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Weekend Unthreaded
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9.3 out of 10 based on 12 ratings
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JoNova A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
The nerds have the numbers on precious metals investments on the ASX
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Number 1 again? Can’t be that lucky.
50
Roy Hogue:
You are in the lucky time zone. Pity about the State.
60
Are people out there in the internet world aware that the IPCC have admitted to the possibility that the climate sensitivity in the models may be too high?
From WG1AR5_ALL_FINAL
from the top of page 982
“This provides evidence that some
CMIP5 models have a higher transient response to GHGs and a larger
response to other anthropogenic forcings … than the real world (medium confidence).’
The ASK results and the initialised predictions both suggest that those CMIP5 models
that warm most rapidly over the period (1986–2005) to (2016–2035)
may be inconsistent with the observations.
or page 1010
“Possible reasons why the real world might depart from this range include:…………the
possibility that model sensitivity to anthropogenic forcing may differ from that of the real
world …….
The reduced rate of warming ….is related to evidence that ‘some CMIP5 models have a…
larger response to other anthropogenic forcings ….. than the real world (medium
confidence).’”
170
“The ASK results and the initialised predictions both suggest that those CMIP5 models that warm most rapidly over the period (1986–2005) to (2016–2035) may be inconsistent with the observations.”
Wow, just the admission that some of the Climate Models are running hot is a major breakthrough. The additional admission that there is a “possibility that model sensitivity to anthropogenic forcing may differ from that of the real world” is astounding. Could we be creeping closer to a time when Climate Science actually reflects what’s really happening with the climate?
170
The modellers have little choice but to back off, there has been no warming in 20 years and global cooling is about to set in.
181
” Could we be creeping closer to a time when Climate Science actually reflects what’s really happening with the climate?”
Lets not get carried away, that is a pretty big ask.
140
My reaction was also “Wow”
I was reading the AR5, trying to figure out what they didn’t want me to understand when I found these quotes.
I think it is interesting that they see it in terms of the real world moving away from the models instead of the models failing to match reality.
61
The weird thing RIC is that these models were put forward as modelling the “real world”.
Otherwise what was the point.
Anyone trained in modelling could easily see that these “things” that were claimed to be models were simply propaganda tool and contained non of the basic essentials of a model.
KK
61
One of the better comments I have seen on these models is that they are modeling the creators mindset and biases , rather than real world behaviours.
80
Real world observation, SST falling according to David Middleton.
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/hadsst3gl/from:2015.5/plot/hadsst3gl/from:2015.5/trend
30
Yahbutt antarctica is melting in exponents …
https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/S_stddev_timeseries.png
Frankly, the 15 to 20 year “cooling-phase” assertions some people are making are unconvincing to dubious—for now. Much closer to no change of trend above noiseishness.
This is Feb to early June, 2018:
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/oceanography/wrap_ocean_analysis.pl?id=IDYOC007&year=2018&month=06
Punctuated ‘cooling’ then? We’lll only know in a decade, or two.
What we have is ambiguous to inconclusive.
30
Didn’t Monckton et al publish a paper earlier this year showing the error in the math?
30
It’s not the maths for me, it’s the fact that the models have no scientific foundation.
20
Don’t drop your guard. Most likely they believe they can now drop these lies because they have achieved their objective.
For balance, this should be filed with NOAA’s claim that there never was a pause.
20
Fat chance that will make any headlines, or even into the final synopsis for governments.
00
The oldest images of this bird are forcing experts to rethink ancient trade routes …
“Researchers have discovered the oldest images of the Australasian cockatoo in a 13th century manuscript written by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.
The drawings are 250 years older than the previously thought oldest depiction of the bird in an Italian painting,” The Guardian reports.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/26/images-of-cockatoo-on-13-century-vatican-manuscript-inspire-trade-route-rethink?CMP=share_btn_link%3e
> Perhaps the mystery just became a little less mysterious as it becomes more obvious the great southern land was well known before Captain Cook showed up …
Ancient Egyptian visitors to Australia or miner’s mishap? Riddle of the rainforest coin:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-02/far-north-queenslands-egyptian-coin-mystery/9708318?smid=Page:%20ABC%20News-Facebook_Organic&WT.tsrc=Facebook_Organic&sf190898744=1
50
From the ABC link:
“Given that the Djabugay people and the Yirrganydji people whose land the coin was found have no oral records of Egyptian people, and given that if there was a colony the only thing they left behind was a coin, that sounds a little bit far fetched,”
The argument of whether Aboriginals are long term or short term inhabitants of the land now known as Australia is embroiled with as much controversy as the Climate Change fiasco, for a more scientific view regarding DNA origins this PNAS Ancient mtDNA sequences from the First Australians revisited goes into depth on the methods used and reexamines results in the laboratory.
Then in 2017 the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA released an Aboriginal DNA study published in Nature magazine that concludes Aboriginals have a 50k year heritage here based on early hair samples, considering the above mentioned Climate related tainting of science I’d like to see PNAS do retesting of the ACAD findings.
40
If I remember right, the word Cockatoo comes from the Malay language. That suggested to me that the Malays were so familiar with our cockatoos that they may have had them there.
00
To make a croc retreat, think twice or pause,
Try solar panels placed between its jaws.
A warmist leader cannot guarantee,
Smooth running grids on constant energy.
Alarmists still call CO2, pollution,
But love their beers and drink it in solution.
Australia’s politicians shut down coal,
And brought high power bills they can’t control.
180
nice work, you doing the week in review stuff now?
20
Good Morning Yarpos…. nice cold fog this merry morn…it was -1C here at 0519.
41
-2C here very frosty, I went outside and had to snap a dog off a lamp post.
60
That first couplet caused me much mirth Ruairi! 🙂
21
“Quote of the Week – Rex Murphy on why Trump hatred is like Global Warming”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/06/30/quote-of-the-week-rex-murphy-on-why-trump-hatred-is-like-global-warming/
And the comments
50
“Whatever happened to fears over “peak oil”?”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/06/30/whatever-happened-to-fears-over-peak-oil/
40
“#MetsUnite – the hypocrisy of @ed_hawkins TV meteorologist AGW “temperature ties” in one photo”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/06/30/metsunite-the-hypocrisy-of-ed_hawkins-tv-meteorologist-agw-temperature-ties-in-one-photo/
“More about this issue here.
Added: If you’ve ever worked in a TV newsroom, you’ll know that “off track” things like this need approval, especially if they are a feature that needs more time in the tightly controlled newcast timing, either from the news director, or higher ups. So, those who might say “Sinclair news anchors were given an order to read that statement by management and the TV mets were not” doesn’t realize that management had to be involved in both airings.”
40
If you thought electronic voting might be a good idea – –
“Designed For Power To Keep Power?”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2018/06/26/designed-for-power-to-keep-power/
And comments
30
Some still have it
Link at
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/06/30/it-was-sitting-in-the-trees-on-the-south-end-of-gull-lake/#comments
20
Australians to suffer yet again without any quantitative assessment as to the problem. In this case, what is the total volume of the pollution emitted compared to other sources. Expect a huge increase in the cost of equipment powered by small petrol motors.
http://amp.abc.net.au/article/9885250
Emissions crackdown to slash sale of two-stroke lawn mowers, outboard motors
Gardening equipment, outboard motors and generators capable of emitting more pollution than a car are being phased out in Australia from this weekend.
