USCRN promises to be a valuable contribution to the raging debate over climate, as long as the alarmists don’t get their hands on the data and start changing it.
Quite the study going on there. I wish I was surprised. It really drives home the concept that virtually all the warming we are "experiencing" is from adjustments to the records.
More picking on Mann. Poor guy, just because he was involved in an international conspiracy to destroy careers & commit vast fraud, some people think he might be dishonest. Or the Earth is an oblate spheroid.
The major factor of debate and of consequence in the whole man-made (anthropogenic) global warming debate is equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) which is the temperature rise associated with a doubling of atmospheric CO2 by volume ratio, currently at 0.00047.
It was very nice of the folks at Carbon Brief to provide the following data in easy to access format. I just wonder why they don't show the following in their article.
The following are the collected estimates from published papers since the year 2000 that are based upon modern instrumental records, not computer models, which are not scientific predictors of anything, but merely tools for studying how some factors may affect others.
The Carbon Brief article shows all kinds of ECS estimates mixed in with those from actual scientific data, meaning measurements and observations. Then they show no significant trend in those ECS estimates.
I thought it might be interesting to see what if any trends exist in only those ECS estimates based on actual scientific data (actual measurements/observations).
Gee golly. Any way you look at that data, it's very encouraging:
Intermittent, unreliable power is very expensive even if it's free. And the cost per watt of wind & solar is very high, high enough that without taxpayer subsidies, few would invest in it. Mandating that States go to an arbitrary percentage of intermittent, unreliable power is expensive, dangerous, and pollutes more than if there were no windmills or solar panels at all. Lose lose.
Some say the solution is investing billions in storage to even out the load. That inevitably means taxing us to buy batteries, since with few exceptions, there's no other way to store energy. New York does have a wonderful gravity storage system for the Big Apple, where it's used to load level the day/night needs. Don't ask how much it costs.
There's a bunch of proposed gravity storage ideas, for the majority of the country that doesn't have handy water sources, big hills you don't mind putting a pair of lakes on top & bottom, close to a city. And don't count on recreational use of that top lake.
But you might notice every one of these ideas, including the system in Japan that pumps seawater into an artificial lake in a volcanic mountain valley, has the problems of big footprints and ecological issues.
Sure, trains going nowhere in the middle of the desert might be hidden from city view, but isn't that usually some sensitive ecology that still shows wagon wheel tracks from the Gold Rush? Or land the greenies want to ban dirtbikes from? And you need hills, or a big slope. When people start moving there to get away from feces paved cities, how will they react to the twice daily train? Anything involving sea water or mineral water is dealing with corrosion. Anything involving an artificial lake risks seepage, and possible earthquake, erosion and water loss problems.
And those folk that want to put compressed CO2 in old oil wells? If you think fraking is a problem, wait for the earthquakes from that, and the certainty that some day, probably at 3:04 am, that toxic gas will gush out and slaughter the closest down hill/ down wind community with people drowning in their own blood as.... I mean, Seriously? I wouldn't wish that on D.C.
So batteries? How many megatons of toxic metals are we enthusiastic about adding to our garbage system? Batteries have a life. Lead? Lithium & Cobalt? That's really expensive in so many ways.
I look forward to safer iron oxide based batteries & superconductors, supercapacitors, and that plastic concept some lab built a tiny battery using a DVD burner to create. But if you had a thousand in cash, you couldn't buy any of it today, that's a "someday, soon, really" technology.
So, thought experiment. it's Feb. 2020. Upstate/western New York. The 5th blizzard of the century I've seen since High school sweeps in. ( and we just had a Feb. that never got above 0f a year ago ) Solar power is off line, covered in snow. Wind power is off line, the winds are too high. It's -30 degrees, because, according to The News, Global Warming, and the only thing keeping millions alive is my local nuclear power plants, Niagara falls, ( and some other hydro power, operating at winter levels ) and natural gas. Lose the natural gas, and the body count is inconceivable. Most homes are heated with natural gas. Lose the nuclear, and there would be widespread black outs. And most homes can't run the furnaces without power.
