Sorry, I really can't take your advice to "STFU"
(Re-)read the post, it was a request and it was based on comments around London's H4 heliroute gaining a hard surface. Drawing wide ranging consequences (based on no cited, reviewed research, consensus or otherwise) is akin to deciding the next ice age has occurred when your garden's bird bath unusually freezes over.
On the subject of 'a bit of cold' and 'can the humans affect the planet' (note
can not did), I think this is one of the most curious pieces of recent research:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4755328.stm
the FOE propaganda - now that this is deemed equally bad
(re: biofuels)
Not equally, it's simply a matter of doing the accounting from a carbon (equivalence) point of view and if that makes sense, then considering the any other environmental and economic (i.e. 'agflation') issues. Government needs to be careful about distortions that cause with subsidies, but it's interesting that FOE do support some level of
ROCs for biomass co-firing so they are not universally against anything,
afaik.
I do like the concept of getting my fuel from a different source, but I do need fuel for my lifestyle and livelihood, so until you come up with with a viable alternative, the whole discussion is really quite pointless.
I think this is another example of how the aviation industry
keeps missing the point. The problem, if one acknowledges there is one, is about the
sum of all activities. Aviation is simply one business that has a high dependency on liquid fuels - it really is that simple (ignoring contrails which may turn out to be an important tweaking factor). Other industries have their own poor stories on energy efficiency and waste that simply aren't discussed in the mainstream.
There are plenty of easy areas where an individual consumer can reduce their energy consumption. I certainly have no idea how I would make an independent decision about car replacement to a more fuel efficient model. For some issues this is more easily calculable, for example domestic lightbulb replacement with CFLs. One organisation's view of the maths:
http://www.greenpeace.org/internatio...tbulbs-q-and-a