Fire hits Ransonmoor wind turbine: machine destroyed

Image credit: BBC

The report says ‘local media reports suggested the turbine was struck by lightning’. A case of nature’s electricity killing man’s electricity?

A Gamesa G80 wind turbine has caught fire at the 10MW Ransonmoor wind farm in Cambridgeshire in eastern England, reports RE News.

The incident occurred in the early hours of 30 May, with firefighters called to the scene at 7.50am.

Cambridgeshire Fire & Rescue Service said crews arrived to find the 89-metre turbine “well alight, with debris falling to the ground”.

Fundamental disagreement about climate change

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One for the communication specialists.

Climate Etc.

by Judith Curry

How can the fundamental disagreement about the causes of climate change be most effectively communicated?

View original post 66 more words

Claim: Gravity could be source of sustainable energy

Of course this may sound ‘far out’, but let’s have a look at the short video from VoA News anyway.

In today’s energy-hungry world, scientists are constantly revisiting every renewable resource looking for ways to increase efficiency.

One researcher in the Netherlands believes even gravity can be harnessed to produce free electricity on a scale sufficient to power small appliances.

Hawaii’s geothermal power plant is about to be overwhelmed by geothermal power.

Nature is awesome.

Dutch govt appeals landmark greenhouse gases ruling

Dutch Parliament buildings [credit: Wikipedia]

To what extent can courts tell governments what so-called ‘climate policies’ they should be adopting? Isn’t there a burden of proof in such cases? Appeal verdict awaited – eventually.

The Dutch government on Monday appealed against a landmark 2015 court ruling which ordered it to slash greenhouse gases by a quarter by 2020, reports Phys.org.

“The current government is already extraordinarily active in terms of climate,” lawyer Bert-Jan Houtzagers told the Hague Appeals Court.

Ozone hole is healing: bad news for us carbon sinners say models.

The hole in the ozone layer is now steadily closing, but its repair could actually increase warming in the southern hemisphere, according to scientists at the University of Leeds.

The Antarctic ozone hole was once regarded as one of the biggest environmental threats, but the discovery of a previously undiscovered feedback shows that it has instead helped to shield this region from carbon-induced warming over the past two decades.

High-speed winds in the area beneath the hole have led to the formation of brighter summertime clouds, which reflect more of the sun’s powerful rays.

Britain’s supply of electric cars at risk from Brexit: think-tank

Credit: mining.com

As with climate, there’s always another Brexit scare story coming off the production line. This one comes via news agency AFP.

Britain risks a shortage of electric cars after Brexit as carmakers will lose an incentive to sell low-emission vehicles there, a Brussels-based think-tank warned.

Because British sales will no longer count towards carmakers’ EU carbon dioxide targets, they may choose to sell to other European countries instead, the Transport and Environment (T&E) group warned.

Britain was the third largest market for zero emission vehicles in the EU last year and the largest for plug-in hybrids, the group said in the report obtained by AFP.

Dusty rainfall records reveal new understanding of Earth’s long-term climate

Antarctic sea ice [image credit: BBC]

Have scientists been looking through the wrong end of the telescope, so to speak, regarding ice ages theory?

Ancient rainfall records stretching 550,000 years into the past may upend scientists’ understanding of what controls the Asian summer monsoon and other aspects of the Earth’s long-term climate, says EurekAlert.

Milankovitch theory says solar heating of the northernmost part of the globe drives the world’s climate swings between ice ages and warmer periods.

The new work turns Milankovitch on its head by suggesting climate is driven by differential heating of the Earth’s tropical and subtropical regions.

New theory finds ‘traffic jams’ in jet stream cause abnormal weather patterns

Wavy jet stream
[image credit: BBC]

This could be a step forward in unravelling the whys and wherefores of the phenomenon of jet stream blocking.

The sky sometimes has its limits, according to new research from two University of Chicago atmospheric scientists.

A study published May 24 in Science offers an explanation for a mysterious and sometimes deadly weather pattern in which the jet stream, the global air currents that circle the Earth, stalls out over a region, reports Phys.org.

Much like highways, the jet stream has a capacity, researchers said, and when it’s exceeded, blockages form that are remarkably similar to traffic jams—and climate forecasters can use the same math to model them both.

