Wind farm refused over Southern Upland Way impact

Windfarm objection in Galloway

Let’s hope this helps to put wind farm developers off the idea of ruining scenery for profit, as they may end up just wasting a lot of time, effort and money on pointless proposals and court battles.

A wind farm appeal has been refused amid concerns it would spoil the enjoyment of a stretch of a popular south of Scotland walking route, reports BBC News.

Developer Energiekontor wanted to build 11 turbines at Cornharrow east of Carsphairn in
Dumfries and Galloway.

It appealed to the Scottish government over the local authority’s failure to give a decision on the plans.

AGU Statement on Climate Change

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‘Climate models predict that global temperatures…’ blah blah. These predictions are invariably out of step with reality by a wide margin, due to human-caused warming biases built-in to the computer software.

Climate Etc.

by Judith Curry

Human induced climate change requires urgent action. – AGU

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Spring ozone hole may be one of the smallest for decades

Image credit: theozonehole.com

Southern hemisphere spring, that is.

European weather scientists believe the ozone hole over the Antarctic this spring may be one of the smallest since the mid-1980s, says stuff(NZ).

Experts at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) have observed strange behaviours of the annual ozone hole this season.

Not only is it already shrinking and well on the way to being about half the size it usually is at this time of year, but also it began forming about two weeks earlier than usual and it is off-centre, away from the South Pole.

They say that is probably the result of the rare sudden stratospheric warming, which has been under way about 30km above Antarctica since last month.

The Solar Panel Toxic Waste Problem

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‘Solar panels generate 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than nuclear power plants’ – and in some parts of the world recycling rules can be sketchy, or worse.

PA Pundits International

By Duggan Flanakin ~

For decades, the solar industry benefited from generous federal, state, and local subsidies to increase its footprint. Yet these generous subsidies ignore the costs of disposal of solar panel waste.

Things may be changing. In May 2018, Michael Shellenberger, a Time Magazine “Hero of the Environment” and Green Book Award Winner, wrote in Forbes that the problem of solar panel disposal will explode with full force in two or three decades and wreck the environment because it is a huge amount of waste which is not easy to recycle.

Shellenberger was citing comments, published in the South China Morning Post, from Chinese solar expert Tian Min, general manager of Nanjing Fangrun Materials, a recycling company in Jiangsu province that collects retired solar panels. Tian called his country’s solar power industry “a ticking time bomb.”

This is not really news. The Associated Press had reported in 2013…

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Geochemists measure new composition of Earth’s mantle

The grand cliffs of the island of São Jorge, formed by fissural volcanism. [Credit: Azores @ Wikipedia]

New research suggests that ‘the composition of Earth’s entire mantle may differ from current thinking’. More work for theorists beckons.

What is the chemical composition of the Earth’s interior?

Because it is impossible to drill more than about ten kilometres deep into the Earth, volcanic rocks formed by melting Earth’s deep interior often provide such information, says Phys.org.

Geochemists at the Universities of Münster (Germany) and Amsterdam (Netherlands) have investigated the volcanic rocks that build up the Portuguese island group of the Azores.

Their goal: gather new information about the compositional evolution of the Earth’s mantle, which is the layer roughly between 30 and 2,900 kilometres deep inside the Earth.

Germany plans to spend €40 billion on ‘climate protection’ by 2023

Clouds over Germany [image credit: tripsavvy.com]

What is this climate protection they speak of, apart from a figment of the imagination? As the reliability of their electricity system continues to degrade due to ever-increasing dependance on renewables, their climate superstitions are costing them dear.

The governing coalition parties in Germany have reportedly agreed to a deal to ensure the country meets its 2030 goals to combat climate change.

The government is set to unveil its climate package on September 20, says DW.com.

The Mysterious Movements of GOES-13

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Conspiracy theorists will probably like this one…

Spaceweather.com

Sept. 11, 2019: Scott Tilley has an unusual hobby. He scans the skies for satellites where they shouldn’t be. Using an S-band receiver, the amateur radio operator has tracked many classified spacecraft orbiting Earth and famously found NASA’s IMAGE satellite when it woke up from the dead last year. This past weekend he bagged another one: GOES-13.

“This was quite a surprise,” says Tilley. “I thought GOES-13 was in a graveyard orbit–yet I found it quite active and wandering on Sept. 8th.”

GOES-13 is a NOAA weather satellite. It was retired in January 2018 after a storied 12-year career during which it monitored some of the most notorious weather events in recent U.S. history – including Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and the triple disaster of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2018. The satellite also experienced significant space weather: In December 2006, GOES-13 observed a solar flare so intense it…

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Climate change: Electrical industry’s ‘dirty secret’ boosts warming – claims BBC

High-voltage switchgear [image credit: Dingy @ Wikipedia]

The BBC loves its so-called ‘greenhouse gases’ and is convinced they control the climate, but forgets that they mostly consist of water vapour and the alleged effects are based on failing climate models. Now it seems the dash for renewable electricity is adding even more of these supposedly fearsome molecules to the poor defenceless atmosphere. Clean, green electricity? Not quite. How will climate miserablists cope with this shocking – to them – news?

