Earthhour is “The Largest Global Movement for the Environment”*
SBS tells us that it started in Australia (sorry), is observed by millions, and now occurs in 187 countries. (Since only one person has to turn off one light to qualify, I want to know which seven countries didn’t?)
To mark Earth Hour this year, WWF asked the public to make a “promise for the planet” – a small step in their own lives to help reduce their environmental footprint – such as refusing plastic cutlery or carrying a reusable coffee cup. While these promises are small individually, WWF stated that “millions of people taking these actions together will have a massive, powerful impact”.
Which day was EarthHour Day in Australia — Spot the difference:
Was this EarthDay?
The Australian National Electricity Grid last weekend.
Or this?
The Australian National Electricity Grid last weekend (the other day).
Source: Aneroid 24th March and Aneroid 25th March.
Notice the Earth-saving electricity dip at 8:30pm when millions turn off their lights!
Megagrams of carbon was saved. (Maybe.)
Take it from WWF — this is the sum total effect of all the voters that care about climate change.
There were similar successes in California (WUWT) and in the UK (Paul Homewood).
The word you are looking for is “noise”.
Like every carbon scheme…
PS: The top graph was Earth Hour Day in Australia.
_____________
*It must be true, the website says so.
Start an eco movement…eat some prunes…he he….
About what the whole mess is worth……
161
I’d rather think raisins, raisin money from taxes, raisin money through levies, raisin money from targets, raisin money from taxpayers, raisin noise about their crusade, raisin the fear factor over nothing, raisin green legislation, raisin the cost of living, raisin the obligations to foreign powers, raisin confusion over the whole ruse.
Yep a whole lot of raisin that with bitter irony has lowered NOTHING!
140
I want to see Virtue Signaling vs $Cost.
40
Of course the true purpose of earth hour is not to actually use less power but to simply apply another level of control over the low IQ masses.
Its the same concept with how we give all of our private information to google etc and how willingly hand over our DNA to people to see where our ancestors came from
240
Hello lemmings. Did you enjoy that little jump off the rock? Did it make you feel excited?
Here is a bigger rock you can try, that is even more exciting. Careful now, we don’t want you getting too carried away.
We want you fit, and healthy, and ready for tomorrows’ little cliff jump …
100
I saved the Planet! See me virtue signal big time.Planet saved by people who care. Feels so good to have that brain-dead feelygood sheep mentality. Lead on!
30
you’re alive!
00
Actually, I did not even know it was Earth Day. I did not turn off anything. So sorry.
200
My daughter told me one of her friends was “doing earth hour”, which fortuitously reminded me to turn on all the outside lights I could.
220
I run all the outside lights I can every night from before dark until after daylight every night of the year. They must hate me for sure.
I do it as a matter of safety. I want anyone approaching any door to know they can be seen. Nuts to earth hour.
170
“… together will have a massive, powerful impact””
Don’t take it from me, take it from WWF. (Quote added).
201
The most they’re accomplishing is the waste of their time and encouraging others to do the same.
80
The other way of looking at it, is that it was physically less powerful. That was the whole point. I find the juxtaposition to be quite ironic.
30
I wonder if they “saved” more energy than they expended in advertising ?
70
just more grist from the hyperbole mill, bit like the Tahtra doctors “skyrocketing air pollution” while he enjoys some of the cleanest air on the planet.
30
😮
30
Well one of the countries that didn’t turn a light off would be North Korea – but that’s probably because virtually nobody has got a light to turn off.
220
Yes North Korea are the only ones taking this super cereal and an actual example of where progressive sustainability can take you.
50
Be careful about what you say about the Dear Leader. Kim Jong Un is very serious, when it comes to keeping his people in the dark, in matters that might upset them.
70
How is that different from any Green leader?
30
The video is somewhat dated but likely remains pertinent: North Korea at night (link). The government of South Australia can only wish . . . so far.
20
i have a comment in moderation on “Unthreaded” which is a reply to my comment #40 re:
25 Mar: The Advocate (Fairfax): Tathra bushfire ‘The New Normal’ by Dr Matthew Knott.
i was clarifying that “Knott” was actually “Nott”, using the following ABC pieces, which I’ll now post here, because they will get lost when they come out of moderation, and they both provide laughs:
2011: ABC South East NSW: Heaven and Earth – Fact or Fiction?
By Bill Brown
The first interview is with Dr Matthew Nott, a local Orthopaedic Surgeon, a former Bega Valley Citizen of the Year, and the founder of Clean Energy for Eternity, an environmental group based in South East NSW.
Dr Nott outlines that he was initially impressed by the book and its convincing argument that, if true, would mean that he need entirely re-consider his position on climate change and actions that should be taken.
However he raises concerns about the reliability of the method used by Professor Plimer, and points to some specific examples which he says raise fundamental questions about the credibility of Professor Plimer’s views on climate change…CHECK OUT THE REST
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/07/05/2617188.htm
2008: ABC South East NSW: Matthew Nott opens new renewable energy system at ***Jindabyne Surf Club
By Bill Brown
You don’t normally see a surf lifesaving club on a lake in alpine country, and you don’t usually associate orthopaedic surgeons with environmental campaigning, but both came together in Jindabyne last week to launch an environmentally sustainable club house…
Then on New Years Day, 2006, Matthew Nott, a member of the Tathra Surf Club and a local orthopaedic surgeon, was on surf patrol at Tathra. His wife had bought him Tim Flannery’s “The Weather Makers” for Christmas, a gift he now says his wife may never forgive herself.
Much was to follow from this gift, including the building of an environmentally sustainable surf club by a lake in the Snowy Mountains…
“I was expecting it to be a very quiet morning being New Year’s Day,” said Matthew Nott, “and I got up to about page five and then this hot westerly wind hit Tathra, and it was the hottest temperature I’ve ever experienced I think. It got up to 42 degrees at the surf club, which was the hottest temperature by four degrees ever recorded there. And someone in Tathra recorded 47 degrees. Now that might have had absolutely nothing to do with climate change, but it was a bad day to start reading “The Weather Makers”.”
Matthew finished the book and immediately was inspired to do something about climate change. His wife advised he do more than just read one book about it, so he spent months researching everything he could find about climate change: the science from all sides, and the politics from all sides…
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2008/05/08/2239141.htm
30
I wonder if the doc observed, or initiated, any hazard reduction burns just west of his surf club? I suspect not. And he experienced those hotter days back in 2006! And the winds.
Cheers,
Dave B
40
If we were all Green Sheeple and disconnected from the mains would that not create a problem for the grid controllers? A power station somewhere would have to be isolated out for a while. Coal fired units would have to be left running at full power in case they were needed again at short notice. Perhaps I’m not understanding something here.
Ideally, a coal-fired unit wants a steady load so it can be can run without adjustments 24/7. If the plant operators turn a unit off and let it go cold it then takes 72 hours and a lot of kindling (diesel) to get it hot enough to burn coal again. Earth Hour would be a wretched nuisance if people actually took it seriously.
110
Yes, the coal fired plants keep running because the actual effect of Earth Day is barely noticeable. Were it important then they would have equipment on standby ready for the surge in demand when the ‘hour of darkness’ has passed.
Incidently coal fired units can load follow, they have for years. Nor does it take 72 hours to restart – that is the extreme for a brown coal fired plant of the old fashioned type. Less than 24 hours is more likely. You could fire up a boiler in 5-6 hours using diesel and it has been known for that to be the case with a black coal fired unit left ready for the restart.
70
Graeme is right, and you are close enough John.
It is a regular occurrence in the process of power generation. The generators generate more power than required, and then get rid of the excess. In hydro, the excess is used to pump water back uphill, into the the reservoir. The same principle applies in coal generation, although I am not familiar with the process.
40
I quoted 72 hrs for a cold start becos my son is a chemist at Mt Piper, NSW and after a major refit they all have to work long shifts cos it takes so long to get back on line. During minor maintenance or low-demand periods the furnaces are kept warm so they can be rapidly ramped-up. Obviously there are many variables. Currently they are mining through some wet coal that clogs up conveyors, pulverisers etc and it burns less well.