Basically, one blown fuse from cataclysm. Ok, one Solar storm.
A friend of my son's is a mechanical engineering PhD and was working for a company that was looking at compressed air storage for storing potential energy. I remarked to her that dual purpose turbine/compressors seemed like a big compromise and she said, "yep, so far." Must be nice to be able to hustle grant money for that sort of thing.
I just started a new job with a start up developer. I'm on a 5 year contract, managing the largest power project in New York. There are solutions but they are not as clear cut, kumbya, as some would imagine.
The landscape is, also, very unsettled. We had one project we'd start4ed and . . . after years of work on permitting . . . there was an arbitrary suit filed and a sympathetic judge shut the project down. Bad day when you lay off 14,700 construction workers.
We want to plug in our iPhones . . but don't want power facilities.
Tough nut to crack.
My present undertaking is, every evening, sitting before town councils, Farm Bureaus and a variety of interest groups explaining the project. Support has come from odd places.
We want to plug in our iPhones . . but don't want power facilities.
Wait...what?
You mean power doesn't just come from those little rectangle holes in the wall?
You mean my uber-greenie geek-out electric ULEV car actually requires some sort of fuel burn, somewhere, at some point, in order for me to drive in the slow lane and feel good about myself because I have a "zero-emissions" car?
I thought the Green New Deal was supposed to CREATE jobs, not lay off 15k workers?
/sarcff.
Sorry, Court. You know I sympathize. But your post is exactly what the idiots who are pushing the GND need to hear - and what the rest of the nation needs to hear.
And Patrick's post above is dead-on target as well - and stuff that the Useful Idiots don't know, don't understand, or aren't being told (because if they were told these facts, it would make them less useful).
How much fuel (of any type) is burned in order to produce the toxic chemicals required for power storage, and for solar grids?
How does that consumption compare to simply using those fuels to....make electricity?
The 12 year “Concept to Construction” cycle is eventually going to find someone’s nuts in a vice.
I tried to retire and ended up with $7,000,000,000 of construction contracts. That’s actionable fact. A power hungry America is crying out for sustainable energy. I’m 53 years in the business of getting energy from where it’s produced to where it’s consumed. Very few sources of sustainable power (wind, solar, hydro) are near major load centers.
So .... out of retirement and back to work ..... until December 2024.
I think you need to invest in a small, concert-sound production company...just for fun
Sucks when you're good at what you do, doesn't it?
I'm fully aware that the GND is a crock of shit. What scares me is the number of gullible lemmings who don't understand, and who will vote these morons into office to try and support the fantasy...at the expense of those of us who know better.
I think you need to invest in a small, concert-sound production company...just for fun
Sucks when you're good at what you do, doesn't it?
I'm fully aware that the GND is a crock of shit. What scares me is the number of gullible lemmings who don't understand, and who will vote these morons into office to try and support the fantasy...at the expense of those of us who know better.
We want to plug in our iPhones . . but don't want power facilities.
Very true. Around here, a local issue is that liberals want to shut down an oil pipeline that runs parallel to the Mackinaw bridge. I've had discussions with people who want it shut down. I always make it a point to ask how the energy that is dependent on that pipeline should get replaced. So far, the only answer I've gotten is that it shouldn't be replaced. I then ask what they plan on doing to live off grid, and every single one has had a blank stare as an answer. I swear, they just don't understand how the world works.
But, nevermind the Republicans who were ACTUALLY shot at a softball practice, by a Bernie-lover. Or a reporter who was severely beaten by Antifa. Or any of the other ACTUAL acts of violence against Republicans. Or, any of the ACTUAL calls to violence ("Get in their FACE" / "punch them out" / "make it clear they are not welcome in your towns") from the mouthpieces of the Dem party - which are all on VIDEO.
Those are all OK.
Because they're attacks on conservatives.
AOC needs to learn that if you want respect, you EARN it. You don't simply whine and demand it.
How many coal plants are there in the world today?