As of July 1, companies will be banned from importing high-emission lawn mowers, mulchers, leaf blowers, generators, chainsaws, outboard boat motors and other hand-held equipment that doesn’t comply with new standards.
Businesses still selling non-compliant equipment have 12 months to offload their stock.
See link for rest of article.
41
Will be interesting to see how things develop. There have been 4 stroke options for most of that stuff for a long time now, but wonder about chainsaws. We havent had a two stroke in more than a decade now.
20
Many places haven’t been selling 2-stroke mowers for some time now. I like to see how they have solved the problem of hand-held devices whereby they often are turned up-side-down. 4-stroke engines don’t work at all and often end up being destroyed when they are up-side-down, running or not.
40
Difference between engine oiling systems, this is why 2 strokes still dominate the motorbike trials competitions, lighter weight consistent oiling.
40
And two stroke motors are much lighter than four strokes as well, ideal for hand held garden tools.
21
That’s important to me. I have a big unkempt yard which I am getting under control now that I have a bore and the weight of my brush cutter matters at my age.
30
They solved upside down oiling for four strokes in aircraft quite a while ago. I used to go to airshows quite a bit and one the standard parts of the Pitt Special aerobatics display was a low level inverted pass down the runway.
I have had a 4 stroke Honda brush cutter for many years now. It just gets used as required to do the job at hand , without regard to orientation. In reality its rarely at an oddball angle for all that long, not so much upside down but often vertical or sideways.
You would think weight would be the main issue, their would probably be a kilo or so in the extra 4 stroke bits, doesnt sound much till you carry it around all day. Maybe they get some back trimming the gas tank? they should be more fuel efficient in these small engines.
40
The JAP dirt track bikes from way back had no sump problems – they had a header tank, the oil was used once and dumped on the track.
20
Y
Almost every radial post Manley had that solved for the bottom cylinders
10
The obvious solution is to go to battery powered models for the home. They are more expensive but they can do the job. STIHL even have 36V battery chainsaws. If the prices fall far enough it will be the way to go. Much quieter too. For the really big jobs of course nothing beats petrol power.
10
Friends send me jokes , many of which are not PC. This one came from a friend who has a small winery. I thought it was quite good.
According to the Bible, Jesus was born in Bethlehem in a country where people are named Mohammed, Abdul, Mounir, Aziz, Ahmed, Farid, Omar, Youssouf, Mouloud, etc.
Yet He managed to find 12 friends called John, Peter, Paul, Phillip, Mark, Thomas, Luke, Matthew, Andrew, Bart, Thad and Simon . . . Who all drank wine!
Now that’s called a miracle!
60
Very funny! I just wonder about the chronology…
21
A good one before going off to church. I wonder who would enjoy it and who would have problems?
21
you will also notice he omitted Judas, we dont talk about the black sheep
50
And why, in all of human history, has there never been another dude named, ‘Job’?
And then there’s the obvious nickname … ‘Jobbie’ … nuff said.
20
Not PC nor likely to be heard on the ABC (if that isn’t redundant).
As you are no doubt aware nominations to the High Court are often disputed n political ground in the USA
So answering phone late at night.
Trump: “What is so urgent that it can’t wait until morning?”
Hilary: “Justice Ruth Ginsberg has just died, and I would like to take her place”.
Trump: “Well, I have no problem with that. But you had better check that there is no objection from the undertaker”
100
that needs that drum/cymbal bada boom tish!! at the end
50
I find the joke mildly amusing as long as one is will to ignore its inherent anachronisms. Its still Saturday here in Northern Ohio, US, so I won’t be going of to church for another 12 hours or so.
30
AUDIO: 5mins45secs: 29 Jun: 2GB: Chris Smith Show: Liberal MP slams ‘irresponsible’ and ‘dangerous’ SBS ad
Liberal MP Craig Kelly is calling on the SBS to apologise after airing an ad encouraging Australians to turn off their heating to meet emissions targets.
The ad urges families to turn off their heaters in order to help hit targets outlined in the Paris Agreement.
Chair of the Environment and Energy Committee Craig Kelly is slamming the ad as a “disgrace” and is calling for the tax-payer funded broadcaster to pull the ad immediately and apologise.
“I watched it and I was just absolutely flabbergasted that such a reckless, dangerous ad could actually be produced by a government agency,” he tells Deborah Knight.
The Member for Hughes says the scientific and medical evidence is clear, living in a cold home is bad for your health.
“The World Health Organisation recommends that your home be heated to at least 18 degrees in winter. There’s many Australian homes that don’t reach that temperature.
“To spread a message that when you’re cold… don’t turn the heater on because that might help with our Paris targets, it’s irresponsible and it’s dangerous.”
https://www.2gb.com/liberal-mp-slams-irresponsible-and-dangerous-sbs-ad/
70
During a radio interview this week with 2gb’s Ray Hadley, Josh Frydenberg stated that Australia was currently producing 70% of its electricity from coal and that it would still be around 60% by 2030.
As far as I can ascertain that 70% figure represents about 25,000MW. For the sake of the exercise, let’s assume that GDP compounds at 3% P.A for the next 11 years and that electricity demand does much the same. Frydenberg’s 60% will by then require 29,500MW from coal and with 2,000MW going if Liddell closes, we will need 6,500MW of new coal fired generation by 2030 and that does not take into consideration any other decommissioning over the next eleven years.
The Government must have more computing power than my $8 calculator but I’d like to see their workings on this.
80
Can you just extrapolate like that? electricity demand went south for a couple years and recently posted a modest 1% annual increase.
In the last available stats we made 63% of electricity via coal (inc Hazelwood)
https://industry.gov.au/Office-of-the-Chief-Economist/Publications/Documents/aes/2016-australian-energy-statistics.pdf
21
The figures of 70% and 60% were uttered by Frydenberg and he’s the energy minister, so what does that tell us.
30
The extrapolation is probably dodgy but at current rates the population will increase by at least 10% in 10 year’s time. The Govt. is spouting on about growth in manufacturing as spin-offs from submarines and naval boats. Not to mention all Sydney’s new electrified train tracks and then there is Josh’s million electric cars by 2030. We’re going to need a lot of extra juice for all that. And then SBS telling us to turn the heating down for Paris. I think i’ll go and have another cup of tea.
70
I think Josh is of the “just say it confidently and people will accept it” school of public speaking.
50
Can you extrapolate like that? Why did it go south, was it caused by one-off events like closing our automotive industry and Yabulu nickel refinery, or displacement of grid power with rooftop solar?
We had a qtr mill legal immigrants last year and I see no pressure to reduce this so I reckon Pete is on the right track.
50
extrapolating? what? those are just historical facts
why did it go south? probably all of those things and more, lots of one off events for a couple of years maketh a short trend and now its slowly rising again. Will be interesting to see if its anything like 3% compound.
10
The NEM demand is not growing:
https://images.theconversation.com/files/52508/original/wvfzzdr4-1403999656.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip
This is AEMO’s view of future demand:
https://www.aemo.com.au/Electricity/National-Electricity-Market-NEM/Planning-and-forecasting/Electricity-Forecasting-Insights/2018-Electricity-Forecasting-Insights
With grid electricity prices on full boost in Australia there is little prospect of more being used despite population growth. Electricity intensive industries like aluminium smelting are already facing extinction in Australia.
60
But that max demand still has to be met,[and even more as electric cars are parked and charged] and met by generators operating fewer hours per day thus having higher capital costs per MWH. This won’t end well.