It’s the most powerful greenhouse gas you’ve never heard of, and levels in the atmosphere are soaring,wails the BBC.

Sulphur hexafluoride, or SF6, is widely used in the electrical industry to prevent short circuits and accidents.

But leaks of the little-known gas in the UK and the rest of the EU in 2017 were the equivalent of putting an extra 1.3 million cars on the road.

Levels are rising as an unintended consequence of the green energy boom.

UK stargazers to be treated to rare Harvest Moon

Image credit: farmersalmanac.com

The Harvest Moon is the Full Moon nearest to the September equinox, which occurs around September 22.

The UK is set to be treated to a rare occurrence of a Harvest Moon tonight.

The Moon will be about 14 per cent smaller in the sky than an average full moon, making it an especially rare “micromoon”, says the London Evening Standard.

Maine Farmers’ Almanac astronomer Joe Rao said the time it peaks will depend on the position of the moon.

Police to XR plotters : You’re nicked!

Police on the move

UPDATE: Police jamming drone signals at Heathrow airport

UPDATE 2: Bailed XR leader arrested again – at Heathrow

H/T The GWPF

Drama at Billy’s Cafe. “There we were, innocently having a coffee with the press, as you do. Then next thing you know – out of the blue – we’re getting cuffed and hauled off by the law”…said nobody. Seems like a fair cop.

Heathrow Pause says two of its activists have been “pre-emptively” arrested before they started flying drones as part of a climate protest, reports Sky News.

Activists have been planning to fly drones at Heathrow Airport tomorrow.

Latest eco-folly – Extreme E: climate change racing series

Electric SUV concept car [image credit: motorauthority.com]

Marketing meets climate alarmism in the guise of sport. Don’t mention the ‘carbon emissions’ of all the travel and transport between venues.

Williams development driver Jamie Chadwick is named as one of four women to drive in Extreme E, which kicks off in Greenland in 2021, reports BBC Sport.

Extreme E – Formula E’s sister series – aims to highlight climate change in five remote locations as 12 cars go head-to-head in electric SUVs.

“Racing in incredible locations, raising awareness for climate change… what’s not to love,” said Chadwick.

European Green Deal portfolio handed to EU vice president, in major elevation

Money to burn?

A major elevation of the delusion of having some control over the weather, that is. Looks like evr more vast sums of money will have to poured down the drain before anyone notices it’s not having any effect on the climate, if they ever do notice.

Dutch social democrat Frans Timmermans has been named executive vice president responsible for strategy to make the EU climate neutral by 2050, reports Climate Home News.
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Climate action is getting a promotion in the next European Commission, with the portfolio assigned to one of three executive vice presidents.

Dutch social democrat Frans Timmermans was nominated on Tuesday to develop the “European green deal” over the next five years. He is to directly manage the climate change directorate (DG Clima) and coordinate efforts across agriculture, health, transport, energy, cohesion and environment.

Announcing the line-up in a webcast press conference, commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she wanted to create a “flexible, agile” team to deliver on the bloc’s priorities.

COP26: Glasgow to host UN climate change summit in 2020

Whitelee wind farm, Scotland [image credit: Bjmullan / Wikipedia]

Another two week edition of the fantasy waffle-fest beckons, as imaginary solutions to imaginary man-made problems are chewed over by about thirty thousand climate botherers aka delegates. Most of them will arrive from all parts of the world in fuel-guzzling jets – just like they do every year, wherever the venue is. It’s the make-work scheme that never ends. Who’s paying?

A major United Nations climate change summit will take place in Glasgow, reports BBC News.

The UK has won the bid to host the 26th Conference of the Parties, known as COP26, following a partnership with Italy.

Up to 30,000 delegates are expected to attend the event at Glasgow’s Scottish Events Campus (SEC) at the end of next year.

It is designed to produce an international response to the climate emergency.

The UK will host the main COP summit while Italy will host preparatory events and a significant youth event, as part of the agreement.

UK To Impose A Competitive Carbon Tax After No-Deal Brexit

Photosynthesis: nature requires carbon dioxide

A hint of commonsense in post-Brexit climate policy, if or when we get there? So-called ‘carbon’ taxes may well be a pointless nonsense, but if one has to be endured then the lower the better.

The United Kingdom is set to impose a £16 per ton tax on carbon if it leaves the European Union without a deal on October 31, according to government plans, reports The GWPF (from Forbes).

If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, it will also leave the EU’s Emissions Trade System (ETS), the centrepiece of the bloc’s efforts to meet European countries’ emissions reduction obligations.

Lightning ‘superbolts’ form over oceans from November to February

Image credit: NASA

But why so? ‘No theories so far’ seems to be the real meaning behind the quote ‘for reasons that are not yet fully understood’. One of the few clues is that such strikes tend to be over water, and mainly in specific areas e.g. the Mediterranean.

