Father and son plan to trek to South Pole on renewable technology

A fine day in Antarctica [image credit: BBC]

We’re told: ‘Environmental champion, who was first person to walk to both poles, uses Antarctic trek as green wake-up call.’ But who really needs to be woken up? The polar night means Antarctica is a dead zone for solar power for six months of every year, highlighting the fact that part-time sources of electricity can never be relied upon.

“Thirty years ago, I was the first person in history perhaps stupid enough to walk to the North and South Poles,” renowned British explorer Robert Swan, 61, tells IBTimes UK.

“I had no intention ever in my life of ever walking anywhere cold again – this was definite.”

But that is exactly what he is going to do.

North Atlantic variability and its links to European climate over the last 3000 years

.
.
The scientists conclude:
‘It is therefore essential that we continue to improve our understanding of the LSW/subpolar gyre dynamics at a range of time scales to reduce uncertainty in future climate predictions.’
[LSW = Labrador Sea Water]

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

A newly published paper has linked changes in European climate to North Atlantic variability over the last 3000 years:

ABSTRACT

The subpolar North Atlantic is a key location for the Earth’s climate system. In the Labrador Sea, intense winter air–sea heat exchange drives the formation of deep waters and the surface circulation of warm waters around the subpolar gyre. This process therefore has the ability to modulate the oceanic northward heat transport. Recent studies reveal decadal variability in the formation of Labrador Sea Water. Yet, crucially, its longer-term history and links with European climate remain limited. Here we present new decadally resolved marine proxy reconstructions, which suggest weakened Labrador Sea Water formation and gyre strength with similar timing to the centennial cold periods recorded in terrestrial climate archives and historical records over the last 3000 years. These new data support that subpolar North Atlantic circulation changes, likely…

View original post 926 more words

Great Barrier Reef more robust than was thought, say scientists

Great Barrier Reef, Australia [image credit:BBC]

This makes a change from the more usual climate-related doom-and-gloom reef scenarios often served up by the media.

Researchers have identified a series of robust reefs that may act as sources to replenish areas of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) damaged by severe disturbances such as bleaching events and cyclones, reports ABC News.

The “robust source reefs” typically lie on the outer shelf fringes of the GBR where ocean currents push deeper, cooler water toward the surface, reducing the severity of heat stress.

It is hoped that these reefs may temper the decline of the GBR as climate change pressures continue to mount, according to Scott Condie from the CSIRO’s Oceans and Atmosphere department in Hobart.

“They’re the bank for the future of the reef,” Dr Condie said.

Published essay: the conservation fiasco that is the ESA listing of polar bears

.
.
Another climate alarmist embarrassment that can’t be hidden any longer.

polarbearscience

In early October, the US Fish & Wildlife Service reversed its 2011 decision to list Pacific walrus as ‘threatened with extinction’, saying they could not “determine with certainty that walruses are likely to become endangered “in the foreseeable future.” [details below]

I have arguedthat the 2008 decision by the USFWS to list polar bears as ‘threatened’ is similarly lacking in certainty (Crockford 2017) and as for walrus, the previous determination of ‘threatened’ for polar bears was premature and should be reversed.

A prominent biology colleague and I recently put it this way in a newly published essay:

“Is it ethical or fair to the many citizens impacted directly and indirectly by the 2008 polar bear ruling for the FWS to allow polar bears to remain on the Endangered Species List?”

Read our piece in the winter 2018 issue of RANGE Magazine (open access), authored by…

View original post 679 more words

Study suggests some European vehicle emissions smaller than thought

This must cast doubt on some of the more alarmist claims about numbers of deaths attributable at least partly to emissions from vehicle engines, diesels in particular. It seems recent improvements in technology weren’t fully accounted for.

A team of researchers at the University of York in the U.K. has found that the proportion of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in nitrogen oxides in European traffic emissions is smaller than has been thought, reports Phy.org.

In their paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the group describes analyzing data from roadside monitors over the course of many years and what they found by doing so.

Drew Gentner and Fulizi Xiong with Yale University offer a News and Views perspective on the work done by the team in the same journal issue and suggest that the team’s findings could have implications for air pollution standards organizations in many more places than just Europe.

Grenfell: Plastic firms helped write climate-related safety rules

Grenfell Tower fire [image credit: BBC]

Insulation added to buildings like the ill-fated Grenfell Tower was a result of climate regulations, as this extract from a Sky News report shows. But the manufacturers themselves helped write those rules, and now some critics who tried to point out potential fire hazards in the materials say they were subjected to intimidation by them.
H/T Damian

While legal threats were being made in private, the plastic insulation industry was openly advertising its role in writing the rules that govern the fitting of its products to millions of buildings across the country.

The main lobby group for the plastic insulation trade was, until November 2017, called the British Rigid Urethane Foam Manufacturers’ Association [BRUFMA].

Partly in response to Grenfell Tower – or what it refers to as “events of this year” – BRUFMA changed its name to the Insulation Manufacturers Association.