40
A non-seasonal fall in electricity consumption is one of the more reliable early indicators of economic recessions.
If ‘unreliables’ contribution of electrons to NEM is next to negligable in practice, then an observed or predicted flat national demand for electrons, with all else being equal, is a reflection of chronic national economic stagnation.
But as you’ve pointed out, all else is not equal.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PDd8shcLvHI#
20
Vic,SA and NSW are still relying on Queensland coal and Tas hydro. Any interconnector failure would have major supply ramifications in those 3 states yet the ALP are still parroting for more unreliable generation.
60
Basslink has been down for months , twice and we all got by. The QLD connector has more than twice the capacity so that could be an issue, depending on the state of generation in NSW at the time. As Tony has noted , they have been quite exposed at times.
40
Ian1946:
Living in SA I am more worried about gullible politicians in NSW and Victoria shutting down, or permitting the shut down, of any more coal fired stations. SA relies on interstate coal fired to keep the lights on.
Look at what happened in May in NSW when a combination of coal fired shutdowns pushed the wholesale price to more than double (~$220).
It seems extraordinary to me that so many ignorant politicians can see from SA what happens when the level of renewables goes up and still think it still desirable to encourage more renewables. And they still are in both major parties in SA so all those members of the public capable of rational thought can do is buy a generator and wait for a major, or series of major blackouts to force change.
On SA politicians I blame inbreeding as the intelligent ones move to other States. Time to recycle all those Tassie jokes from the seventies?
70
Fairfax media cover “massive” CAGW protests – tons of pics – now if only CAGW sceptics could receive such positive coverage:
11-pic photo gallery – 20 protesters max?
30 Jun: Port Macquarie News (Fairfax): Climate Change Australia Hastings’ silent vigil
by Peter Daniels
About 30 people lined up to call for no new coal mines or powered stations during a silent vigil hosted by Climate Change Australia Hastings in Port Macquarie.
The hour-long protest was on Saturday morning (June 30)…
The silent vigil showed the significant impact of coal minues and coal powered stations have on climate change and global warming, spokesperson Harry Creamer said…
“There is a significant link between coal and climate change and global warming…
“Coal has taken us out of the darkness but we are in danger of moving back into that darkness.”
Mr Creamer said countries around the world are doing much better than we are, in relation to investigating and implement alternative power sources…
He said a recent Lowy Poll found that 84 per cent of Australians are in favour of renewable energy rather than coal…
“We want to say no to the Adani coal mine, build solar not coal and say no to any new coal powered stations…
https://www.portnews.com.au/story/5498722/silent-vigil-tells-important-message-on-climate-change/
14-pic photo gallery – 20 protesters max?
30 Jun: Bendigo Advertiser (Fairfax): Climate change activists in Bendigo call for no new coal projects
by Natalie Croxon
More than 50 people attended the #NoNewCoal event at the entrance to Rosalind Park on Saturday morning, part of an initiative organised nationally by Frontline Action on Coal.
Mel Abel, from Bendigo District Australian Conservation Foundation, said the issue was of importance to the region, with it being a bushfire-prone area affected by climate change…
Central Victoria Climate Action’s Trevor Scott said as a father of three and grandfather to 10, he was doing it “for their future, as much as my own”…
Another member of the climate action group, Jim Roberts, said once the Earth warmed by 2 degrees, all the major issues – such as the melting of the ice caps and rising sea levels – would grow worse…
But Mrs Abel said renewable energy options had the capacity to provide jobs and could be good for the economy. “Renewables around the world are booking and Australia is being left behind,” she said.
The Australian Conservation Foundation also carried out surveys on climate change in Bendigo, the results of which will be passed onto federal MP Lisa Chesters.
https://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/5498697/climate-change-activists-call-for-no-new-coal-projects/
30
Pat
Borrowed from SDA
“They’re not CAGW sceptics – they’re lie detectors”
30
accidentally posted this on jo’s new thread:
29 Jun: ClimateDepot: NYC’s Youth March to Sound the Alarm on Climate Change
By Ilana Cohen and Amy Torres
(***Ilana Cohen and Amy Torres are co-head coordinators for Zero Hour NYC)
http://www.climatedepot.com/2018/06/29/youth-march-to-sound-the-alarm-on-climate-change-students-across-the-nation-to-unite-against-the-greatest-threat-of-the-twenty-first-century-climate-change/
History teacher indocrintating students? nah:
7 Jun: TheBeaconBeat: Beacon (High School) Seniors Organize a Youth-Led Climate March for July 21st, 2018
Seniors in Global Environmental Politics sit with their Subcommittee groups in class, organizing for the Zero Hour NYC Youth Climate March taking place on July 21st, 2018.
For the last few weeks, Beacon seniors in History teacher Bayard Faithfull’s Global Environmental Politics course have dedicated their last unit to organizing a Youth Climate March in New York City for July 21st, 2018 as part of the Zero Hour organization, a youth-led movement to combat climate change and support environmental justice…
Students from New York City to Melbourne, Australia will take to the streets to call upon policymakers at every level of governance to separate themselves from the fossil fuel industry and support a complete transition to renewable energy…
Beacon students began organizing for the NYC march shortly after Mr. Faithfull introduced them to the Zero Hour march taking place in Washington, DC. One student, ***Ilana Cohen, reached out to Zero Hour’s organizers to inquire about a sister march in the city. After hearing that there was none, she and fellow senior Amy Torres became determined to organize their own…Their friends in Global Environmental Politics were eager to get involved in the march-organizing efforts. Now, the entire class is broken up into five official Subcommittees, each focusing on a different aspect of the march…
Already, the NYC march has attracted attention from lawmakers and activists alike. Recently, the City of New York tweeted in support of the student organizers’ efforts. Organizational partners for the NYC march include the People’s Climate Movement, 350 NYC, Alliance for Climate Education, and Sunrise Movement.
TWEET: City of New York @nycgov: For youth, by youth. March with us on July 21st. #ThisIsZeroHour @ThisIsZeroHour @NYClimate
(FROM TWITTER PAGE, THERE IS JUST ONE REPLY:
dana whitford: What’s the point.
https://thebeaconbeat.org/2018/06/07/beacon-seniors-organize-a-youth-led-climate-march-for-july-21st-2018/
10
30 Jun: TheAge: If we don’t act it will soon be the not-so-Great Ocean Road
By Nicola Philp
(Nicola Philp is an Age columnist based in Apollo Bay)
Recently locals of Apollo Bay have watched in horrified fascination as king tides finished carving away the head of a well-patronised car park servicing a popular stretch of beach. It was not freak weather or storms as some reports mentioned – I swam in the bay the same weekend and other than the tide sizes, it was fairly typical winter conditions. Chunks of a popular walking track along the entire Apollo Bay beach line have also been claimed by the same erosion process…
Some say it’s natural beach movement and reminisce about the past, which when you look at old photographs ***is certainly true. However, with more than 2.5 million tourists travelling along this heritage-listed road annually we long ago ceased to be able to let nature take its course…
Whether or not this particular situation has been worsened by the changing climate and rising sea levels is a moot point because the pressing issue is to decide what to do for this section of the Great Ocean Road in the immediate future. But climate change will matter in the longer term, because as the ice caps and glaciers continue to melt at alarming rates, the ocean and the tides are going to stretch their fingers further up the sand, this is surely a fairly simple scientific process that not even diehard climate sceptics can argue with…
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/if-we-don-t-act-it-will-soon-be-the-not-so-great-ocean-road-20180629-p4zogz.html