Rick Salvador’s 2013 Pattern Recognition in Physics solar prediction now validated

Our hypothesis that solar variation is affected by planetary motion, developed over the last 10 years here at the talkshop received a boost today when one of its main detractors, Anthony Watts, published an article declaring that solar cycle 24 is entering minimum.

I’ve left a comment there, something I rarely do since the debacle back in 2014 when Anthony and his sidekick Willis attacked our work and banned discussion of our solar-planetary theory. I’ll be interested to see if it passes moderation.

Here’s the plot I linked. It shows that Rick Salvador’s model is spot on track over the last 5 years.

Booker: Is obsession with global warming rotting the political class’s brains?

Wood burner [image credit: BBC]

That point was probably reached ten years ago when the UK’s notorious Climate Change Act was passed. Now we have things like this “Scandal of ‘killer’ wood burning stoves”.

The bitter truth is that these fiascos caused by our obsession with wood-burning are just a part of a larger disaster that taints almost every green scheme governments have foisted on Britain, writes Christopher Booker in the Daily Mail.

The Government earned plaudits from the green lobby yesterday for its new plan to crack down on the craze for wood-burning stoves.

As the Mail reported on its front page, the stoves chuck out lethal pollution, particularly from wet wood, and contribute to thousands of early deaths from lung and heart disease.

But hang on!

Media starting to pick up on our Solar slowdown warnings: Food production could be hit soon.

As we’ve been warning for years on the talkshop, the incoming solar grand minimum is likely to hit world food production negatively.

@dbirch214 @GrizzlyGovFan @RogTallbloke @canberroo @andyoz2 @climaterra @climatempo @metsul @SMN_Argentina @ClimaFlorida @boleadorcharrua @CharlesAmorin @navegoYpirateo @Balinteractive https://t.co/z75RREF6Vd

— gddcunha1961 (@gddcunha1961) May 23, 2018

Politicians and policy makers have no excuses here. They’ve been enthralled by the scientists they pay to tell them what they want to hear for years.

World’s largest EV charging network planned for the UK

Electric car charging station [credit: Wikipedia]

Somebody has to pay for all this, and if the firm behind it goes bust who picks up the financial reins to keep the project going?

Plans were unveiled today to build a world-first 2GW network of grid-scale batteries and rapid electric vehicle (EV) charging stations across the UK, reports PEI.

Pivot Power is behind the £1.6bn programme, which will provide infrastructure to support the rapid adoption of EVs and underpin clean air policies, while introducing valuable flexibility into the energy system to accommodate the demands of mass EV charging and higher levels of intermittent renewable generation.

The way forward for a #Sovereign Britain

Sovereign Party Leader Dr Teck Khong

 

There is a new forward looking pro-Brexit political party called Sovereign starting up which needs your backing and involvement so it can generate pressure and influence.

Its leader is a medical man, Dr Teck Khong, who left the Conservatives after many years (he stood as a parliamentary  candidate in my own West Yorkshire in 2005), and joined UKIP, standing for election in his home constituency in Leicester during the 2017 election. Like many others (me included), he has since left UKIP and we are now starting a new party. I have been asked to be strategy director and National Nominating Officer, liaising with the electoral commission. I’m also directing and team building for the party’s energy and industry policy.

We need more core members, donations, and plenty of shout outs on social media to bootstrap the movement and get things moving so we can make a difference. Please take a look at our website at thesovereignparty.uk and let us have your thoughts below. If you’d like to help  with the costs of registering the party with the electoral commission and furthering the campaigning, feel free to use the paypal button on the top left of the site.

UK’s clean car goal ‘not ambitious enough’, says professor

Credit: carsdirect.com

One of the sub-headings to this BBC News story is ‘Push and go faster’. That really would be a fuel saver if it worked 😉

The government’s ambition to clean up motor vehicles by 2040 is not ambitious enough, a leading energy expert says.

Professor Jim Watson, head of the prestigious UK Energy Research Centre, said the target should be at least five years earlier, as in Scotland.

Woods Hole Climatologist Gives False Evidence To Congress

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We shouldn’t have to put up with this constant diet of climate misinformation from people who should, or maybe do, know better.