20
John PAK mentions this, and I’ll get to a little later.
Something like this is a thing of the past with the new HELE USC plants.
For so long now, all we have heard is how coal fired power is ‘yesterdays’ technology’, and nothing, ‘nothing’, is further from the truth.
Coal fired power generation technology is moving ahead in leaps and bounds, far surpassing any technology for wind or solar power, and leading the way are the Germans in fact.
They have major problems with the variability of wind power especially, and they have actually found ways around dealing with that, as (again as we are falsely told) there was the perception that coal fired power cannot ramp up or down to cope with the sudden loss or gain of wind power. So, very cleverly, they worked on it, as this link explains.
This is for the Neurath plant, Units F and G, each Unit of 1100MW.
They always had problems with brown coal burning, and the Germans solved that with their Neurath F and G Units. Okay then, take this link to the schematic image of One of the Units at that plant.
Look at the top right there, where the coal comes to the plant via rail. Just follow the black line across a little and then down a bit to the Coal Bin, and from there, down a little further to the Lignite Mills, where the coal is crushed (pulverised) to the consistency of very fine talcum powder, and from there it is injected into the furnace/boiler, here called the Steam Generator, just to the left of the mills there as you look at that image. Now see the other side of that Steam Generator the blue rectangle called the Air Heater, where there is superheat. This has a takeoff point to the blue area surrounding that Steam Generator near to the injection points for the coal. The powdered coal is heated prior to injection to heat off any and all moisture inherent in brown coal especially.
You’ll hear all sorts of cr@p about coal fired power especially from those with agendas, attempting to lead the gullible, who pant after every word.
Be fully aware that the advances in coal fired power are going ahead, without even blinking at those who refer to it as ancient technology.
Coal fired power is alive and very very healthy, except for where greens and their fellow traveller journalists hold sway.
When all of this finally gets out, there’s going to be a whole lot of people asking a whole lot of questions, and wanting to hear the truth instead of rumour and lies and fakery.
Tony.
90
Always enjoy your contributions.
Mt Piper is 1980s tech. They have a plot set aside for units 3 & 4 but no-one in their right mind is going to fund a high temp, high pressure 2018 design in the present political environment even though there is plenty of good black coal available.
Re coal being wet,- something seems to happen to coal once it has been wet even though they dry it out before use. They keep it in a mega shed to keep rain off it at Piper but that’s not much use when the stuff comes out of the mine wringing wet.
10
Coal (and other steam turbine) plants can load follow by running the boilers at the high load point and venting steam that is in excess of demand requirements. It does wastes some fuel but it does allow reasonably fast load following.
Funnily enough, the Canadian CANDU reactors do this all the time (largely due to having to cope with the large installation of windfarms in Ontario) but in the US, almost all the PWR and BWR reactors aren’t (or weren’t, at my last reading) allowed to do this because this capability wasn’t certified with the NRC when the reactors were commissioned…
10
It’s all a bit academic isn’t it? Anthony Watts reported: “In California, #EarthHour failed to even register a blip in electricity reduction” (link). Thankfully, we are not “all Green Sheeple”—I doubt that any body of people has ever been all anything, at least since the onset of the Axial Age.
80
across the Tasman, the craziness continues, and the MSM laps it up:
26 Mar: NZ Herald: Activists plan blockade of annual oil industry conference in Wellington
About 200 people are expected to set up a blockade to disrupt an oil industry conference in Wellington tomorrow.
Activist groups from around the country are gathering in the capital this week to protest the New Zealand Petroleum Conference.
“We need to take bold, collective action now to prevent catastrophic climate change and as such we’ll be getting in the way of the oil and gas industry by blockading their annual summit in Wellington,” said Oil Free Wellington spokesman James Barber.
“The reason why people are putting themselves in the way is because it’s a really important issue. The idea is that by getting in the way of business as usual for oil companies and their exploration conference where they plan to grow their business, we’re sending a strong message about the determination and the steadfastness of our opposition.”
A number of different groups have travelled to Wellington to hold a rally for climate justice outside the conference at the TSB Arena on Tuesday.
“The science is clear, to prevent catastrophic climate change we cannot burn all the fossil fuels which we’ve already found, let alone explore for more,” Barber said.
“The world is already struggling to adapt to a changing climate. The Government needs to stop handing out exploration permits, stop all existing exploration and drilling, and provide for a just transition for workers in the industry.”
Barber said a “just” transition meant the Government would provide support for anyone who would be affected by the end of the oil and gas industry, so it would not “destroy these communities”.
“The solutions to climate change must include and benefit the people most affected by it – indigenous peoples, people of colour and those struggling on low incomes. Those most affected by climate change are the least responsible for it.”
Barber said the activists wanted to see change not only for the environment, but for people living in poverty and dealing with the effects of colonisation.
“We want to see a world where these problems are solved holistically.”
Barber said organisers of the protest were preparing to provide support for anyone arrested or “treated roughly” by police at the rally, but hoped it would not be necessary.
The blockade would be “completely non violent”.
Other groups joining the protest include Climate Justice Taranaki, Te Ara Whatu, Pacific Panthers, 350 Aotearoa, Pacific Climate Warriors, Auckland Peace Action, Peace Action Wellington, People Against Prisons Aotearoa, Unions Wellington, Oil Free Otago, Catholic Workers, Indigenous Peoples Uprising and Te Ikaroa.
“We’re shocked that the summit is being held in a council-owned venue, particularly since Mayor Justin Lester has previously committed to ethical guidelines for events taking place in council venues,” Barber said…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12020159
40
14 organisations needed to supply about 200 people? Who called them fringe dwellers?
10
Id advocate a hose…a few of them no doubt need a wash…
00
Is “holistic” an abbreviation of “whole of government”?
00
“Holistic” is NewZuld-speak for Holy Shtick [Batman]. Or is it Hokey Shtick [Mann-man]?
Our (sic) RadioNZ website carried an article yesterday re the massive crowd of “more than 200” protesters which showed up, dressed in cotton / nylon / polyprop / PVC clothing holding professionally-made signs (produced by plastic printers?). 350 NZ executive director, Niamh O’Flynn, said “We’ve seen our hottest summer on record [which, according to NIWA’s adjustomatic algorithm, was a mere fraction of a degree above the last record set in 1935] we’re seeing an increase in natural disasters and cyclones [2017’s cyclone season was below ‘normal’ as is this year’s too… so far] and we really are on the edge of climate change.”
The “edge” of CCC™? WTF? Oops, I mean, WWF.
20
I have a comment in moderation re Dr. Matthew Nott/ABC.
10
I restrained from commenting because I thought he might still have been living in Tathra.
00
talk about living in la la land!
John Abraham gets plent of flak in the comments (24 at time of posting – extend to read them all), some of it for allegedly misrepresenting Caldeira and so on:
26 Mar: Guardian: Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States
Wind, solar, and storage could meet 90–100% of America’s electricity needs
by John Abraham
(Dr John Abraham is a professor of thermal sciences. He researches in climate monitoring and renewable energy generation for the developing world. His energy development work has extended to Africa, South America and Asia)
The two energy sources I am most interested in are wind and solar power; however, there are other sources that have great potential.
Some people doubt how much wind and solar can supply to a country’s electricity grid. This is a particularly challenging question to answer in part because both solar power and wind power fluctuate in both space and time. We all know solar panels work well during the day, when the sun shines – they don’t work so well at night. And wind turbines only send electrons when the wind is blowing.
Fortunately, these two sources of energy fluctuate in ways that complement each other…
So, can these complementing variations help balance out the power that the two technologies can provide?
This question was addressed in a very recent paper published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science (LINK). The author list included Dr. Ken Caldeira, who is extremely well known for his years of work in environmental science and energy.
The authors analyzed 36 years of hourly weather data (1980–2015) in the US. They calculated the available wind and solar power over this time period and also included the electrical demand in the US and its variation throughout the year.