30 Jun: American Thinker: Remember how hot it used to get before ‘global warming’?
By Jack Hellner
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/06/remember_how_hot_it_used_to_get_before_global_warming.html
10
“But climate change will matter in the longer term, because as the ice caps and glaciers continue to melt at alarming rates”
they just keep writing this drivel, never let reality get in the way of a bit of drama
40
It is now history that the case of Oakland v BP et al has been dismissed. This link has the ruling:
http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/case-documents/2018/20180625_docket-317-cv-06011_order-2.pdf
Both parties accepted the IPCC consensus on global warming and the cause mainly attributable to burning fossil fuels.This is from the Analysis section:
The judges statement perpetuates one of the great scientific myths common in climate science:
This does not happen. It is a fairy tale that is told to students who have limited appreciation of maths and cannot comprehend field theory and the application of Maxwell’s equations as applied to electromagnetic radiation. The linked paper provides clear insight into how EMR energy is transported through space and interacts with gasses and particles:
https://www.osapublishing.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-18-19-19770&id=205485
It is particularly noteworthier that the author is a NASA GISS scientists and may be the reason that NASA no longer shows the mythical back radiation in its atmospheric heat balance. I will have to wait till 2022 to see if the AR6 actually removes unscientific tripe from its technical chapter.
41
Thanks Rick,
I will read that reference more carefully later today.
I have been intrigued recently to notice that a few Scietists are starting to push back against the notion of a photon, which Einstein introduced to explain the photo electric effect. Sine then we have benn taught that light has a dual nature, sometimes behaving as a wave and sometimes as a particle.
Is it necessary to accept the dual nature models. perhaps not. more later.
10
Peter C
The linked video shows a lecture by Michael Mishcenko, the author of the paper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjKJyn_uoIE
At the 22 minute mark he discusses photons. He points out that it is a dangerous and counterproductive notion. He also provides a quote from physicist Willis Lamb regarding photons. At best the notion of photon as energy quanta is poorly understood. At worst is completely misleading because it gives rise to the notion that energy quanta are beamed particles.
00
Hi Rick,
Did you put that link in as a joke?
I read the Abstract and couldn’t stop laughing and then began to flick through it.
There is one statement that says, “thermal effects are excluded from the analysis”.
Then it moves into reams of material that is incomprehensible.
The layers of equations, again perplexing that this could be promoted as “science”.
In summary, it reads like a theoretical concept analysis done by a Science Commentator with no corroboration from measurement and no data.
There is a very, very basic macroscopic principle that provides the denial of the idea that back “radiation” exists.
Essentially in the real world, thermal energy cannot move against the temperature gradient of the system.
Up in the sky at 10,000 metres altitude the temperature is about minus 58°C.
At night with no incident solar radiation there is an enormous differential between ground temperature and nearby space at just 1.4 C° above absolute zero.
Ground origin IR is going to space come help or high water.
It gets cold at night.
Some farmers on this blog have described localised events over fields where a mist layer has formed and provided spectacular viewing with the mist of water vapor appearing to be located contrary to normal experience. This is only a micro event, localised, and won’t be there too long.
The important thing is that heat is not “back radiated” or trapped as a collectable that create an overheated atmosphere.
Basic thermodynamics and largely independent of the composition of the atmosphere in terms of “greenhouse gas content”.
Thermal energy, IR, will always move to the colder location :the upper atmosphere then deep space.
KK
20
The thermal effects relate to conduction and convection heat transfer. The author is considering energy transfer solely by electro-magnetic radiation. Radiation does not require contact between matter for transfer whereas, what he describes as thermal transfer, requires the matter to be in contact. By definition the energy transfer by EMR is in the form of electric and magnetic fields. It is not thermalised until these fields interact with matter.
The essence of all the maths is to prove that at any point in space and time there is only ONE magnetic field and ONE electric field and energy transmission through the interaction of those two fields, which are normal to each other, is also normal to both as determined by the Poynting vector. Energy flows in only one direction at any point in time and space. Section 7 of the paper discusses the physical meaning of what he derives.
00
This was an interesting exercise.
You all know I harp on about this Base Load thing, and probably, some of you might think I have made the point, and should just drop it.
I started collecting the data on a daily basis and then compiling it into a weekly Post at my home site, detailing all the data for the previous week.
I have been doing it now for 52 weeks, one whole calendar year.
At the end of those 52 weeks, the rolling average for that Base Load, (the minimum actual power consumption) is, umm,
That yearly total varies, from Season to Season a little like this.
The baseline (the X axis) is 18000MW, and the actual total basically follows two sine waves. The upper halves of the sine waves re for Winter and Summer and the lower halves are for Spring and Autumn.
Follow the weekly totals averaging them with a line, and it closely follows that sine wave. There are some outliers, but the average is remarkably sinusoidal in nature.
Some Winter peaks were almost 20000MW, as were a couple in Summer, and a few times this last year, it was over 20000MW, and they would be outliers, as the average high point of that sine wave for Winter and Summer were around 19200MW. In Spring and Autumn, the lowest points were around 168000MW with low outliers down to a couple of 16000MW. The most startling outlier is that in the middle of Summer, the Base Load for Christmas Day is the lowest for the year, at only 16300MW, a full 3000MW lower than normal for that time of year.
As I have mentioned, the average of half a sine wave is Peak X 0.637.
In Winter and Summer, the average Base Load is around 18750MW, and in Spring and Autumn 17250MW, so varying around that X axis by around 750MW.
As for the supply of those totals from coal fired sources, it was consistently around 80%, and the rolling average for all 52 weeks is 81.2%, and that’s 14636MW, and that is also at that same 4AM point in time of the minimum power consumption, the Base Load.
The coal fired plants use Spring and Autumn to do major maintenance, and I have seen as many as 10 units down at times during those Seasons, while in Summer and Winter it’s usually only four Units down. At one time during the Summer, there was only one Unit off line.
AS I have mentioned, those Units ramp up and down during each and every day, so they are supplying power at their lowest at that 4AM point in time, and then ramp up to supply their most at the evening Peak, around 5.30/6PM, and there have been a few times in this last year when coal fired power has been delivering higher than 20000MW during those evening Peaks, and that’s from a total Nameplate for coal fired power of only 23000MW, and at those same times it has been supplying that 20000MW+ there were Units off line as well.
That Base Load exercise was an interesting one to actually do, because it’s an easy thing to ‘just say’ it’s that figure. Now, I have actual data for the whole 52 weeks in a year.
Tony.
180
Tony,
Do not ever stop explaining base load.
One day, someone from MSN, Fairfax, ABC or the federal and state politicians might just get it.
70
Another day when that “cheap” wind power is not pulling its weight, delivering just 600 MW overnight across the AEMO network, and now down to 400 MW from a nameplate capacity of 5,200 MW. While in Weatherill’s Wonderworld of SA, wind provided 0-50 MW overnight, peaked at 250 MW for a couple of hours, and is now back at 75 MW from a nameplate capacity of 1,800 MW.
But we still demanded power, from a peak last night of 27,000 MW to a minimum overnight of 19,000 MW.
As Tony rightly asks, what provides electricity when the wind doesn’t deliver 1,560 MW at its average capacity factor of 30%?