Latest Nissan engine uses variable compression ratio system

A match for the diesel engine?

The end of the road for the internal combustion engine could be further off than some people think, if innovations like this can live up to their publicity claims without being too expensive for mass use.

Nissan Motor Co. will unveil its VC Turbo engine, which uses an efficiency-boosting variable compression ratio system, at the Los Angeles auto show next week, reports North American Energy News.

Shinichi Kiga, the head of Nissan’s gasoline engine project group, told Reuters that the global automaker plans to keep improving the internal combustion engine and that the VC Turbo engine is part of that vision.

On Nov. 28, Nissan will unveil its Infiniti QX50 sport utility vehicle at the LA Auto Show. The luxury SUV engine uses the variable compression ratio system which will boost thermal efficiency to about 40 per cent, as much as twice the level of current gasoline engines available.

Delingpole: Exposed – the Liberal astroturfers behind the global warming scare

A look behind the curtain shows climate-related campaigning is sometimes just a front for the machinations of American party politics, the goal being to undermine the Trump agenda.

In order to drain the swamp, President Trump must first destroy the global warming Green Blob, says James Delingpole at Breitbart News.

This is the only logical conclusion to be drawn from a series of data leaks and Freedom of Information (FOI) revelations exposing the relationship between left wing campaigners and the great climate change scam.

Global warming, it becomes clear, is primarily a left-wing political issue, not a scientific one. Green is the new red.

These leaks show how rich liberal backers—left-wing institutions like the Rockefeller Foundation, eco hedge-fund billionaires like Tom Steyer, and the various socialistic Geek Emperors of Silicon Valley—are funneling millions of dollars into sock-puppet environmental organizations both to undermine Trump’s economic agenda and to finance his political opponents both in the Democratic Party and the GOP.

Can you over-water a planet?

Although the author appears sold on the idea of trace gases controlling the temperature of planetary atmospheres, the discussion about planets and water is worth a look. The answer to the question may depend on more powerful space telescopes like the James Webb.

Wherever we find water on Earth, we find life writes Elizabeth Tasker at Many Worlds.

It is a connection that extends to the most inhospitable locations, such as the acidic pools of Yellowstone, the black smokers on the ocean floor or the cracks in frozen glaciers.

This intimate relationship led to the NASA maxim, “Follow the Water”, when searching for life on other planets.

Yet it turns out you can have too much of a good thing.

Ofgem rejects subsea power line for Shetland Islands

Lerwick’s diesel power station [image credit: BBC]

The plan was to link a power cable to the UK mainland and have new diesel generators as back-up. But now they will rely on imported diesel and medium fuel oil as before, and wait to see if wind power appears on the scene.

Diesel plant will remain open until 2025 after EU emissions limits relaxed, reports Utility Week.

Ofgem has rejected plans to install a 60MW power line between the Shetland Islands and mainland Britain.

The regulator said the subsea cable is no longer needed as the loosening of emissions limits means the islands’ ageing diesel power plant can remain open for longer than previously anticipated.

SSE’s 67MW Lerwick Power Station was due to close by 2021 due to tougher emissions limits introduced under the EU’s Industrial Emissions Directive (IED).

North Seas require 50GW of interconnectivity by 2045

Scottish offshore wind project [image credit : urbanrealm.com]

No mention here of the huge cost of putting yet more hundreds or thousands of wind turbines miles offshore, or of what is supposed to happen when it’s not windy enough to generate any, or much of, the required electricity – other than vague reference to ‘storage and demand response’, and interconnectivity.

EUROPE: A total offshore wind capacity of at least 230GW is needed in northern Europe by 2045 to meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement, according to newly published research, writes Craig Richard at Windpower Offshore.

This increased capacity in the North Sea, Irish Sea, Channel, Baltic Sea, and Atlantic Ocean would require between 50GW and 80GW of new interconnectivity to ensure reliable operation, energy and climate consultancy Ecofys found.

Thunderstorms create radioactivity, scientists discover

Blackpool, England [image credit: BBC News]

They say ‘these results are important as they demonstrate a previously unknown source of isotopes in the Earth’s atmosphere. These include carbon-13, carbon-14 and nitrogen-15…The findings also have implications for astronomers and planetary scientists.’

Thunder and lightning have sparked awe and fear in humans since time immemorial, says Phys.org. In both modern and ancient cultures, these natural phenomena are often thought to be governed by some of the most important and powerful gods – Indra in Hinduism, Zeus in Greek mythology and Thor in Norse mythology.

We know that thunderstorms can trigger a number of remarkable effects, most commonly power cuts, hailstorms and pets hiding under beds. But it turns out we still have things to learn about them. A new study, published in Nature, has now shown that thunderstorms can also produce radioactivity by triggering nuclear reactions in the atmosphere.

How your electric car could be ‘a virtual power station’

Electric car charging station [credit: Wikipedia]

Or not – some say it’s too complex and would be too costly to set up. Others claim it could even make car batteries last longer by maintaining optimal charge levels as the ‘borrowed’ power would be returned.