With this information, the researchers considered two scenarios. In scenario 1, they imagined wind and solar installations that would be sufficient to supply 100% of the US electrical needs. In the second scenario, the installations would be over-designed; capable of providing 150% of the total U.S. electrical need. But the authors recognize that just because a solar panel or a wind turbine can provide all our energy, it doesn’t mean that will happen in reality…
The point is, the use of clean energy to power an entire country (or a group of countries) is achievable. It’s no longer viable to say “we can’t.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/mar/26/study-wind-and-solar-can-power-most-of-the-united-states
from comments:
mountainrunnermum: Ken Caldeira has written a blog article about the paper (LINK)
John Egan: What about the winter?
You talk about how wind and solar complement each other,
but there is no mention of winter?
In case you didn’t notice, maximum potential insolation in winter is less than half summer levels…READ ON
TigerRepellingRock: This study has been severely misreported here…etc
31
the paradox of “climate action”:
26 Mar: Bloomberg: One of World’s Dirtiest Oil Sources Wants to Go Green
By Jim Efstathiou Jr and Kevin Orland
One of most aggressive campaigns to fight global warming is happening in a Canadian province. There’s just one problem: the same place is also home to some of the dirtiest oil in the world.
Alberta is boosting its use of renewable energy, closing power plants that burn coal and in January increased its tax on carbon emissions by 50 percent, moves that will help Canada curb emissions under the global Paris climate agreement.
***However, the province is also increasing output from its vast reserves of oil sands, a gooey fossil fuel that produces more than twice as much carbon dioxide during extraction and processing than the North American average…
Alberta’s newly increased carbon tax affects coal and natural gas-fired power plants, but doesn’t apply to its $36 billion oil-extraction industry.
“The oil industry and the government of Alberta were pretty happy to throw the coal industry under the bus because it’s less important to our economy,” said Ian Hussey of the Parkland Institute, a research center at the University of Alberta…
The province in December held its first auction for renewable energy and is preparing to shutter six coal power plants. Its carbon tax on transportation and heating fuels jumped to C$30 ($23) a metric ton on Jan. 1, and promptly spurred a coal-to-gas fuel switch in Alberta, according to a Feb. 14 report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
***But in terms of environmental benefits, it’s a wash, said Hussey. The reduced emissions from phasing out coal power are “almost exactly the same” as the increases he expects to see from increased oil production.
Alberta’s strategy strikes a “pragmatic” balance after decades of denial and inaction, Shannon Phillips, the province’s minister of environment and parks, said in an interview. “Carbon pricing is the most market-friendly and most flexible means of dealing with the issue.”…
There’s no way to underestimate the oil sector’s importance. Alberta has the third-largest petroleum reserves in the world and gross revenue from the oil sands were C$36 billion in 2016. Production is projected to grow to 3.67 million barrels a day by 2030, up 53 percent from 2.4 million barrels in 2016, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers…
Places like California and Norway are facing similar issues. While Norway is Western Europe’s largest oil producer and the world’s third-largest gas exporter, it gets about 97 percent of its electricity from hydropower and is the world leader in electric vehicle sales, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
And in California, the fourth-biggest U.S. oil producer, the state government has set a goal of cutting emissions 40 percent by 2030…
Back in Alberta, officials must walk a fine line.
“There are always going to be voices that are asking for more action on climate change,” said Phillips. “That’s fine
11
Pat
IIRC
“One of World’s Dirtiest Oil Sources Wants to Go Green”
That is the provincial government
The rest of the province not so much
00
***no noticeable complaints from industry? well, not until this long list of B’berg CAGW gate-keeping writers finally get around to writing ****Some of the biggest energy users remain concerned ETC:
26 Mar: Bloomberg: Europe’s $38 Billion Carbon Market Is Finally Doing Its Job
By Jeremy Hodges, Ewa Krukowska, and Mathew Carr; With assistance by Brian Parkin, and Anna Shiryaevskaya
Europe’s $38 billion a year carbon market is finally starting to work the way it was intended, reining in pollution with a minimum of squealing from industry.
Thirteen years after it was created to limit carbon-dioxide emissions, prices for the allowances are rising. European Union policymakers have enacted measures expected to keep the cost of pollution on an upward trajectory through 2030, prompting hedge funds that abandoned the market to pile back in.
“For a five-year-plus period, this market was in the desert,” said Per Lekander, a fund manager at Lansdowne Partners U.K. LLP in London. “What’s happened over the past five months is the investment community is getting behind it again and putting on positions.”…
From automaker Volkswagen AG to RWE AG, which is Germany’s largest power generator, industry is cleaning up its smokestacks by turning toward renewables and bracing for a time when coal plants are regulated out of existence. Some are buying before allowances get even more expensive.
All this is happening ***without noticeable complaints from industry in part because policymakers from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May have made it clear they want to phase out coal within the next decade, slashing greenhouse gases…
It’s also a good sign for the global effort to rein in climate change, showing that market mechanisms and government policy can persuade industry to step away from fossil fuels in a way that doesn’t create turmoil in the broader economy…
“We are very much in favor of the European Emissions Trading System,” said Klaus Schaefer, chief executive officer of the German power generator Uniper SE. “In order to deliver the CO2 reductions that we all agreed to in Europe, you will have to see higher prices.”…
Carbon trading wasn’t an immediate success. Europe’s permits surged to more than 29 euros a ton in 2006 and 2008, only to plunge more than 90 percent after the financial crisis hobbled industry and helped create a surplus of the pollution rights…
EU emission allowances are the best performing energy commodity this year, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. They’ve surged 57 percent to as much as 13.04 euros for each ton emitted on March 22 on the ICE Futures Europe exchange…
Higher carbon prices drive up the cost of using hard coal and lignite to run power plants…
Jan Kresnik, a portfolio manager at broker Belektron, said prices of 30 euros a ton or more “could be reachable.” BNEF estimates it will reach 32 euros by 2023…
All this is in step with the ideas that percolated over the past two decades from economist Richard Sandor, father of both the modern carbon market and interest-rate futures and derivatives on the Chicago Board of Trade…
****Some of the biggest energy users remain concerned about the upward drift in prices. Steelmakers especially blame the carbon market for reducing their competitiveness. At Britain’s EEF group representing manufacturers, Roz Bulleid, who is head of climate policy, supports emissions trading but says her members are “increasingly jaded” about the impact.
“The original intention to deliver emissions reductions at least cost has been replaced by a focus on achieving a certain carbon price,” Bulleid said. “There are a number of overlapping policies in this area muddying investment signals. Overseas competitors are not facing the same policy costs.”…
The European Steel Association, which represents companies including ArcelorMittal and Thyssenkrupp AG, said higher carbon prices create “additional problems” for an industry suffering with increasing competition from Asian manufacturers.
“We need profitability, and for that carbon prices are not helping,” said Axel Eggert, director-general of the Brussels-based steel industry group. “They are just sucking out the small profits our companies are making.”…
Even so, the broader response of business to higher carbon prices has been surprisingly muted — and even supportive. Britain’s main business lobby group, the CBI, believes “a strong European carbon price has the best potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the lowest-cost way,” according to Michelle Hubert, head of energy and climate at the London-based group…
At RWE, which depends on coal for most of its power generation capacity, CEO Markus Krebber shrugged off this year’s surge in carbon prices, saying “we are financially hedged until the end of 2022.” …
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-26/europe-s-38-billion-carbon-market-is-finally-starting-to-work
11
Germany is already importing a significant and rising portion of its steel. As time goes by they will be importing more finished products as it is impossible for an economy hobbled by the high cost of intermittent power supply to compete with an economy that is using demand responsive coal and nuclear generation.
https://www.trade.gov/steel/countries/pdfs/2017/q3/imports-germany.pdf
Germany is well on the way to becoming South Australia. If only they could get their wind and solar generation up to 39% market share rather than the paltry 14% currently achieved. It appears their trade surplus peaked in 2016 but the down trend not long enough to show a true picture.
https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/balance-of-trade
20
It isn’t about doing something. It is about showing you have good intentions. A virtue signaling without effect, consequence, or real personal cost. All fully consistent with the basic premises of postmodernism in which only the personal subjective can be known. Then even that cannot really be known unless it is the result of collective subjectivity.