Tony has demonstrated that coal remains largely consistent in it share of supply, so it is gas that varies its output to balance demand, with hydro covering the morning and evening peaks.
So despite having invested about $10 billion in wind farms, the network needs to maintain a similar investment in at least 1,560 MW of gas generators. Government policies have resulted in double the investment to deliver the same amount of electricity. But who pays? Why us consumers of course. And who benefits? Why those windy wastrels and those solar squanderers as they collect our money.
And then we have Frydenberg fabricating further foolish follies by forecasting that reducing CO2 emissions under the NEG will lower electricity costs. If that were true, let the market operate without all these government interventions.
How can governments be so irresponsible?
80
Some help please .
Is this chart of Arctic Sea Ice volume ( not extent ) valid
or misleading and what is the baseline period used ?
If valid does it makes nonsense of rising sea level alarmism .
Chart Found here .
With thanks ….. Ross
10
I dont think the Arctic ice level has much impact on sea levels, as its floating ice. Antarctica melting might create more interest.
I just like the record cover as it puts Al Gore and Co’s statements on the topic into perspective, and would make a rational person wonder about the wisdom of everything else they spout. However, nobody in the MSM will ask, or even notice.
20
Sea level rise alarmism has no real foundation.
Sea levels have been falling for the past 7,000 years.
Through several oscillations the general trend is down.
The current interglacial is coming to an end and then the sea levels will fall rapidly.
KK
20
I can never decide which looks the more fake and ludicrous:
Chairman Mal in a fluoro outfit and hard hat staring at the wrong-way-up blueprint of something beyond his comprehension — Nation-Builder Mal;
or wearing a shiny new Akubra, red dust on his Gucci brogues, sleeves rolled up to almost 3 inches above his wrists; nodding in pseudo-empathy with some starving farmer; chewing a bit of straw some minder has shoved in his face for a photo-op — Bushie Mal;
or spinning a ripping banker yarn about the rutile futures crash of ’89 to a bunch of stupefied-looking wharfies down the pub, whilst crooking his pinkie and pretending to sip a beer — Ocker Mal;
or clapping in the dignitaries box at the MCG watching the grand final and asking “what do you call this game again?” — Sporty Mal;
or the one where he pretends to be a Liberal prime minister, waving the Paris Accord about like Neville Chamberlain — “climate stability for our time” — Greenie Mal.
I would however love to see him as his Nation Wrecker Mal persona, wearing his I’M WITH STUPID T-shirt next time he is standing at a press conference next to Frydenberg who will of course be wearing his own I’M WITH STUPID shirt.
Maybe he could also do his Honest Mal impression — a big call, I know — and reveal the $$$ signs he has tattooed on the inside of his eyelids.
110
Mal is the goose that …………………. just keeps on being a goose.
60
The goose that lays the rotten eggs.
30
almost entirely hydro but, never mind, China is leading again:
30 Jun: Xinhua: China Focus: New record! 6 mln people survive solely on clean energy for 9 days
by Lou Chen, Lyu Xueli, Luo Xiaofei; Deng Wanli contributed to the story
China has set a new world record in the plateau province of Qinghai — 6 million people used only clean energy for nine consecutive days, a testament to China’s commitment to clean energy and a low-carbon future.
The trial lasted from June 20 to midnight of June 28 in Qinghai, which borders Tibet Autonomous Region. During the 216 hours, the province ran solely on electricity generated from wind, solar and hydro power stations.
This is the second province-wide clean energy trial in Qinghai. In June last year, it relied solely on renewable energy for seven consecutive days, beating Portugal’s 107-hour clean energy efforts in May 2016.
According to China State Grid’s Qinghai branch, electricity consumption during the nine days totaled 1.76 billion kilowatt hours, equivalent to coal use of 800,000 tonnes, cutting emission of 1.44 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2)…
China is spearheading the global fight against climate change by enforcing strong environmental policies. According to China’s commitment in the Paris Agreement, it will cut carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels…
During the nine-day period, hydropower stations supplied around ***80 percent of power with the rest produced by solar and wind energy, said Qi Taiyuan, general manager of State Grid Qinghai Electric Company…
***Around 3 percent of power was generated by coal-fired plants and transmitted to neighboring province Gansu, Qi said. A minimum amount of coal-fired power plants were kept running because they were needed to stabilize grids in time of fluctuations and avoid damage to power infrastructure, he explained…
In Qinghai, more than 85 percent of the installed power capacity comes from non-fossil fuels…
Stable power supply was extended to about half a million people over the last eight years. People living in remote high-altitude areas did not have access to electricity until three years ago.
Madoi County, located at the source of the Yellow River, 4,500 meters above sea level, requires heating 11 months out of the year; temperatures are low even in June…
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-06/30/c_137291727.htm
10
1 Jul: PopularMechanics: Scientists Just Measured the Coldest Place on Earth
It’s “almost like another planet,” and so cold that breathing in the air would kill you.
Researchers recorded the coldest place on Earth via satellite on an ice sheet deep in Antarctica, and ***thanks to global warming, it might just be the coldest it will ever get on Earth. The cold spot is about minus 144°F: so cold that “it’s almost like another planet,” according to Ted Scambos, a researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder…
The previous recorded lowest temperature was 128.6°F in 1983 at the Russian Vostok Station near the South Pole. It was so cold that Russian scientists investigating the weather station had to wear masks that warmed the air before they breathed in — inhaling more than a few breaths of air that cold would cause human lungs to hemorrhage…
via National Geographic (LINK)
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a22007458/scientists-measured-coldest-place-earth/
more places that might never be so cold again:
Record cold start to Tuesday
CTV News- 26 Jun. 2018
It’s a cold start to the day in the capital. The temperature dipped to 6.7C at 6 a.m. That set a record for coldest June 26 in Ottawa history.
Gold Coast suburb wakes up to coldest June morning ever recorded
Brisbane Times-17 Jun. 2018
Coolangatta residents had to get out of bed on Monday to face the coldest June morning ever recorded in the coastal suburb.
Auckland facing coldest temperature in 50 years
Newstalk ZB- 29 Jun. 2018
Melbourne shivered through the coldest June day in 25 years
Herald Sun- 28 Jun. 2018
MELBURNIANS shivered through the coldest June day in more than two decades yesterday with temperatures frozen in single figures…
Winter solstice: Shortest, coldest day of the year southeastern Australia
9news.com.au- 20 Jun. 2018
Further east, Charlton dipped to -2.5 degrees just before 7am, making this its coldest June morning in 12 years.
Weather expert: ‘Coldest June day in 16 years for Mackay’
Mackay Daily Mercury-18 Jun. 2018
41
Regional cooling grips north Queensland.
‘Most of the country is likely to see warmer than usual days during July to September; nights are likely to be warmer than average, except for the tropical north.’
BoM
40
The SST off the top end shows a cool anomaly.
https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/sst/anomaly/2018/anomnight.6.28.2018.gif
10
While the SW corner appears to indicate that our winter this year in Perth will be warm again, similar to last year. Will have to see what happens during July.
00
AGL Limited, GetUp & Labor Party …
https://www.jimball.com.au/agl/suddenly-starts-crystallise-starts-make-sense-agl-getup/
30
Please consider: NSW Labor sold electricity assets valued at $12-15 billion for $5.9 billion with value reductions including gifting of Liddell Power Station to AGL Limited handed over with Bayswater Power Station when sold to AGL.