The lightning season in the Southeastern U.S. is almost finished for this year, but the peak season for the most powerful strokes of lightning won’t begin until November, according to a newly published global survey of these rare events.

A University of Washington study maps the location and timing of “superbolts”—bolts that release electrical energy of more than 1 million Joules, or a thousand times more energy than the average lightning bolt, in the very low frequency range in which lightning is most active, reports Phys.org.

Results show that superbolts tend to hit the Earth in a fundamentally different pattern from regular lightning, for reasons that are not yet fully understood.

Green suicide: Climate hysteria is killing German car industry

VW ID. model

H/T The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)

Let’s see what slice of the German car market goes to electric cars in the next few years. If most people don’t want them due to cost, range, battery life or whatever, where would that leave the manufacturers – and the politicians, with their beloved so-called ‘climate protection’ policies and arbitrary ’emissions’ targets? In trouble, surely.

Frankfurt’s biennial International Auto Show (IAA) opens its doors to the public Thursday, but major foreign carmakers are staying away while climate demonstrators march outside — forming a microcosm of the industry’s woes, says AFP.

“There have never been so many cancellations by carmakers,” said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of the Centre for Automotive Research (CAR).

Lunar connection: the Saros, nodal and apsidal cycles

Image credit: naturalnavigator.com

The contention here is that in the time taken for 14 lunar nodal cycles, the difference between the number of Saros eclipse cycles and lunar apsidal cycles (i.e the number of ‘beats’ of those two periods) is exactly 15.

Since 15-14 = 1, this period of 260.585 tropical years might itself be considered a cycle. It is just over 9 Inex eclipse cycles (260.5 years) of 358 synodic months each, by definition.

Although it’s hard to find references to ~260 years as a possible climate and/or planetary period, there are a few for the half period i.e. 130 years, for example here.

E-bike grumbles echo in the Bavarian Alps

In the Bavarian Alps

Are power-assisted e-bikers on walking trails ‘cheating’ and/or a hazard to walkers? How many is too many?

Robert Werner and his wife Ursula usually make time to say a friendly hello to hikers as they ride their gently whirring e-bikes up trails in the Bavarian Alps, reports TechXplore.

But more often than not, their greetings are met with frowns.

“The first thing they look at when they see us are our bikes,” says hotelier Robert, 46, of his electric-powered bicycle.

“If we have an engine, they respect us less.”

While the Werners are convinced of the virtues of e-bikes which have pedals but also an electric motor that can assist the rider’s pedal power, others are less enthusiastic about the new revolution in cycling.

On their e-bikes, the couple powers up the 800-metre (2,600-foot) ascent to the summit of Herzogstand mountain in half an hour—without breaking a sweat.

Many purists believe exploits into nature should be powered by muesli bars, not the electricity grid, and regard the assisted cycling boom as another hi-tech intrusion into the great outdoors.

NASA quip: ‘Honey I Shrunk the Planetary System’

The Kepler-42 system as compared to the Jovian system [credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]

The headline was NASA’s joke about both the size and the short orbit periods (all less than two days) of the three planets in the Kepler-42 system.

The discovery of this system dates back to 2012, but there don’t seem to be any numbers on resonant periods, so we’ll supply some now.

Wikipedia says:
‘Kepler-42, formerly known as KOI-961, is a red dwarf located in the constellation Cygnus and approximately 131 light years from the Sun. It has three known extrasolar planets, all of which are smaller than Earth in radius, and likely also in mass.’

‘On 10 January 2012, using the Kepler Space Telescope three transiting planets were discovered in orbit around Kepler-42. These planets’ radii range from approximately those of Mars to Venus. The Kepler-42 system is only the second known system containing planets of Earth’s radius or smaller (the first was the Kepler-20 system). These planets’ orbits are also compact, making the system (whose host star itself has a radius comparable to those of some hot Jupiters) resemble the moon systems of giant planets such as Jupiter or Saturn more than it does the Solar System.’

The three planets in order of distance from their star (nearest first) are c,b and d. They all have very short orbit periods ranging from under half a day to less than two days, and the star has only 13% of the power of our Sun.

Hurricane Dorian: Just weather, not climate change

Hurricane Dorian

As the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season arrives, weather forecaster Chris Martz tries to inject some sanity into the clamour around the latest weather event to hit the headlines. This is an extract from the full article, which as you might expect offers a more in-depth view.

We’ve made it three weeks without extreme weather and/or climate change hysteria making rounds on social media. Unfortunately, that streak has come to an end, making the lives of most weather forecasters like me a lot more difficult.

We are quickly approaching climatological peak of the Atlantic hurricane season¹ (September 10th) (Figure 1), thus it should be NO surprise to anyone that we have seen an uptick in tropical activity. However, I stand corrected － people are losing their minds about it.
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Debunking the SST myth

I want to debunk the popular myth that has been circulating around the internet. Warmer sea surface temperatures (SST) does not guarantee that hurricanes will become more frequent or more intense.