Reality is presumed to be simply a social construct about which nothing can be known to be either true nor false beyond collective agreement. Disagreement is to be prohibited at all costs. Up to and including the extinction of self and the destruction of all values. It is the ultimate negation of existence fulfilled by the worship of nothingness.
120
Lionell,
Reality, as you certainly know, escapes more than the climate change fanatics. It largely escapes the world of politics as the recent 3,000 plus page omnibus spending bill demonstrates — at least it demonstrates failure to grasp reality to those of us who pay attention. For the rest, well I’m not sure what they’re thinking but it looks like business as usual, “Preserve my votes in the next election.”
Republicans continue to charge around, RINO style like a rhinoceros in a china shop. Pun intended. 🙁
70
Hey, Roy! Remember the ’60’s? We had a saying then: “Reality is for people who can’t handle drugs!”
40
What? There were ’60’s? Who knew?
30
What is that other saying, “If you remember the ’60s then you weren’t there.”
30
I suggest the old saying:
Those who can, do.
Those who can’t, teach.
To which I have added:
Those who can’t teach, manage teachers.
Those who can’t manage teachers, go into politics.
I believe the situation is driven by what I call the Inverse Peter Principle.
In any bureaucratic system, people are promoted inversely proportional to their competency to do the job. If allowed to continue long enough, the most incompetent will be running the bureaucracy. The truly competent will have escaped as soon as they discover the rules of the game. It follows logically that a bureaucracy cannot do anything except continue to exist, consume resources desperately needed elsewhere, and make it difficult to impossible for the truly competent to get anything productive done.
See any governmental agency, including public schools, for instructive detail.
100
Lionell,
Are you trying to say things are Petering out? 😉
30
or maybe people are skeptical, dont accept “weve always done it that way”, and dont want to be spoon fed what to think.
30
Some people, maybe. For the rest, just look at the recent history of the world…appalling.
The last two evenings we watched ‘Dr Zhivago’; a harrowing reminder of the Russian Revolution and its consequences.
21
Gosh! I’m in moderation! Mentioned the film (movie) based on the novel by Boris Pasternak and how it showed the consequences of the forced groupthink.
31
I love the fun of some names. Pasternak sounds lovely. However it is the Russian for parsnip. A bit like Jasper Carrot.
50
I think I know the file you are referring to; Russian revolution and civil war (1990 film). Groupthink is a good explanation as to why the leftist cancer is now being allowed to continue to destroy the West. One day everyone will look back and wonder why more people didn’t see the warning signs.
10
One thing does always happen. Countless hours of time and energy — the human kind — are wasted. Think about it. What might be accomplished in peoples lives or for the betterment of society if all that wasted time and energy was put to better use?
Are there no real and important problems they might tackle instead of this BS?
60
Hi Roy,
Are you advocating for the reintroduction of the treadmill as a source of “renewable” power generation?
If you are, I can give you a good price on a bunch of second-hand of horse whips.
30
You might be onto something. They’ve certainly tried everything else without succeeding except in their dreams in the middle of the night. Maybe a more direct approach…
10
Well the early flying doctor radio sets were pedal powered.
So why not mobile phones?
10
You have to wonder at the utterly useless and childish virtue signalling, so popular among the Greens.
Turn your lights off and on together, once a year for one hour in 8760 hours. Just to show you care. Simon says.
Now vote Green.
Seriously, if you care, leave your lights off. Teach the world a lesson.
80
As the old joke goes, I gave up chocolate, alcohol, smoking and sex. It was the worst hour of my life.
120
Sounds great, we’ll call it Puritan Hour because we know whats best for everyone and they don’t.
In that hour together we’ll cure the obesity epidemic, alcoholism, the ice epidemic, fake news, road rage, online bullying, domestic violence, speeding, gender inequality, racism and most importantly FREE SPEECH.
60
How about the good old aussie WOWSER?
10
Wowser: “We only want social evils removed”. And they—a great many people in the late nineteenth century—knew whereof they spoke. The notion helped gain women the vote in South Australia in 1894. And the public voted for 6 o’clock closing of hotel bars in 1915. Prohibition, a proposal emerging from North America, entered the lexicon as an element of post-millennialism, much as CAGW emerged (more or less) from conservationism. Apocalyptic passions have a very long history. Still, it is somewhat curious that CAGW, labelled “climate change” by enthusiasts, has survived as long as it has.
30
Easy. It’s the biggest money earner in the world, $1Trillion a year, just behind the steel industry itself at $1.5Trillion. How many people now work full time for the CAGW industry? I would guess at over a million, not counting so called Green politicians who depend on it for votes.
I have yet to hear a Green politician who knew anything about science so it is closer to Druidism. Richard Di Natalie says he could write a 500 page thesis on Climate Change. Really? This is a man who says Whyalla could still be allowed to make steel if they do not use coal. It’s all about not science but The Science. Green Science is different.
50
I don’t smoke. Cuts into my drinking time.
10
‘Watermelons’ aside, the rank-and-file are totally lacking in self-awareness, they are so earnest yet don’t realise how ridiculously inconsequential their behaviour is.
30
In British Columbia Canada the provinces largest electrical utility also government run, BC Hydro actually saw an uptick in electrical usage during earth hour. This from a province having the biggest population base situated in the southwest of the province, full of dreamers and progressives.
60
I quite enjoy the uselessness of Earth Hour. It mimics the ridiculousness of relying on renewable energy to power a 24/7 global society. Surely if they, the environmentalists, were serious about making a true impact then it would be Earth Day or perhaps Earth Week. But no, they limit it to one hour out of an entire year to make a statement.
The effect of that statement is simply that the one true option to fossil fuels for our world energy needs is to simply do without, and live in darkness once the sun sets. Sadly, the economics of RE dictate that that’s really the only option available to them.
I bought a bottle of bourbon last night during Earth Hour although I did not open it. I think that tonight I shall pour myself some and toast to the feckless self-righteousness of this environmental movement being the abject failure it is.
60
AZ:
How about champagne or other sparkling wine that releases CO2 bubbles? Must stick a bottle in the refrigerator for tonight.
50
Graeme … I’ve been with an Italian for 15 years but surprisingly, I can’t stand bubbly whether it’s Prosecco or champagne. We’ve been attending tasting classes at our local Total Wine store lately, both rum and whiskey, which has been a nice change of pace from our usual wine drinking habits. Honestly, I can’t think of anything I’m not too fond of outside the bubbly world of sparkling wine (although the recent acquisition of a bottle of Italian Amaro is proving to be … ahem … something of a challenge with its intense bitterness.)
50
It’s odd, people know how compressible and soluble CO2 is, how easily warm water releases CO2. Some even know the CO2 in the ocean is 50x the amount in the air but if temperature and CO2 go up together, it is the CO2 warming the ocean? What an odd conclusion. This is the exact reverse of what everyone knows to be true. Green thinking. Evils of industrialization and the motor car.
I heard a comedian on the QM2 discussing Scotsmen. He said there is an inner depressive in every Scotsman. He was strolling along the Golden Mile in Edinburgh on a beautiful day and smiling when an older scotsman approach, looked up at the blue sky, looked at him and said “we’ll pay for this tomorrow”.
Is this the reason some people are so ready to believe that the good times must be followed by bad, that every labour saving device is inherently evil and that the motor car must bring devastation. Man made Global Warming is God’s punishment on the Godless? Meanwhile your warm beer goes flat.
20
It’s also odd that the CAGW has morphed into the CO2 exclusively heating the oceans. Selectively as well. So the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef is unnatural, caused by warmer water, caused by Global Warming which is caused by coal CO2 which just heats that bit of water. What an extraordinary string of ridiculous claims to make a connection and people take this seriously? Even Barack Obama, who worried that it would be still there for his grandchildren and blamed the alleged disaster on all Australians but especially a conservative government. Julia Gillard would never have let it happen.
50
I have been waiting for the war on carbonated beverages for some time, but it never comes.
What about Sodastreams? a weaponised consumer attack on the climate if ever there was one.
If you want to attack two stream of liberal hysteria, the surely CO2 charged air pistols and air rifles would be a win win if banned.
So many directions to lash out in and so little time.