Then consider the trail from AWU/Bill Shorten, GetUp, Tony Burke & Partner, etc.
40
The Coalition cannot blame Labor for the energy crisis because they have followed the same RET agenda.
20
AGL featured in a Seniors advert/campaign in one of Seniors org emails recently.
Presented as a big cost saving 38% off if you pay on time. I guess you know whats coming. I looked at my standard offer (no discounts , no BS from Momentum) and it is the same/slightly better than AGL depending on what aspect you are looking at.
I wrote to the Seniors people (part of VIC govt) asking if the look at the market or are just promoting one supplier and also asked if the recieved commissions. No reply yet. I’d expect a govt group to do basic research and provide a short list, not just be an advertising arm of AGL.
40
Mayday! lol.
29 Jun: CarbonPulse: Mayday: Weak ambition, Chinese backtracking threaten future of CORSIA global aviation offset scheme
Fears are mounting that ICAO’s international aviation offsetting mechanism could collapse well before its 2021 start as China backtracks and other nations resist, while the scheme’s rules get severely weakened or delayed by infighting.
2 pages: 28 Jun: Forbes: Airlines Welcome New Aviation Emissions Regime, But Environmentalists Cry Foul
by Dave Keating
Airlines will be able to declare fossil fuels as green ‘alternative fuels’ under a new UN scheme agreed yesterday at a summit of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal…
The agreement reached yesterday establishes a broad and flexible definition of what constitutes a green fuel. For example, under the system agreed yesterday, airlines burning kerosene could be rewarded with reduced obligations to buy carbon offsets because the refinery producing the oil was running on renewable electricity.
In addition Saudi Arabia, with the backing of the United States, was able to get “clean oil” included in the new definition of alternative fuels. Though environmentalists were lobbying the European Union hard not to accept these definitions, in the end the EU backed the scheme yesterday…
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davekeating/2018/06/28/airlines-welcome-new-aviation-emissions-regime-but-environmentalists-cry-foul/#30ab824660fc
30 Jun: AirlineGeeks: Hemal Gosai: ICAO Redefines Fossil Fuels in Attempt to Reduce Global Aviation Emissions
Much to the dismay of environmentalists, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an agency of the United Nations, came to an agreement to declare fossil fuels as “green alternative fuels” to help reduce carbon emissions by the global aviation industry.
The agreement is a real head-scratcher for most, requiring a significant amount of mental dexterity to understand…
The definition, at least for the aviation industry, was broadened to include fossil fuels as green fuels as long as they emit less carbon over their life-cycle than conventional fuels. This takes into account the refining process, especially if the refinery is using renewable energy or using environmentally friendly refining processes…
Growing economies such as China and Brazil are heavy users of fossil fuels and do not seem too enthusiastic about the looming restrictions.
On the other end of the spectrum, several European countries are threatening to leave the agreement due to environmental regulations and definitions being loosened to accommodate those who are not entirely onboard…
The airline industry will need a strong financial incentive to move away from conventional fossil fuels.
https://airlinegeeks.com/2018/06/30/icao-redefines-fossil-fuels-in-attempt-to-reduce-global-aviation-emissions/
10
Reuters clearly not keen to spell it out – but plenty to read between the lines:
28 Jun: Reuters: U.N. aviation agency approves standards to kickstart emissions deal
by Allison Lampert
MONTREAL: Starting Jan. 1, 2019, most airlines flying international routes will begin monitoring their fuel and carbon emissions as part of the landmark agreement brokered two years ago by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Airlines had called on ICAO to approve the standards which they need to prepare for the agreement that officially goes into effect in 2021.
“This now allows governments and industry to make final preparations for implementation before the CO2 emissions monitoring and reporting obligations commence in January 2019,” Michael Gill, executive director of the cross-industry Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), said in a statement…
The new standards, approved by a ***majority of ICAO’s 36-member governing council, including the United States, give governments a technical guide on how to compile airlines’ emissions and how much the carriers will need to offset…
ICAO has yet to finalize the specific criteria for fuels allowed under the agreement, she said. In principle, fossil fuels can qualify, but they will have to meet the agreement’s standards.
Complying with the agreement is estimated to cost airlines less than 2 percent of industry revenue. The deal is ***voluntary for the first five years and becomes mandatory from 2027 ***for the world’s largest emitters…
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-aviation/u-n-aviation-agency-approves-standards-to-kickstart-emissions-deal-idUSKBN1JN32J
00
Big thank you to Pat for his/her posts!!
Ground covered is amazing and the awareness raising , reading, learning and new sources turned up as a result of going down the rabbit hole on some of these posts is fantastic.
50
Willis E’s check of Hansen’s 1988 testimony
“Dr. Hansen’s Statistics”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/06/30/dr-hansens-statistics/
And it isn’t roses he’s smelling
11
‘Liberal MP Craig Kelly is calling on the SBS to apologise after airing an ad encouraging Australians to turn off their heating to meet emissions targets.
‘The ad urges families to turn off their heaters in order to help hit targets outlined in the Paris Agreement.
‘Chair of the Environment and Energy Committee Craig Kelly is slamming the ad as a “disgrace” and is calling for the tax-payer funded broadcaster to pull the ad immediately and apologise.
“I watched it and I was just absolutely flabbergasted that such a reckless, dangerous ad could actually be produced by a government agency,” he tells Deborah Knight.
2GB
20
Beijing’s Belt and Road will require 700 coal fired power stations.
https://www.climateconversation.org.nz/2018/06/heroic-nz-emission-cuts-versus-chinese-colossus/#more-25660
10
LOL! Rowan Dean of Sky News satire piece of an ABC weatherman being a bit perplexed about the recent cold weather over SE Australia but still banging the ‘Global Warming’ drum.
Outsiders Weather
30
Calling el Gordo.
You’ll like this. The Nats finally flex their muscles over the NEG and push back against Frydenberg and Mal. The Nats are leading the rebellion.
https://stopthesethings.com/2018/07/01/frydenberg-foiled-nationals-kill-off-energy-ministers-national-energy-guarantee/
40
Good.
20
1 Jul: Yahoo: Reuters: Man arrested for starting Colorado wildfire
A man was arrested on Saturday on charges of starting a forest fire in Colorado that has destroyed structures and forced hundreds to evacuate their homes in one of dozens of wildfires raging across the drought-hit U.S. southwest.
Jesper Joergensen, 52, was taken into custody for suspected arson that started the Springs Fire, the most active of around 10 blazes in Colorado, the state hardest hit by fires, according to Costilla County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.
Joergensen is not a U.S. citizen and will be handed over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement once he has faced arson charges, said a Costilla County detention officer. The officer could not immediately say what nationality Joergensen held.
The fire has scorched over 38,000 acres (15,378 hectares) between the towns of Fort Garland and La Veta in southern Colorado, forcing more mandatory evacuations of homes and ranches on Saturday in a mountainous area of public and private land…
https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-arrested-starting-colorado-wildfire-225829408.html
behind paywall:
29 Jun: UK Times: John Simpson: ‘Arsonist’ held over moorland wildfire
A man was arrested yesterday on suspicion of setting fire to moorland as firefighters continued to battle blazes across parts of Lancashire.
