmers used nitrification inhibitors – substances that markedly reduce the output of potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide from farm fertiliser use. From the media statement:

Emission reductions available from the dairy industry are large in relative terms and can be achieved quickly. After seventeen years of targets without measures to achieve them, and a lack of time to get serious emissions reductions from many other options, the availability of a cornucopia of cheap and rapidly adoptable agricultural options is a remarkable break.

Herald report here.

Meanwhile, David Parker expects government policy to reduce NZ’s Kyoto commitment by 50 per cent. In the absence of policy, do we take that on trust?

What’s climate? Ask a real scientist…

A few weeks ago, our beloved Climate “Science

Turkeys looking like dodos

The Greenhouse Policy Coalition, who protested loudly about the “rush

Hot spring

According to the US National Climate Data Centre, global temperature during the boreal (northern hemisphere) spring (Mar – May) 2007 was the third warmest on record. January to May was the warmest recorded, tying for first place with 1998. However, the UK Met Office doubt that 2007 will break 1998’s overall record:

David Parker, a climate variability scientist at the Met Office Hadley Centre said: “These latest Met Office figures show that the first four months of 2007 are on track with our global forecast for a warmer-than-average year, but the cool La Nina event developing in the equatorial Pacific could prevent 2007 from being the warmest ever year