20
It seems John Cook is at it again with Lew. and a University of Cambridge alumni this time, advancing his academic credentials.
“Here is a new resource about the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change – The Consensus Handbook written by John Cook, Sander van der Linden, Edward Maibach and Stephan…
https://t.co/mvKFZufc5A?amp=1
C/o https://mobile.twitter.com/denial101x/status/978330780417122310
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Such a waste of time and effort. Perhaps our very lovely hostess will be inspired to write a companion to the Skeptic’s Handbook, which will provide inoculation for those who might be tempted to read Mr. Cook’s latest attempt to prop up his false narrative.
50
Hey, warmies, take a walk on the dark side…do d’ do d’ do-d’-do-do.
40
… ummm … I can just see Herr Reichsfuhrer J Cook in mini-skirt tights and heels …
splutter
… with matching hand bag …
cough
… chased round the table by Stephan …
ROTFL
You just never know what those two get up to …
40
…Well Cook does like to dress up.
50
Indeed. Odd fellow.
50
I think Cook’s official title is kleiner Funktionärsführer.
50
Lest we forget, how to Cook a consensus.
http://www.populartechnology.net/2013/06/cooks-97-consensus-study-game-plan.html?m=1
20
Earth-hourers will probably leap on to this as well
“Congenital Innumeracy”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/03/26/congenital-innumeracy/
10
Proves that global warming alarmists are dangerously hopeless in economics, mathematics, physics and chemistry. So dangerous they would sacrifice the lives of millions of people for the sake of reducing CO2 in the atmosphere by some fictitious amount.
10
A good CO2 morning at WUWT
“Remember when we had to reduce CO2 emissions to zero to save the planet? NCAR says – Never mind.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/03/26/remember-when-we-had-to-reduce-co2-emissions-to-zero-to-save-the-planet-ncar-says-never-mind/
“#ParisAgreement climate accord fails – CO2 emissions growing worldwide- Trump vindicated for pulling out”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/03/26/parisagreement-climate-accord-fails-co2-emissions-growing-worldwide-trump-vindicated-for-pulling-out/
10
Well, what’s wrong with it? Just because it’s an important attribute to enable joining the Green party doesn’t make it anything to poke fun at.
How else are they going to get their policies, pronouncements and projections into such horrible shape?
00
LOL, if that is all it takes, if that is all the cult leaders are prepared to ask of their devoted flock, then fossil fuel industry shareholders haven’t much to worry about.
30
Somehow this illusion seems appropriate:
A tussle for supremacy between left and right halves of your brain is why yellow dots disappear, staring at the green one …
“An article by John Whitfield in Nature News, “A brain in doubt leaves it out,” explains the phenomenon:
https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/why-do-the-dots-disappear/
10
The first earth hour, all but two houses on my street went dark. This year, none of them did.
So we’re making progress.
30
behind paywall:
China’s Cubbie Station owner in push to buy Liddell coal plant
The Australian-10 hours ago
The Chinese conglomerate that controls Australia’s largest cotton farm has approached Malcolm Turnbull’s office to express interest in buying the Liddell … Cubbie Station cotton farm in southwest Queensland, wanted to invest in clean-coal technology and become a player in the Australian energy market…
“Following the recent announcement by AGL that they intended to close the Liddell coal-fired power station in coming years, I thought I would drop you a quick note regarding a client of ours who would definitely be prepared to invest in latest-technology, low-emission, coal-fired power,” Mr Farr-Jones wrote…
50
It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Will AGL now rush to blow up the power station to block a competitor from buying it?
30
Has anyone got any insight on this climate index for actuaries or the source or pedigree of their data & methodology for quantifying climate risk?
The graph in particular that purports to show an increase extremities since the turn of the century.
http://actuariesclimateindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Spring-2017-Press-Release-ENG.pdf
00
We are not doomed any more from death by co2 the fantastic invention will save the day.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/03/26/congenital-innumeracy/
We could just plant more trees but trees need co2 to thrive. Oh the dilemma.
00
remember this piece by David Wallace-Wells in the New York Mag?
“The Uninhabitable Earth” is a New York magazine article by American journalist ***David Wallace-Wells published on July 9, 2017. The long-form article depicts a worst-case scenario of what might happen in the near-future due to global warming…
The story received immediate criticism from the climate change community along two fronts: the piece is too pessimistic; or it contains some factual errors. The NGO Climate Feedback summarized reviews by dozens of professional scientists and concluded the majority of the reviewers tagged the article as: Alarmist, Imprecise/Unclear, Misleading…
here he goes again:
25 Mar: New York Magazine: The Paris Climate Accords Are Looking More and More Like Fantasy
By David Wallace-Wells
Remember Paris? It was not even two years ago that the celebrated climate accords were signed — defining two degrees of global warming as a must-meet target and rallying all the world’s nations to meet it — and the returns are already dispiritingly grim.
This week, the International Energy Agency announced that carbon emissions grew 1.7 percent in 2017…
Even before the new spike, not a single major industrial nation was on track to fulfill the commitments it made in the Paris treaty…
There are 195 signatories, of which only the following are considered even “in range” of their Paris targets: Morocco, Gambia, Bhutan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, India, and the Philippines. This puts Donald Trump’s commitment to withdraw from the treaty in a useful perspective; in fact, his spite may ultimately prove perversely productive, since the evacuation of American leadership on climate seems to have mobilized China, eager to claim the mantle and far more consequential to the future of the planet because of its size and relative poverty, to adopt a much more aggressive posture toward climate. Of course those renewed Chinese commitments are, at this point, just rhetorical, too…
Were each of those 195 countries to suddenly shape up, dramatically cutting back on fossil fuels to bring emissions in line with targets, that would still be not nearly enough to hit even Paris’s quite scary target. We don’t just need to draw down fossil fuels to stay below two degrees; doing so also requires “negative emissions” — extracting carbon from the atmosphere, essentially buying back some amount of existing fossil-fuel pollution through a combination of technological and agricultural tools…
That is all to say, it is a virtual certainty that we will inflict, thanks to climate change, the equivalent of 25 Holocausts on the world. Or rather, thanks only to the air pollution associated with climate change. We are almost sure to break two degrees of warming, and those numbers do not reflect any of the other — quite considerable — effects of climate change. So 25 Holocausts is our absolute best-case outcome; the likely suffering will be considerably higher still. “We are locking in place a scale of suffering that has no precedent in our history,” David Roberts wrote on Twitter…
In 2003, Ken Caldeira calculated that the world would need to add about a nuclear power plant’s worth of clean-energy capacity every day between 2000 and 2050 to avoid catastrophic climate change — 1,100 megawatts of clean power capacity every 24 hours. At the moment, 15 years on and in the midst of what we keep hearing described as a green-energy revolution, we are adding about 151 — barely 10 percent. Paris is very quickly starting to look like Kyoto.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/the-paris-climate-accords-are-starting-to-look-like-fantasy.html
funny how often Ken Caldeira’s name pops up in the MSM of late.
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comment in moderation re: 25 Mar: New York Magazine: The Paris Climate Accords Are Looking More and More Like Fantasy by David Wallace-Wells
celebtivists speak:
27 Mar: Daily Mail: EXCLUSIVE: Who cares if Leonardo DiCaprio is using private jets while he lectures us on saving the environment says Felicity Huffman – ‘he’s doing great work!’
Former Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman defended fellow environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio’s expensive travel habits at a gala last week
She said his passion for green initiatives outweighs his use of jets and yachts…
Huffman’s husband William H Macey argued that the stars simply spending less money in their lives will have little affect the environment
Courtney Cox said that Hollywood needed to speak out on environmental issues
***By Brodie Cooper In Los Angeles
Macey also appeared to take a swipe at President Donald Trump’s stance on the environment, saying that climate change and global warming are as serious as scientists predict.
The superstar couple spoke at the the UCLA Presents the 2018 Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES) Gala Red Carpet in Los Angeles…
Huffman said: ‘I think Leonardo Di Caprio has probably done more for the environment than anyone. Does he fly privately? Probably but who cares? But he is doing amazing work, and really getting the message out there.’…
Macey added that everyone – stars and non-celebrities – should not look at being greener in their lifestyles as simply cutting back on their spending.