The suspect, 22, was arrested in a joint investigation by police and firefighters into a blaze at Winter Hill, near Bolton. The fire drew vital resources away from wildfires an hour’s drive to the east on Saddleworth Moor…
1 Jul: Daily Mail: Britain ablaze: Firefighters declare second ‘major incident’ as two wildfires merge into giant hillside inferno – just 35 miles from still-raging Saddleworth Moor while flames hit rural Wales and Scotland
By Lara Keay
One man has been arrested on suspicion of starting the fire on Winter Hill, an hour’s drive away from Saddleworth…
Fire chiefs have insisted they have not yet established what caused the fires in the north west countryside…
But locals are convinced bikers discarding their used cigarettes are to blame, with one farmer branding them ‘stupid, brainless idiots’.
Farmer James Crowther, 30, who farms 5,000 acres in the area posted on Facebook: ‘Well done to the stupid idiots on motorbikes, who decided to break on to private land, use it as an off road course then set fire to it afterwards.
‘No respect whatsoever and left others fighting a losing battle trying to get it out!’
Speaking to the Mirror, he added that he saw bikers there on Sunday afternoon: ‘Two hours later the land was ablaze with 20-foot flames.
‘When the fire moved on, it left behind something that looked liked a scorched desert.
‘That’s when we found fag ends absolutely everywhere. What sort of brainless idiot throws a fag end down in the grass on the hottest day of the year?’…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5904281/Winter-Hill-Scout-Road-Bolton-fires-merge-declared-one-incident-Saddleworth-Moor-wild-fire.html
10
comment in moderation re: 1 Jul: Yahoo: Reuters: Man arrested for starting Colorado wildfire
1 Jul: Guardian: Gareth Hutchens: Australia’s high electricity prices the ‘new normal’, report says
The Grattan Institute has released a new paper, Mostly Working: Australia’s Wholesale Electricity Market (LINK), that has identified three underlying causes of higher energy prices in the National Electricity Market in recent years…
1. Two big, old, low-cost, coal-fired power stations closed (Northern in South Australia in 2016, and Hazelwood in Victoria in 2017), reducing supply and pushing prices up. This accounted for about 60% or $6bn of the increase in the value of electricity traded annually in the Nem between 2015 and 2017.
2. The cost of key inputs, especially gas but also black coal, rose just when the plants they fuel were needed more often, pushing prices up further. This accounted for nearly 40% of the increase in wholesale prices between 2015 and 2017…ETC
Tim Buckley, from Market Forces, told Guardian Australia wholesale electricity prices would come down in the long term if the current “energy policy failure” was resolved and new renewable energy and pumped hydro storage capacity were to be added to the system…
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/01/australias-high-electricity-prices-the-new-normal-report-says
we don’t need to hear from Tim Buckley, Guardian.
you can download the report from the Guardian link.
00
read all – includes plenty of criticism:
1 Jul: Daily Mail: David Rose: Tycoon Elon Musk ‘to build the world’s biggest battery’ in Britain as part of £400m plans to carpet a swathe of Kent marshland with almost a million solar panels
•Campaigners are fighting to block a £400 million plan for a solar energy farm
•The battery would store 350MWhr – with no fewer than 7,660 battery units
Green campaigners are fighting to block a £400 million plan to build a solar energy farm the size of 600 football pitches on marshland that provides a habitat for rare birds such as the marsh harrier.
The proposed 890-acre farm, five times as big as Britain’s largest existing one in Wiltshire, lies outside Graveney, near Faversham in Kent, along the edge of the Swale estuary, an officially designated Biodiversity Operational Area.
This is home to rare nesting birds and surrounded by protected zones for wildlife.
Because it is also a flood plain, the project’s 989,000 solar panels will be mounted on frames 12ft tall – the height of a double-decker bus…
In all, the battery units will cover an area the size of a further 15 football pitches…
The project is so large it will not be governed by the usual democratic planning process.
Instead, it will fall to Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark to decide whether to approve it as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project…
The developers, a partnership between Hive Energy and Wirsol, part of a firm based in Germany, boast that with a maximum output of 350MW – seven times the size of any existing solar farm in Britain – it will ‘power over 110,00 homes’.
However, they admit it will produce power only about 11 per cent of the time. The output of the nearby Medway gas-fired power station is 735MW, but this is continuous…READ ON
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5905675/Elon-Musk-build-worlds-biggest-battery-Britain-400m-solar-panel-plans.html
who will stop this nonsense?
10
comment in moderation re David Rose/Daily Maily article on Campaigners fighting to block a £400 million plan for a solar energy farm.
1 Jul: Daily Record Scotland: 3000 Scottish households left in crippling debt after solar panel scandal
Homeowners have been left with massive debts after signing up for a UK-Government backed scheme.
by John Ferguson
Homeowners have been left unable to sell their property and saddled with huge debts after signing up for a UK Government-backed scheme to have solar panels fitted.
Rather than save them money, they ended up with even higher electricity bills than before, while committed to 25-year finance agreements for the cost of installation.
Figures for the number of Scottish homes affected have been released for the first time by the Tories in response to a parliamentary question from SNP MP Gavin Newlands…
Cambuslang-based Home Energy and Lifestyle Management were fined 200,000 pounds by the Information Commissioner’s Office last year for makng more than six million nuisance sales calls before crashing into liquidation, having paid just 10,000 pounds of the penalty…
The firm had been part of the UK Government’s Green Deal clean energy strategy, meaning customers believed they were entering in a safe investment that would bring down their bills while tackling global warming…
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/3000-scottish-households-left-crippling-12828354
00
30 Jun: CleanTechnica: Bob Borsh: Tesla Cuts Hit Close To Home
My follow-up report to my last CleanTechnica dispatch — the article (LINK) in which I explained the basics of the my solar array / Powerwall / charging station installation — was supposed to be a show & tell from the Tech Talk Tesla Energy personnel. It was planned at my house for June 23. This would have been a brief presentation by our Tesla Energy Advisor as to the overall installation of our 8.125 kW array and support equipment as well as the advantages of having a Powerwall in the loop and a charging station, for those fortunate enough to have already moved to electric vehicles. I planned on giving rides in my Model S and at least one Model 3 owner was expected to attend.
Well, Wednesday evening before that planned show & tell, I received a brief call from our Energy Advisor Stephen letting us know the news that the entire staff of the office serving Vermont had been cut loose as part of Elon’s 9% staffing reduction. A few were offered relocation to other regions, but by and large, a considerable number of them found themselves unemployed. Needless to say, no Tech Talk for me and the neighbors…
I have been unable to get in touch with our Energy Advisor Stephen since receiving his message last Wednesday. On a lark, I wrote an email to his Tesla address, copying his manager’s Tesla address as well. I fully didn’t expect to hear back from them directly, and I was correct in that assumption. What I did receive was an automated response directing any and all correspondence to another Tesla employee, address provided…
I believe this individual is out of the Boston area, as several emails I had with other system owners in Vermont led me to believe that we would now be under their umbrella, so to speak…
As a Tesla and (former) SolarCity investor, I understand Tesla’s need to consolidate wherever possible. I appreciate the share price rising back into the $350 per share range from it’s recent lows of $250 per share just 10 short weeks ago…
However, a complete elimination of the only Tesla Energy office in the state of Vermont? Vermont’s clients, both real and anticipated, must now be absorbed by another office some 3 hrs away that has its one client list, its own service region, its own quotas to meet, and on and on and on.
