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Show 1 AMERICAN FLAME RESEARCH COMMITTEE 1994 SPRING MEETING PAPER BY A.H.BURNS. BSc.(Hons). SUBJECT:- COMBUSTION CONTROL EQUIPMENT AND THE IMPACT ON ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION. The opening remarks are often the most difficult to write especially in this instance as there is such an important issue involved. Atmospheric pollution is potentially the single most important challenge we face in the late twentieth century. During the past six years we have experienced some very strange natural phenomena. I take this opportunity to remind you of the summer of 1988 which was one of the hottest on record and the summer of 1992 which in our area was one of the wettest. We witnessed the unusual inundation of the upper Mississippi last year and we have just endured one of the worst winters in years. There is nothing remarkable in metrological records being broken however there have been other unusual events. The failure of the Cod stocks on the Grand Banks. We have blamed, seals, the EC, overfishing, the government and avaricious fishermen. We have read about an alternative cause and that is a measurable decrease in the ocean temperature in the spawning grounds. We have also read reports of red algae or bacteria forming in the vicinity of Iceland last year and being clearly visible to passengers on trans atlantic flights. We have read of unusually warm temperatures in the Caribbean bleaching corals, and about two areas of Ocean responsible for absorbing the majority of the excess atmospheric the Carbon Dioxide that no longer seem capable of pumping the Carbon Dioxide enriched water deep enough to stop the gas from being re-released into the atmosphere. We have read that it is possible to recover the "fossil temperatures that reveal the climate of past eras." and that there is a measurable increase in environmental temperature albeit in just a few of the locations tested. And there is something we have not been able to read about and that relates to the climactic consequences of the fires in Kuwait. The final report I would like to share with you is one which suggests that climatic change has a history of occurring very quickly, the last Ice age may have occurred over a period of just a decade. There is absolutely no incentive in Canada in 1994 for industry to do anything other than that which it has always done. Why would a company fit Low NOx technology when there is a capital cost premium and an ongoing fuel cost associated with it operation. Why should industry be singled out for regulation when, as a source of polluting gasses it is significantly less than the transport sector. |