Asked whether Hollywood’s public image as stars living ‘baller lifestyles’ sent out the right message, he reacted: ‘I think a lot of the answers are not necessarily just austerity – do with less. We have to be smart about it.
‘My father used to love to tell this story that at a point the whale oil was drying up, because of whaling expeditions there were no whales.
‘And the brightest minds at the time said well mankind is going to start having to go to bed at seven o’ clock when it gets dark; and then some guy came with the electric lightbulb. We can solve anything if we work at it.’
The 68-year-old then commented on Trump’s stance that the greenhouse effect is not as significant as some may believe.
Macey said: ‘I don’t think we are out of the woods yet. there are a lot of people that question science; not only the science of climate change, but science.
‘There are a lot of people who think they can make up their own facts. It is all black and white. I think a lot of people know what we are doing they just choose not to act on it.’
He added: ‘One of the best things UCLA is doing now is they are reaching out to get diversity into the whole environmental sciences game.
‘Some years go by and not one woman gets a degree in oceanography – not one. They are actively on a campaign to bring diversity to environmental studies.’
At Thursday’s event Friends actress Courtney Cox agreed with Macey and Huffman, saying that Hollywood needed to be vocal about the environment.
Reflecting on the work that stars like DiCaprio do, she said: ‘Celebrity can bring a voice to things that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to do otherwise. So he is using his voice in a wonderful way.
‘Also we are lucky enough to live in Los Angeles where this is such the forefront of our minds we have just got the Midwest and the south and everywhere in-between.’
She added: ‘We are creating the mess that we are in. We need to raise the awareness as much as we can to fix the problem. That is what we do at events like this, so we can honor the people that are changing our world.’…
The UCLA Presents the 2018 Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES) Gala Blue Carpet in LA was a star studded affair which included Ellen Pompeo, Laura Dern, Norman Lear and John Sally.
The event honored inspirational change-makers: Van Jones, Founder of Green For All; The Dreams Corps; Pierce Brosnan, Executive Producer of Poisoning Paradise; and Keely Shaye Brosnan, Director and Producer of Poisoning Paradise.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5538059/Felicity-Huffman-defends-fellow-environmentalist-Leonardo-DiCaprio.html
***above is Brodie Cooper’s only article at Daily Mail. no social media found on him, but this would seem to be him – an LA insider, and writer:
PIC: April 2017: LA Film: Brodie Cooper Wins At IdyllWild Film Festival!
Brodie grew up in Canada, and while there is opportunity in the great white north, he made the decision to move to Los Angeles in part due to his business partnership with his brother. They are co-writers and co-directors on each of their projects. Brodie recalled the tipping point in making the decision to move south.
“Everything starts in LA, and the opportunity here is massive.”…
https://www.lafilm.edu/blog/brodie-cooper/
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26 Mar: ClimateChangeNews: Karl Mathiesen: White House to tap energy official as new climate lead – reports
Wells Griffith, who worked on the Trump campaign, has spent the last year negotiating exports deals for the US energy industry
Washington-based E&E News cited (LINK) sources on the weekend that said Wells Griffith would join the National Economic Council, coordinating White House efforts on international energy and climate issues.
Griffith will take on the role vacated by George David Banks, who resigned in February.
Banks became a focal point for governments attempting to negotiate with the White House regarding climate policy. This was particularly the case for European commission officials, who maintained regular contact with Banks, who was a supporter of the US staying in the Paris climate deal…
Bloomberg also reported (LINK) the news, again citing unnamed official sources…
Griffith was instrumental in landing a coal export deal with Ukraine last year. Griffith’s links to Ukraine and work strengthening the US energy industry’s overseas interests will spur those who wish to see industry given a stronger voice at UN climate conferences…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/03/26/white-house-tap-energy-official-new-climate-lead-reports/
industry needs to speak out against this tyranny:
23 Mar: ClimateChangeNews: Megan Darby: Emissions controls for 1.5C climate target to cost three times 2C: study
That was revealed in a study published in Nature Climate Change (LINK) this month, led by Joeri Rogelj of the Vienna-based International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis…
The analysis primarily focuses on how social and economic factors affect the chances of meeting international climate goals, running five scenarios through six different models…
In a “regional rivalry” world with little international cooperation or innovation and widening inequality between rich and poor, 1.5C proved impossible – as did 2C. That was largely down to land use: deforestation went out of control.
A “green growth” world of dramatic energy savings, low-meat diets and less inequality showed the best prospect of averting dangerous levels of warming.
“The deeper you try to go with your emissions cuts”, said Rogelj, the more important these socioeconomic factors become.
Amid that comparison is one of the clearest illustrations to date of the extra efforts required to make 1.5C happen, inserted below…
***The starkest difference is in the 2040 carbon price, which in a middle-of-the-road development scenario must be 400% higher for 1.5C than 2C. Long-term costs, over the period 2010-2100, come out around 200% higher…
Glen Peters, a climate policy expert at Cicero who was not involved in the study, told Climate Home News the escalating costs reflected the narrowing chance of averting 1.5C warming.
“Our face is already against the wall; we don’t have anywhere to move,” he said. “1.5C is so close to becoming unfeasible, just before it becomes unfeasible the costs will go to ridiculously high levels.”…
Supplementary data shows that, depending on the scenario, the extra costs may not make a huge dent in economic growth. In the middle-of-the-road option, shown as blue in the above diagram, it hits consumption by 1-2% over 2020-2100. For the pink, high fossil fuel pathway, it is in the 5-10% bracket.
“If you take a long term perspective, overall costs are not that high,” Rogelj told Climate Home News…
Rogelj’s is part of a wave of studies around the 1.5C target to be published before the deadline for inclusion in an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report.
In the pages of Nature Geoscience, a debate is raging (LINK) over exactly how much the world can emit within the 1.5C threshold. The “carbon budget” varies widely depending on how the problem is defined…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/03/23/emissions-cuts-1-5c-climate-target-cost-three-times-2c-study/
10
behind paywall:
26 Mar: UK Times: Gurpreet Narwan: Lack of chargers delays switch to electric cars
Demand for electric vehicles is being held back by “massive gaps” in charging station locations across the country, a report warns.
The switch to electric vehicles is crucial if Britain is to succeed in its ***aim to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040.
About 47,000 plug-in cars were registered last year, but only 173 publicly-funded charging points became available, according to a survey by HSBC.
The rate of installation has fallen heavily since 2016, when 2,833 charging points were installed. Britain is far behind its European rivals, with France and Germany installing 11,987 and 7,937 points respectively in 2016, according to research by the car parks group Indigo.
The HSBC report found that there were nearly 17,000 people in the UK for every public charge point, a ratio it said needed “urgent” attention. The analysis found “massive gaps” across the regions, with Wales, Yorkshire and the east of England the worst affected…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/lack-of-chargers-delays-switch-to-electriccars-2m8lxct5m
***The Times’s “***aim to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040” becomes the Press Association’s “The UK Government wants to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040” at the Daily Mail.
surely two very different things. Scottish MP phrases it correctly later in the article:
27 Mar: Daily Mail: Press Association: `Urgent attention´ needed to increase electric vehicle charging points
The North East of England has the highest level of provision, with 664 charge points across the area, representing one for every 3,931 people
Scotland was next best, with 743 charge points across the country – meaning there is one for every 7,127 people.
But only two other areas, Northern Ireland and the South East of England, had higher than average levels.
And in Wales there are just 31 publicly funded charge points – one for every 98,806 people…
***The UK Government wants to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040, with Scotland aiming to do this eight years earlier by 2032…
Scott McClurg, head of energy and sustainability for HSBC Corporate Banking, said “urgent attention” must be given to the number of charge points available, as more and more people switch to electric vehicles…
“National Grid recently announced plans to overcome the challenge of long-distance electric vehicle travel. Urgent attention must now be given to local, urban solutions as more consumers and businesses transition to electric vehicles.”…
Scottish Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said drivers there currently benefited from “one of the most comprehensive charge point networks in Europe”…
“The Programme for Government sets a bold new vision on ultra-low emission vehicles and we are well-positioned to continue to work with industry, to phase out the need for new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2032, by continuing to provide the infrastructure to allow ultra-low emission vehicles to flourish.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-5544767/Urgent-attention-needed-increase-electric-vehicle-charging-points.html
Carbon Brief also references this Times article behind paywall:
25 Mar: UK Times: When every car will need charging overnight . . .
Can we generate enough power to meet the soaring demand for energy?