What of New Hampshire to our east? Maine? Rural sections of Massachusetts? I don’t know who served them before last week, but does that mean they are serviced by Boston now as well? I fully expected to be able to add to our system by spring of 2019 using the up and coming solar shingles. Just before he was let go, our energy advisor said solar shingles in our region are now two years from reality. As a podcaster I listen to regularly says, “These are decidedly first world problems, folks.”…
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/06/30/tesla-cuts-hit-close-to-home/
10
1 Jul: Infosurhoy: Marta Subat: Facebook Shuts Down Solar-Powered Internet Drone Project: So What Happens Now?
Facebook officially ditches its efforts to deliver high-speed internet via solar-powered drones. The decision reportedly caused 16 employees from the project to lose their jobs…
An update issued by the company revealed that it will continue work on its goal to deliver high-speed internet access to impoverished nations. Moreover, all things related to the design and construction of all future drones will be delegated to third parties instead…
According to analysts, the Aquila project is an idea that is possible with enough support. This means that everything related to the solar-powered drone technology and its goal might have been too ambitious for Facebook to handle on its own. Nevertheless, a majority of people reacted positively to the company’s plan regarding the delivery of high-speed internet access to isolated communities…
“As we’ve worked on these efforts, it’s been exciting to see leading companies in the aerospace industry start investing in this technology too — including the design and construction of new high-altitude aircraft,” wrote Facebook’s Yael Maguire on the blog post. “Given these developments, we’ve decided not to design or build our own aircraft any longer and to close our facility in Bridgwater.”…
http://infosurhoy.com/cocoon/saii/xhtml/en_GB/technology/facebook-shuts-down-solar-powered-internet-drone-project-so-what-happens-now/
of course, FB got a huge amount of MSM PR for this failed project:
29 Jun: BBC: Tech Tent: Facebook’s drone falls to earth
by Rory Cellan-Jones
Two years ago I took a trip to a warehouse in Bridgwater in Somerset to visit a somewhat unlikely outpost of the Facebook empire.
Inside the warehouse was a giant wing – a solar-powered drone designed to stay airborne for three months, beaming an internet connection to people in remote places.
Facebook had snapped up a tiny British firm specialising in solar-powered aircraft a couple of years earlier and that firm was now at the heart of Project Aquila – Facebook’s mission to bring the miracle of connectivity to people in developing countries.
The social network’s head of engineering Jay Parikh had flown over from California to explain the extent of his firm’s ambitions, telling us “our mission is to connect everyone on the planet”…
***The giant drone was even chosen this year by London’s Victoria and Albert museum as the centrepiece of a new exhibition called The Future Starts Here…
But this week the plug was pulled. Facebook announced that the Bridgwater factory had closed and the team building the drone had left the company…
This was revealed a long way down a blog (LINK) that spent most of its time describing the progress made by the project – only to conclude that other companies build these kind of aircraft, so Facebook may as well work with them instead…
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44656872
00
https://theconversation.com/south-east-queensland-is-droughtier-and-floodier-than-we-thought-97860 Moreton Bay
A 1500 year record of river discharge inferred from fluvial-marine sediments in the Australian subtropics
Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology May 2018
DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.05.019
30
it can’t be right as it is published in mainstream peer reveiwed journal
00
behind paywall:
Opinion: Coal giants should educate public about benefits of the resource they mine
Courier Mail – 1 hour ago
They traverse the corridors of power in Canberra, Queensland, NSW and WA seeking assurances or answers about the future of their business…So before all the hippies and southern doctors’ wives decry the little black rock, it is important to note that there are more than 200 tonnes of metallurgical coal in every wind turbine…
1 Jul: Daily Mail: PETER HITCHENS: Inflatable tanks? Perfect for our fake, overblown nation
The Army is thinking of buying a large fleet of inflatable tanks, in the hope of fooling an enemy into believing that we are still a serious military power.
Even if we can find an enemy dim enough to fall for this, it probably won’t work.
Incompetent modern Britain, which has weirdly contrived a shortage of CO2 when everyone else is trying to get rid of it, is quite capable of running out of air when the time comes to pump up the inflatable tanks.
It is working very hard on running out of electricity to drive the pumps, too.
Our mad dogma-driven destruction of coal-fired power stations has left us horribly vulnerable to power cuts.
But the desperate scheme symbolises modern Britain, a country made up of inflatable fakes – easily punctured by a single solid, sharp fact – which only look good from space, or from a Minister’s office…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-5905105/PETER-HITCHINS-Inflatable-tanks-Perfect-fake-overblown-nation.html
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Love your bag ban, mates…NOT. The stupid, it screams.
The last time the left used persuasion or incentives, rather than coercion, is…..NEVER.
The government in the grecery line is the same disaster that the government is everywhere else.
We used to use paper bags. They were made from purpose grown pulpwood trees, that were farmed and continuously renewed, and
recycled paper. They were strong, They were reusable in the household. They recycled themselves in short order if left outside.
They could be worn as a mask if your favorite sports team justified such. They did not asphyxiate children. They stood up well in tha back of your car or on your counter.
Clearly, something that worked that well needed to be fixed by the government. Now, we’ll have reusable bags, a great affront to public health. We’ll need more government to solve the problems for sure. But hey, these folks are here to protect us. We have standardized mandated trash bins. Soon we’ll have standardized, mandated grocery bins, which we’ll put through a mandatory sterilizer at the store before we can enter. Want to pop in for a single item the mate called for? No can do, unless you have your approved bin…just like a fist size bit of trash needs to be in the bin for the one man automated truck to pick up.
When I see the government mandated trash bins lined up on the street, the only thing I can think of is Easter Island. Monuments to a failed culture.
I want my paper grocery bags back…a cheaper, better, more ecologically sound!!!! and healthy solution than government mandated standard reusable bags. What’s reusable is the leftist ideas…they never changes and always fail.
/rant end — time to watch some football.
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How to lose your base….
Well, the football isn’t that competitive.
This blog is an unusual tiny spot in the universe, where open minds can discuss issues.
Most of u are not persuadable most of the time ….which is why electorates are so damn durable.
Election after election, generation after generation, the vote has the same general dimensions,
regardless of the issues of the day or the success or failure of office holders. Even epochal swings
are really just a few percentage points on the margins as at least two thirds of the herd pulled the lever as
blindly as before.
In the US, tho, we’ve had an even that may well move that one or two of a hundred that actually changes.
The spokesman for the president was denied service at a restaurant, because of her political views. Se was then hounded out of an alternative by the owner of the first establishment. Many on the left cheered, and called for public disapproval of politics to be ramped up across the land. Why is this more important than the other outrages we suffer on a continuing basis nowadays.
Because there are some groups, whose members vote mostly on the left, who have in their DNA deep feelings abut being denied serice at a commercial facility. I firmly believe that one or two per hundred will look deeply into their own soul, in non-public introspection, and decide they no longer want to support a movement that supports public discrimination against “the other”. Anyone who as ever been personally victimized by prejudicial discrimination for race or religion….or viewpoint, probably understands that this touches a part of us that can change our attitude about the world like few other things.
I sense thos few percentage points moving quietly away from a movement that is becoming more and more about prejudicial exclusion. The polls will not show this readily, its so personal, but the ballot box will.
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Morgan Stanley advisors sentenced to prison fior wind energy fraud.
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1JO39C
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Original story here:
https://nypost.com/2018/01/31/ex-morgan-stanley-advisers-used-clients-cash-to-fund-wind-farm-project-feds/
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