The EU has 468 - building 27 more... Total 495
Turkey has 56 - building 93 more... Total 149
South Africa has 79 - building 24 more... Total 103
India has 589 - building 446 more... Total 1036
Philippines has 19 - building 60 more... Total 79
South Korea has 58 - building 26 more... Total 84
Japan has 90 - building 45 more... Total 135
China has 2,363 - building 1,171 more... Total 3,534
That’s 5,615 projected coal powered plants in just 8 countries.
USA has 15 - building 0 more...Total 15
And Democrat politicians with their "green new deal" want to shut down those 15 plants in order to "save" the planet.
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Addendum
This is EXCELLENT!! I knew the rough idea about the number of coal plants, but had not yet seen actual numbers until now.
This makes the point. Whatever the USA does or doesn’t do won’t make a Tinker’s Dam regarding CO2 unless the rest of the world – especially China and India – does reduce coal-fired power plants, too.
The whole “global warming” and “climate change are to create a *supposedly* sound, scientific basis to justify a federal government power-grab and the passage of MORE laws to increase taxes and increased control of the privately owned power industry and its distribution.
Ms. Cortez would probably not qualify for one child under most eugenics programs in history.
But even as the Greenies push towards forced sterilization to Save The Planet, I have to admit it might be "better" to have fewer mouths to feed & people to compete for resources. But since that is the motive for the super villains in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, "better" is perhaps not the best way to put it.
Amazing seeing those coal plant numbers! I could never understand, if it was about "life and death" for the world, why the KYOTO protocol exempted China. I'm pretty sure, India too. I always knew it was stupid ridiculous, but seeing the actual numbers just makes it completely clear that it's a farce.
Aesquire, I agreement completely. I'm going to be THAT guy and say that it's usually the people we, as a society, don't want having kids that have too many. For a laugh, watch Idiocracy...
I think some of Court's numbers may be suspect. Still, the region of the world with the fastest decline in coal plants is the US. Very different from China and India, which are growing their numbers rapidly.
In 2017, there were 359 coal-powered units at the electrical utilities across the US, with a total nominal capacity of 256 GW[8] (compared to 1024 units at nominal 278 GW in 2000).
If you look at the New York list, we have more than 15 that run on methane from landfills & "refuse". A really long list of hydro, but most of that is tiny but vital plants, except Niagara falls. ( Where Tesla built gear may still be producing power today )
Almost all the coal plants are shut down, or converted to natural gas.
The magnetohydrodynamic experimental ones are afaik, all removed. But there are a lot of kerosene powered plants on the list, and I'm guessing those are gas turbine plants used to fill in when the wind dies and it's cloudy, or there's a Superbowl.
Obama put in a lot of effort to Kill Coal. Hillary promised to eliminate coal mining as a job, entirely.
There's something to be said for preserving supplies for the future.
If I was a Congressman, I'd try to slide an amendment into bills to declare the vast "park" Bill Clinton declared off limits to mining in Utah, after massive bribes from an Indonesian coal baron, as an emergency reserve to be tapped in times of crisis only, or to anger President Chelsea.
I was going to post a link to a page about hacking teledildonic technology, but they annoyed me with a cookie permission screen, so... No.
However, the notion of perverts "screwdriving" ( from wardriving to hack home wifi networks ) driving around trying to hack into internet connected toys & cameras is a 21st century crime that has afaik no legal protections, other than stretching existing privacy & assault laws to cover.
And having a perverse sense of humor, my second thought was of the CSPAN coverage of Congress debating teledildonic technology laws. I can just see Sandy declaring this the most important crisis of our time, while bewildered old men are terminally confused.
My first thought was that the current crop of toys used cell phones & Bluetooth to control them. It's lots cheaper to use the customer's phone & a downloadable app, than to build interface & control devices. And integrated music response, or vibe to the tunes, seems to be a common feature in this class of toys.
So it's easy to imagine a lonely heart or long distance love that is merrily enjoying themselves to some mellow music of their choice, when a hacker switches them to Rage Against The Machine or Dragonforce...