John Collingridge
“Most service stations are in farmland, and the power comes in on a long pole-mounted wire. In most of those situations there’s not much more you can get out of that wire. You need to upgrade, and if you upgrade, it must be future-proofed.”
Cooper’s project envisages boosting 50 sites via high voltage links to the core transmission network, to allow for fast charging of cars, lorries and buses…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/when-every-car-will-need-charging-overnight-l5gbdlhc5
extra detail at CB:
Carbon Brief: A separate article in the Sunday Times looks at whether the UK can generate enough power to meet the soaring demand for energy due to electric cars charging overnight. It also looks at a National Grid project exploring how to upgrade services’ power cables to cope with a surge in demand from electric vehicles and help to reduce range anxiety. It notes that National Grid thinks flexible and smarter use of power will likely mean that peak demand rises by only 4GW to 10GW. “That would involve spreading demand so there is not a huge surge at 5.30pm when people arrive home from work and plug in their cars.”
00
I didn’t realise it was Earth Day until after the event. Had I realised I would have turned on all lights in the house to celebrate.
21
fantasy piece by Guardian editors:
25 Mar: Guardian editorial: Good news about renewables: but the heat is still on to cut fossil fuel use
New data shows global emissions are at a historic high. Political leaders must now consider imposing serious penalties
But even coal, the most carbon-intensive fuel, reversed two years of declines and was up by 1%, ***as coal burning in China, India and South Korea grew…
The most sobering figure in the (IEA) agency’s research is 81%: the amount of global energy that comes from fossil fuels. It’s been about the same for the past three decades…
So, if the energy sector is still nowhere near compatible with the demands of climate science, and the goals set by nearly 200 governments in Paris three years ago, what do we do?
Despair is not an option, and there are reasons for hope.
***One is Beijing’s self-interest in tackling air quality, which means coal plant closures and bans, and the promotion of electric cars. India, the coal industry’s last great hope, has witnessed a faster than expected rise in solar power, squeezing out coal projects. Germany’s new government finally has plans to tackle the country’s outmoded reliance on coal. Globally, coal capacity will begin shrinking in 2022 at the current rate of retirements, according to a new report.
Arguably the brightest and most promising trend is that renewables are on the brink of being economically viable without government subsidies…
Leaders must take the much more politically difficult decision to penalise fossil fuels. The means are many: economy-wide carbon taxes are an obvious one that many energy firms claim to support. Bans on extraction of fossil fuels are a more extreme example. We must vote for those politicians who are bold enough to do this. We must renew pressure on them to say no to dirty energy, as well as yes to clean energy. Only then do we have a hope of permanently reducing emissions.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/25/renewables-good-news-heat-on-cut-fossil-fuel-use
26 Mar: CarbonPulse: China meets Copenhagen climate target early, vows to stick with ETS despite govt re-shuffle, delays
China has already met its 2020 carbon intensity target, according to a senior climate change official who also stressed that the country will continue building its national emissions trading scheme despite the recent government shuffle.
all based on figures you can(not) believe:
28 Feb: Reuters: CORRECTED-China’s 2017 coal consumption rose after three-year decline, clean energy portion up
by Muyu Xu and Josephine Mason
China’s coal consumption last year picked up for the first time since 2013, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday, despite Beijing’s push to promote less-polluting energy sources.
The world’s biggest coal consumer used 0.4 percent more coal in absolute terms in 2017 compared to a year ago, the bureau said in its annual National Social and Economic Development communique, without giving the value of total coal consumption.
However, as a portion of total energy consumption, coal usage fell 1.6 percentage points to 60.4 percent last year, while clean energy, including natural gas and renewables, rose 1.3 percentage points to 20.8 percent from 2016, the communique showed.
That indicates the country remains on track to fulfil its promise to decarbonise its economy and reduce air pollution, as it vowed to cut the coal portion to below 58 percent of total energy consumption by 2020…
Carbon intensity, the level of carbon emissions per unit of economic growth, dropped by 5.1 percent in 2017 compared to a year ago. Total energy consumption rose by 2.9 percent to 4.49 billion tonnes of standard coal equivalent which is still below the target of 5 billion tonnes by 2020.
“The slight increase in China’s coal demand thankfully does little to change the overall trend of declining demand in coal’s largest market,” said Harri Lammi, global coal campaigner at environmental group Greenpeace.
“It continues on the path away from reliance on the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel as the energy structure transitions and renewable energy installations soar.”
China had a total of 163.7 gigawatts (GW) of installed wind capacity and 130.3 GW of solar capacity by end 2017, up 10.5 percent and 68.7 percent compare to a year ago, according to data from the National Energy Administration (NEA)…
https://www.reuters.com/article/china-energy-coal/corrected-chinas-2017-coal-consumption-rose-after-three-year-decline-clean-energy-portion-up-idUSL4N1QI48M
10
After he read the climate change book from his wife, Matthew Nott used to have alarmist letters published regularly in the local papers. Have not seen a letter from him for at least five years. Has he been educated?
20
I observed Earth Hour. By turning all the lights on.
30
You must have a huge number of powerful lights because your effort to use power has clearly negated the effort of millions to reduce power.
10
It seems you are not alone.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4104691/electricity-use-actually-went-up-in-b-c-during-earth-hour-says-bc-hydro/
BC Hydro says it saw in increase in electricity use during Earth Hour, an annual global event that encourages people to turn off the lights to raise awareness about energy conservation and climate change. The utility company said electricity use actually rose by 0.2 per cent province-wide during Earth Hour, which took place on Saturday from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The people behind Earth Hour said the report didn’t reflect the stated aims behind the event, and have problems with conflating a symbolic gesture with energy savings. “Energy consumption is a poor measurement for what Earth Hour is trying to achieve,” World Wildlife Fund Canada spokesperson Philippe Devos told Global News.
00
Thank you Jo, for another dose of sanity.
40
can anyone access this and excerpt it?
The Australian | Latest Australian National and Live Business News
57 mins ago – Sims on energy affordability crisis. 8:56pm David Rogers, Cliona O’Dowd.
ACCC chair Rod Sims tells the Global Food Forum that electricity affordability is the biggest crisis facing the country…
there’s also this:
Visy’s Anthony Pratt launches initiative to boost food industry
The Australian – 27 March 2018
At The Australian and Visy’s sixth Global Food Forum in Sydney, Mr Pratt argued that Australia must work harder to overcome its natural challenges, most importantly its harsh climate, which means food production occurs on less than 15 per cent of its land area, whereas countries such as the US can produce food on 50 per cent…
00
Abbott, Joyce urge PM: do more to keep Liddell coal plant open
The Australian · 3 hours ago
UPDATED: Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce have both used the Coalition partyroom meeting to urge Malcolm Turnbull to do more to keep the Liddell coal power station open. … A Chinese conglomerate has expressed interest in buying the Liddell Power Station in the NSW Hunter Valley…
40
Protect yr resources… the enemy within is often more insidious
than the enemy at the gate. Are yr listening Malcolm?
10
Malcolm is presently engaged in making the world safe from Russians and ball-tamperers. The Australian is no doubt cataloguing his triumphs in these critical areas, though the ABC would prefer an even firmer stance against Maidan-poopers and male yobs with abrasives in their undies.
I’m sure Malcolm would like to sell something strategic to the Chinese, but coal is so durrrrdy, doncha think? Anyway, affordable power is just encouraging serfs to stay up late when all they need to know is summarised on every network, with slight variations, between six and eight o’clock. Expensive power makes for a much more cohesive society, Winston. (Did I say “expensive”? Of course, I meant to say “smart”. It’s smart power, Winston.)
