History

WW1

No Man's Land

There was a rapid acceleration of the industrial revolution; air transport was transformed by the invention of the Jet engine and rocket propulsion enabled men to be sent to the moon.

The Soviet Union launched the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite called Sputnik on 4 October 1957. They followed this achievement on 12 April 1961 when Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth.

The United States of America responded with the manned Projects Mercury and Gemini followed by the Apollo missions, which culminated in Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin setting foot on the Moon on July 20, 1969.

Cultural advances included the establishment of the welfare state and the right for women to vote. Advances in communications included radio and television and personal computers.

F15 Eagles of teh US air force played a major role in teh Gulf Wars, securing air superiority and deliveing accurate 'smart' bombs to targets in Iraq.

Oil is a significant factor in today's society, particularly in the Western first world countries. The Gulf war's have been partly due to the ever increasing need to secure the availability of this ever decreasing vital resource.

One of the main elements of these wars were aircraft - fast jets capable of penetrating deep into enemy territory to deliver their lethal payloads. Technology such as this was not even conceived at the beginning of the 20th century and is only available now because of oil.

Global warming or Climate Change is a subject that most people will be familiar with these days. Increased Carbon Dioxide levels causing greenhouse gas effects that are warming up the Earth and melting the ice caps, with catastrophic consequences being prophesised as a result.

Ironically one of the effects of Global warming is likely to be increased snowfall and glacial building. As the seas warm up they produce more water vapour, which then leads to wetter climates and more precipitation over mountains falling as snow. The snow reflects sunlight keeping the snow cool, which then builds up over the years and forms glaciers that radiate from mountainous regions.

Global temperature rises and falls naturally. In the past 4000 years there have been three distinct 'warm' periods known as the Minoan, Roman and Medieval. The Medieval warm period was followed by the 'little ice age'. These warm/cold phases suggest that there is a 1,100 year cycle to interglacial climate behaviour.

The Medieval warm period was warm enough (about 1°C higher than today) for the Vikings to establish a colony in Greenland. It might be worth noting that Polar Bears survived this period.

It has been known for some time that global climate is linked to Carbon Di-Oxide levels. Carbon dioxide levels have been increasing from the time man started to develop agriculture about 4,000 years ago but the rate has risen sharply since the Industrial revolution.

Composition of Air

Component	Symbol	Volume
Nitrogen	N₂	78.084%
Oxygen	O₂	20.947%
Argon	Ar	0.934%
Carbon Dioxide	CO₂	0.033%
Neon	Ne	18.2 parts per million
Helium	He	5.2 parts per million
Methane	CH₄	2.0 parts per million
Krypton	Kr	1.1 parts per million
Sulphur dioxide	SO₂	1.0 parts per million
Nitrous Oxide	N₂O	0.5 parts per million
Hydrogen	H₂	0.5 parts per million
Xenon	Xe	0.09 parts per million
Ozone	O₃	0.07 parts per million
Nitrogen dioxide	NO₂	0.02 parts per million
Iodine	I₂	0.01 parts per million
Carbon monoxide	CO	trace
Ammonia	NH₃	trace

Carbon dioxide levels are currently about 330 parts per millions. In the past this has been as high as 1800 parts per million (18%). The main concern is not the amount of CO2 but the rate at which it is increasing and the effect this might have on the animals and plants, and in particular on us.

Higher concentrations of CO2 and higher rainfall has a beneficial effect on plant growth (look at the Jurassic), and historically this has been good for humans - look at the development of civilisation during the Minoan, Roman and Medieval 'warm' periods.

Green House gasses
Component	Percent of atmosphere by vol.
Water Vapour	up to 4%
Carbon dioxide	0.03%
Nitrous Oxide	0.0002%
Methane	0.0002%
Ozone	0.0007%

The graph above illustrates the temperatures during past periods of Earth's history. As you can see it has been quite high for much of the time and we are presently in a very cool period. In fact we are in an Ice Age. Ice Age's are characterised by the presence of ice sheets, particularly at the poles, and interspaced with 20,000 year long phases of increasing and receding glaciation; at the moment the glaciers are receding.

During an ice age there are regions, especially around the tropics, that will be higher than average temperatures. Even during the great freeze of 400 million years ago the ice was restricted to the main landmasses, which were predominantly in the southern hemisphere centred around the South Pole. Elsewhere the sea and landmasses in the tropics were relatively warm and ice free.

The big question is not about whether temperatures are rising, as this has been demonstrated as being the case, but more about if this will have a detrimental effect on our lives by creating famine, floods, rising sea levels and other problems, or through cultural and political changes being made, in the name of such potential problems, by government officials that are being led by the claims of a tightly knit group of career conscious climatologists and scare stories published by the media. Will we the people find out the truth? History says probably not, but we and our descendents will almost certainly foot the bill, whilst a select few collect it.

What's the point?

Some things never change!

Timeline

Books

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Year

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1903	Wilbur and Orville Wright's biplane makes historic 12 second flight. Women's Social and Political Union (Suffragettes) founded.
1908	Henry Ford produces the first mass produced automobile, the 'Model T'.
1912	Titanic sinks.
1914	World War One breaks out
1917	The Russian Revolution begins.
1918	World War One ends.
1925	Logie Baird invent the first working television.
1928	Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
1929	Start of the world wide recession.
1935	Radar is invented
1938	Neville Chamberlain buys 'Peace in our Time' by allowing Nazi Germany to invade Czechoslovakia.
1939	World War Two begins
1945	First Atomic bomb is tested in New Mexico. World War two ends with two Nuclear bombs being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
1947	India is given independence.
1948	Russia blockades West Berlin
1949	The first civilian Jet Airliner, the 'Comet'. The Cold War begins. Russia tests its first nuclear bomb
1961	Manned space flight begins with Yuri Gagarin
1969	Man lands on the Moon
1989	Berlin Wall torn down.
1991	War against Iraq to Free Kuwait

Fall Gelb - In May 1940 the German army was poised to invade the Low Countries and France. Code named Fall Gelb (case Yellow), the invasion was to result in a devastating defeat for the Allied armies.
Operation Overlord - In June 1944 the Western allies invaded occupied Europe to open the long awaited Second Front
Tiger Tank - The Panzer VI e Tiger tank was probably the most feared tank of the Second World War
Lancaster Bomber - The most successful bomber aircraft of Worlds War Two. In over 300,000 sorties It was responsible for delivering in excess of 600,000 tons of explosive to targets throughout Nazi occupied Europe.