The report below should perhaps start like this: ‘as a small number of people in the world’s richer countries take hefty government subsidies to buy expensive electric cars…’

As the world moves towards low-carbon electric cars, how are we going to power them all? – asks BBC News.

If electric cars really are the future, where is all the electricity to power them going to come from?

There are currently more than a billion vehicles on the road worldwide, 38 million of them registered in the UK. The overwhelming majority run on petrol or diesel.

But the world is changing.

Record-breaking winter season for Lapland tourism

Credit: Visitfinland

This place sounds ideal for an upmarket climate conference. The brand new Glass Resort is ‘situated right next door to Santa’s office at Santa Claus Village’. Just the place from which to send out all those generous climate funds that no country with any sense wants to contribute to.

Snow is more popular than ever, says the Barents Observer. About 600 charter flights are landing at Finland’s three northernmost airports in the months ahead.

New hotels, glass igloos, log-huts, snow constructions and ice cottages. Lapland seems prepared to welcome tens of thousands of tourists starting now in late November. Santa Claus is still an attraction, but newcomer of the year is the Snow Man.

Another attempt to dismiss the warming pause falls short

Credit: planetsave.com

‘Reports of the death of the global warming pause have been greatly exaggerated’, says David Whitehouse at The GWPF. If temperatures really were climbing would anyone bother with this sort of ‘science’?

A new paper in Nature Climate Change concludes that the so-called pause in global surface temperatures never happened. The paper has been mentioned in a few media outlets.

It claims that new data from the Arctic makes the pause go away – and so it seems until you look at the paper in a little more detail than news headlines suggest.

UK made grave errors over Hinkley nuclear project: MPs

Planned nuclear power station at Hinkley Point

Wasting vast amounts of money and selling consumers short seems to be par for the course in UK electricity generation, as this Phys.org report highlights.

Britain made “grave strategic errors” in its handling of the Franco-Chinese Hinkley Point nuclear project, a critical parliamentary report concluded Wednesday.

The House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee stressed that consumers will pay a high price for construction of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, which was given the green light by the government in September 2016.

The £19.6-billion ($26-billion, 22-billion-euro) project, which is to be built by French energy giant EDF and China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), is highly symbolic of the UK’s nuclear renewal.

Another vanished beach in Ireland reappears – Ashleam Bay

Ashleam Bay, County Mayo [image credit: discover Mayo]

Loads of free publicity for the local tourist industry. How many vanished beaches can there be?

Another vanished beach has just appeared on Achill Island, reports IrishCentral. Dooagh Beach’s re-emergence led to worldwide attention and now Ashleam Bay has a sandy strand too.

The County Mayo island on the Wild Atlantic Way made international headlines back in May after the sea retreated to reveal the pristine sandy white Dooagh Beach that locals had not seen for 33 years.

12 television crews made the trip out to Ireland’s largest offshore island and an estimated 1.16 billion people read about the story online.

Now, a similar phenomenon has happened at Ashleam Bay, where the Atlantic usually crashes against hard rocks and pebbles, but is now lapping up against soft, wet sand.

BBC Failing To Challenge Alarmist Interviewees – Booker

.
.
Climate alarmists are allowed to exaggerate or even be wrong on the facts, when they appear on the BBC. Climate sceptics on the other hand – not so much, on the rare occasions when they get past the BBC censors and into the studio.

Germany in crisis as coalition talks collapse over climate hysteria and migration

The contrast between maintaining prosperity and submitting to so-called ‘green’ ideology could hardly be clearer. Political casualties at least partly due to major climate policy differences look likely, as the GWPF explains.

Berlin – Chancellor Angela Merkel was left battling for political survival on Monday after high-stakes talks to form a new government collapsed, plunging Germany into a crisis that could trigger fresh elections.

While the Green Party demanded to phase out coal power and combustion-engine cars, the conservatives and FDP emphasised the need to protect industry and jobs.

And with no other viable coalition in sight, Germany may be forced to hold new elections that risk being as inconclusive as September’s polls.

Why Phi? – Jupiter, Saturn and the inner solar system

From left, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. [Credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute]

The planetary theory aspect appears a bit later, but first a brief review of some relevant details.

In this Talkshop post: Why Phi? – a triple conjunction comparison we said:
(1) What is the period of a Jupiter(J)-Saturn(S)-Earth(E) (JSE) triple conjunction?
JSE = 21 J-S or 382 J-E or 403 S-E conjunctions (21+382 = 403) in 417.166 years (as an average or mean value).

(2) What is the period of a Jupiter(J)-Saturn(S)-Venus(V) (JSV) triple conjunction?
JSV = 13 J-S or 398 J-V or 411 S-V conjunctions (13+398 = 411) in 258.245 years (as an average or mean value).

Since JSV = 13 J-S and JSE = 21 J-S, the ratio of JSV:JSE is 13:21 exactly (in theory).

As these are consecutive Fibonacci numbers, the ratio is almost 1:Phi or the golden ratio.