Dear Laura:

I don't know if AccuWeather has featured any video stories about tankless, on-demand water heaters. They are far more efficient than our standard household heater or water boiler. Over time, these become very inefficient, especially for households having municipal or well water with high concentrations of calcium carbonate. This salt precipitates in hot water and coats the heating elements of water heaters causing the popping or snapping noises often heard coming from domestic boilers. Consumers can significantly reduce their energy consumption by converting to on-demand tankless heaters. They not only offer savings in cost but space. If sized properly, they provide an unlimited volume of heated water with significant savings in energy and money.

Here is a link to the Noritz Company http://www.noritz.com/company.html. We are having one of their heaters installed in our home. Noritz is a manufacturer of on-demand heaters that pioneered their development in Japan during the 1970's but now has facilities worldwide. Other companies, including Bosch and Rheem, manufacture tankless water heaters.

This is old news to you all, if Headline Earth has featured stories on tankless water heaters. If not, perhaps you'll find it useful for preparing a future story on their benefits. I'll let you know how our installation proceeds and if we see a significant reduction in our natural gas consumption. These companies make models for both electric and natural gas installations.

Hayes Galitski
Claremont, CA

Katie:

I have had a small discussion with Laura Hannon about the role water vapor plays in greenhouse gases. It is not widely known that water vapor comprises 95% of greenhouse gases, that mankind has no influence over this greenhouse gas component, that CO2 comprises less than 5% of greenhouse gases, that the enormous ocean contributes mightily to the CO2 content of the atmosphere, and that CO2 hangs around for 200 years in the atmosphere. Now if mankind has been belching out CO2 from fossil fuel burning for the past 120 years or so, and all CO2 emitted from all that fossil fuel burning still is only a small portion of less than 5%, then current, on-going contributions to the total CO2 are certainly infinitessimal. Even if we could stop fossil fuel burning completely, the effect on TOTAL greenhouse gases would barely be mathematically detectable. Not that I'm against conservation for many other valid reasons, but there is a whole lot of misunderstanding out there about global warming (as Laura states in today's daily comment). Maybe a good idea for your show would be a type of global warming 101, which covers topics such as water vapor and CO2's component size and solar flairs and the last time there was global warming before the previous ice age and before there were any internal combustion engines.

You have a great forum to educate the public, assuming the global warming sympathizing police, especially over at the Weather Channel, don't try to run you out of town.

Hayes - Thanks for the suggestion, I'll pass that along to our video team. I think that would make a very good segment.

Being more energy efficient is just one way to help stop global warming. A Nov. 2006 United Nations report ("Livestock's Long Shadow") reveals that there is another way to help stop global warming -- by cutting livestock production in half!

The first two articles in the Dec. 2006 McDougall Newsletter explain the "whys" and "hows" of this much better than I can. Here is the link:

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/dec/061200.htm

The U.N. report is very long but it describes how livestock farming is a big part of global warming and how it is destructive to the environment in general. Here is the link:

http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.htm

Thank you for your time!

Mrs. Sarah E. Branham
Interlachen, FL

Hi! Thanks for a great site about the global warming. I also think this is a big problem that we all have to take serious. I participate in a Seo championchip were we spread the message about the globalwarming awareness2007. Hopefully it will alert some important people. You can participate an make a difference to! Check out http://www.theglobalwarmingawareness2007.com

Can't wait until the next ozone action day....I will make sure I fire up the lawn mower!..........;-D

I see an amazing silence on the recent USA cold - even snow in England - and the effects of global warming. Strange that when we were in the unusual warmth in Dec. and Jan. (US East, mainly) many in the media were quick to say it was caused by global warming. Some meteorologists even said global warming caused the heavy Denver snows!
I can't believe many who say all the "wierd" weather is caused by global warming or somewhow the warm air is causing the cold! If that was so, wouldn't the net effect be near "zero" due to the balancing effect?