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

Science Magazine had fun taking the mickey out of this GOP Rep, but failed to uncover some seriously erroneous statements by a supposed “climate scientist” at the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space and Technology Committee earlier this week.

This is their account (my bold):

The Earth is not warming. The White Cliffs of Dover are tumbling into the sea and causing sea levels to rise. Global warming is helping grow the Antarctic ice sheet.

Those are some of the skeptical assertions echoed by Republicans on the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space and Technology Committee yesterday. The lawmakers at times embraced research that questions mainstream climate science during a hearing on how technology can be used to address global warming.

A leading climate scientist testifying before the panel spent much of the two hours correcting misstatements.

The purpose of the hearing was to focus on how…

View original post 1,837 more words

Possible origin of Dansgaard-Oeschger abrupt climate events

Vertical line shows planetary conjunction with the Sun [credit: Wikipedia]

Numerous studies have found evidence of an apparently regular and significant climate event every 1,470 years (on average), which seems to show up most clearly in glacial periods. They speak of a ‘robust 1,470-year response time’, ‘a precise clock’, ‘abrupt climate change’ and so forth.

However they also say things like: ‘The origin of this regular pacing…remains a mystery.’

A couple of example studies here:
Possible solar origin of the 1,470-year glacial climate cycle demonstrated in a coupled model (2005)

Timing of abrupt climate change: A precise clock (2003)
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Now we can relate this to the half period of the Jupiter-Saturn (J-S) conjunction cycle, i.e. one inferior or superior conjunction, as explained at Wikipedia.

The average J-S half-period is 9.932518 years.
The nearest harmonic to that period in Earth years is 10.
1470 = 148 * J-S/2
1470 = 147 * 10y
148 – 147 = 1 Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle

We find also that Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune conjunctions are such that:
148 * J-S/2 = 74 J-S = 41 S-N = 115 J-N = 1,470 years. [74 + 41 = 115]

Therefore 3 of the 4 major planets have a 1,470 year conjunction cycle.
(Planetary data from JPL @ NASA here)

So that’s the concept.
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The graphics below are from Carsten Arnholm’s Solar Simulator software tool.
The interval between left and right sides is 1,470 years (May 501 – May 1971).

Each one shows a Jupiter, Neptune and Earth syzygy with Saturn opposite.
Note the similarity of the positions (red lines cross at the solar system barycentre).

Study: no relationship between methane in groundwater and proximity to natural gas wells

Appalachia [click to enlarge]

Actual evidence contradicts colourful but unresearched scare stories once again.

A study of drinking water in Appalachian Ohio found no evidence of natural gas contamination from recent oil and gas drilling, reports Phys.org.

Geologists with the University of Cincinnati examined drinking water in Carroll, Stark and Harrison counties, a rural region in northeast Ohio where many residents rely on water from private underground wells.

The time-series study was the first of its kind in Ohio to examine methane in groundwater in relation to natural gas drilling.

Energy poverty and the home truths MPs would rather ignore

Governments often waste, but rarely run out of, other people’s money. Take renewables for example – the UK is already committed to vastly excessive payments until 2030 in the hope of possibly reducing a trace gas in the atmosphere.

Why has the Government still not formally responded to the independent review that it commissioned into the cost of energy?

Perhaps its findings are too damning, says Harry Wilkinson at The Conservative Woman.

Staggeringly, the review found that the government has wasted the best part of £100billion on the decarbonisation of the power sector.

How Atmospheric Pressure Drives Temperatures, Not Trace Gases

Credit: compoundchem.com [click to enlarge]

This is on similar lines to the ongoing studies of Nikolov & Zeller, featured here at the Talkshop on several occasions. The ‘standard’ tropopause pressure of ~0.1 bar is an interesting factor.

By looking at the temperature of every planet with sufficient atmospheres, we see temps rise along with atmospheric pressure, and not from a trace gas, says Alan Siddons at ClimateChangeDispatch.

Early in the 19th century, scientists began to speculate that the Earth, surrounded by the frigid vacuum of space, was habitable because its atmosphere contained special molecules like CO₂ and water vapor, molecules that can absorb heat rays emanating from the Earth and thereby trap its heat.

That the Earth was warmer than one might expect was apparently confirmed when Kirchhoff’s blackbody concept was adopted.