20
behind paywall:
Breaking up energy businesses ‘too risky’ says Enel
Financial Times · 1 day ago
The fashion for breaking up utilities is the “wrong call”, according to Enel, Europe’s largest power company by market capitalisation, which has reiterated its commitment to an integrated business model. Francesco Starace, Enel chief executive, said it was “too risky” to place bets on particular parts of the energy value chain while the disruptive shift from fossil fuels to renewable power was still unfolding. His comments followed this month’s €43bn asset swap between German utilities Eon and RWE under which the former will focus on operating energy networks and supplying retail customers, while the latter will specialise in electricity generation. Mr Starace said that Italy-based Enel would not be tempted to follow the German example.
10
How much CO2 would be saved if the greenies stopped exhaling during Earth Hour ?
30
it wasn’t me!
26 Mar: LA Times: Bloomberg: Arizona halts Uber self-driving tests; supplier says Uber disabled Volvo safety system before fatality
(The New York Daily News contributed to this report)
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey suspended Uber Technologies Inc.’s self-driving car tests on Monday, after the death of a pedestrian who was hit by one of the company’s vehicles while crossing a road in Tempe…
Also on Monday, the auto-parts maker that supplied the radar and camera on the Volvo SUV that struck and killed the woman last week said Uber had disabled the standard collision-avoidance technology in the vehicle.
“We don’t want people to be confused or think it was a failure of the technology that we supply for Volvo, because that’s not the case,” Zach Peterson, a spokesman for Aptiv, said by phone. The Volvo XC90’s standard advanced driver-assistance system “has nothing to do” with the Uber test vehicle’s autonomous driving system, he said…
Aptiv is speaking up for its technology to avoid being tainted by the fatality involving Uber, which may have been following standard practice by disabling other tech as it develops and tests its own autonomous driving system. Experts who saw video of the Uber crash pointed to apparent failures in Uber’s sensor system, which failed to stop or slow the car as 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg crossed a street pushing a bicycle.
Police in Tempe, Ariz., and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.
Uber didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The driverless technology industry has tried in recent days to separate itself from the Uber fatality. Intel Corp.’s Mobileye, which makes chips and sensors used in collision-avoidance systems and is a supplier to Aptiv — which helps power the Volvo XC90’s driver-assistance system — said Monday that it tested its own software after the crash by playing a video of the Uber incident on a television monitor…
Waymo CEO John Krafcik on Saturday said his company’s self-driving software would probably have avoided the pedestrian death…
Meanwhile, a top executive for the maker of sensors used on the self-driving Uber vehicle said she was “baffled” as to why the tech-outfitted vehicle failed to recognize a pedestrian crossing the street and hit the brakes…
Marta Thoma Hall, president of Velodyne Lidar Inc., maker of the special laser radar that helps an autonomous car “see” its surroundings, said the company doesn’t believe its technology failed. But she’s surprised the car didn’t detect Herzberg…
UPDATES: 7:10 p.m.: This article was updated to indicate that Arizona had suspended Uber testing.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-uber-pedestrian-technology-20180326-story.html
10
It’s software.
Software has bugs. Correcting the bugs adds more bugs. The more complex the software the more bugs it has and the harder it is to remove them without adding still more bugs.
Software is specifically written to account for all the contingencies thought of by its designers as conceived by the designers. The contingencies not considered are not dealt with in any way.
The more complex the software, the greater likelihood of the emergence of unanticipated behavior. Also, only the simplest software can be completely tested. This means the it is likely that the unanticipated behavior will not be discovered before it is put into use. When it is used, the behavior will likely be made evident under less than desirable circumstances.
Software becomes part of reality. In reality, anything that can happen will happen if given sufficient time and opportunity. Even the included “fail safe” mechanisms can fail to fail in a safe mode. What you want, need, or believe is irrelevant. Only what is counts.
I am not surprised. Catastrophic failure is the most likely outcome of such things. The surprising thing is that it works as well as it does.
In the context of my over 50 years of the engineering and construction of complex highly technical software, the above is a best case scenario. The best we can hope for is the worst cases never see the light of day. Unfortunately, some do with less than desirable results.
30
Software is a bucket of bolts, a collection of faults waiting to happen. Hopefully most of them never will or wont matter when they do.
10
Engineering maxim….the hardest thing to design is a simple tool. Overcomplication is but a keystroke away, complexity lies in the hearts of all architects. The Carnot Cycle is inviolate!…no matter how hard you try, you will never invent a perpetual motion machine!
For me, every last light, floodlight, pump, airconditioner, floor heater, television, stereo, washing machine and industrial strength clothes dryer was on the minute the clock struck 2030 last Sat night! Earth Hour Indeed!
00
your place must have been hot cold bright and noisy
10
26 Mar: CNBC: China’s premier pledges to open markets in a bid to avert a trade war with the US
•Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday China and the U.S. should maintain negotiations and he reiterated pledges to ease access for American businesses.
•Li told a conference that included global chief executives that China would treat foreign and domestic firms equally.
•He added that China would not force foreign firms to transfer technology and would strengthen intellectual property rights.
The United States asked China in a letter last week to cut a tariff on U.S. autos, buy more U.S.-made semiconductors and give U.S. firms greater access to the Chinese financial sector, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing unidentified sources…
China has offered to buy more U.S. semiconductors by diverting some purchases from South Korea and Taiwan, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the negotiations. China imported $2.6 billion of semiconductors from the United States last year.
Chinese officials are also working to finalize rules by May — instead of the end of June – to allow foreign financial groups to take majority stakes in Chinese securities firms, the Financial Times said.
“I anticipate that for political reason it would be logical for China to respond, because countries do,” Blackstone Group Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman told Reuters on Monday on the sidelines of the Beijing conference at which Li spoke, the China Development Forum.
“That’s why I view this more as a skirmish, and I think the interests of both countries are served by resolving some of these matters.”…
The Trump administration has demanded that China immediately cut its $375 billion trade surplus with the United States by $100 billion…
China has a 25 percent tariff on U.S. cars and has talked recently of lowering it.
China’s imports of U.S. motor vehicles totaled $10.6 billion in 2017, about 8 percent of the country’s overall U.S. imports by value, according to U.S. government data…
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/26/chinas-premier-pledges-to-open-markets-in-a-bid-to-avert-a-trade-war-with-the-us.html
27 Mar: PittsburghPostGazette: In a landmark for Trump, South Korea agrees to open its auto market in return for a tariffs exemption
by Youkyung Lee, Associated Press
Bloomberg News and The New York Times contributed.
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has agreed to further open its auto market to the United States as the two countries prepare to amend their 6-year-old trade agreement following complaints by President Donald Trump…
It marks the first successful renegotiation of a trade deal for the Trump administration — which used the threat of 25 percent steel tariffs at the bargaining table — and comes as the allies sought to resolve disputes before planned meetings with Kim Jong Un…
The deal also appeared to be an early vindication of the administration’s “America First” efforts to use the penalties as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations to extract concessions in return for exemptions and revisions to the blanket tariffs announced by the White House this month…
South Korea also will ease emission standards for American cars shipped from 2021-2025, when the Asian country is due to set new import regulations…
Also, talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico continue.
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/world/2018/03/26/In-a-landmark-for-Trump-South-Korea-agrees-to-open-its-auto-market-in-return-for-a-tariffs-exemption/stories/201803260150?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#link_ti
00
Couldn’t help but notice this zinger:
“Megagrams of carbon was saved.”
When dealing with petagrams of carbon dioxide and they need a big number for paycho effect they switch to small units.
Not even bait and switch. They just switch to smaller units to make it seem like a big “estimated” savings in a collosal amount.
00
No matter how hard you try…it is still only 40 seats in the MCG…unless carbon dioxide is as caustic and abrasive as the Collingwood cheer squad there is no effect on atmospheric processes.
00
And…of those 40 seats…only one half a seat is human…
00
…and of the half a human….a foot is the total contribution of Australia.
00
So, desalinated seawater and transport fuel via nuclear power stations.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/04/08/u-s-navy-can-convert-seawater-fuel/#.Wsc2IhTwwzV
00