Crash landing for dream of ‘guilt-free flying’? Scientists find no clear green alternative to jet fuel

London’s Heathrow airport

The four leading alternatives, from biomass to hydrogen, are expensive and/or would require huge imports or swathes of farmland, we’re told. Another fail for climate obsessives it seems. Is Plan B – choking off demand – on the fanatics’ drawing board yet?
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The quest for guilt-free flying may have been knocked off course by a broad study that has concluded there is “no clear or single net zero alternative to jet fuel”, reports Sky News.

The four most viable alternatives “offer some carbon savings but are not ideal”, according to the review by the Royal Society academy of scientists.

Replacing jet fuel with biomass, for example, would require half the UK’s farmland just to sustain current passenger levels.

But the government is planning for levels to soar by 70% by 2050, representing an additional 200 million passengers.

Kill dates of black mosses are archives of Antarctic glacier history

Credit: coolantarctica.com

Natural climate variation is and always has been an ongoing process in Antarctica, just like everywhere else. Research suggests conditions similar to recent years prevailed about 850 years ago in at least one region.
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Mosses, one of the few types of plants living in Antarctica, have a tenuous existence, threatened by advancing glaciers, says the U.S. National Science Foundation.

When glaciers move, they can entomb or cover a plant — starving it of light and warmth. Scientists have discovered that the timing of when a glacier killed a moss, the kill date, provides an archive of glacier history.

The date the plant died coincides with the time the glacier advanced over that location. As glaciers recede, the previously entombed mosses are exposed, now dead and black.

Ireland rues mistakes of the past as it struggles to keep the lights on

Irish transmission line [image credit: thejournal.ie]

No surprise to find that ‘Surging demand and insecure supply has left the country vulnerable indefinitely’, after years of climate-driven policies on electricity supply. The self-induced emergency has led to desperate measures like these ‘effectively jet engines’. Another case of replacing what worked with what sounded good.
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Back-up power generators have started to arrive in Ireland to help it keep the lights on during the next few winters, reports The Telegraph.

The mobile turbines, described as “effectively jet engines”, are set to be installed in areas including Dublin and nearby County Meath.

The €350m (£308m) temporary capacity was ordered by environment minister Eamon Ryan last year as a “last resort”, after regulators flagged a looming shortfall in generation.

“This is an electricity emergency,” minister of state Ossian Smyth told its parliament in October.

“It is a national scandal,” retorted Darren O’Rourke, the Teachta Dála for Meath East.

All systems go for Australian super battery ‘to bolster energy security’

Image credit: energy-storage.news

The old idea of machinery that produces electricity providing security is on the way out, due to climate obsessions. Now it’s expensive devices such as this which merely store power that are supposed to guarantee the lights stay on, with the obvious problem that the power still has to be generated somewhere, sometime.
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Work is starting and completion is expected by mid 2025 to install the biggest energy storage battery in the southern hemisphere –– the 850 megawatt Waratah Super Battery at the former Munmorah coal-fired power station site, says Coast Community News.

NSW Treasurer and Energy Minister, Matt Kean, announced approval of the project when he visited the site last Thursday, along with Transgrid Executive General Manager of Network, Marie Jordan.

“Transgrid is on track to ensure the super battery, the System Integrity Protection Scheme and network upgrades are completed by mid 2025 in advance of Eraring power station’s earliest closure date,” Jordan said.

Why do Earth’s hemispheres look equally bright when viewed from space?

Has the mystery been solved?
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When looking at the Earth from space, its hemispheres – northern and southern – appear equally bright, says EurekAlert.

This is particularly unexpected because the Southern Hemisphere is mostly covered with dark oceans, whereas the Northern Hemisphere has a vast land area that is much brighter than these oceans.

For years, the brightness symmetry between hemispheres remained a mystery.

Green Energy – The Greatest Transfer Of Wealth To The Rich In History

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The cost per molecule of atmospheric CO2 ‘saved’ must be phenomenal i.e. ridiculous.

PA Pundits International

By Steve Goreham~

We are in the midst of history’s greatest wealth transfer. Government subsidized support for wind systems, solar arrays, and electric vehicles overwhelmingly benefits the wealthy members of society and rich nations. The poor and middle class pay for green energy programs with higher taxes and higher electricity and energy costs. Developing nations suffer environmental damage to deliver mined materials needed for renewables in rich nations.

Since 2000, the world has spent more than $5 trillion on green energy. More than 300,000 wind turbines have been erected, millions of solar arrays were installed, more than 25 million electric vehicles (EVs) have been sold, hundreds of thousands of acres of forest were cut down to produce biomass fuel, and about three percent of agricultural land is now used to produce biofuel for vehicles. The world spends about $1 trillion per year on green energy. Government subsidies run about…

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Heavy snow hits southern California – ‘first blizzard in a generation’

Credit: NBC

Some schools close for the day. Media get excited. Climate spin doctors have work to do.
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Heavy snow fell in southern California on Friday, as the first blizzard in a generation pounded the Los Angeles area, with heavy rains threatening flooding in other places, reports Phys.org.

Breathless television weather presenters more used to delivering a same-every-day forecast of warm sunshine found themselves knee-deep in the white stuff as the region grappled with its worst winter storm for decades.

Major roads were closed as ice and snow made them impassable, including sections of Interstate 5, the main north-south highway that connects Mexico, the United States and Canada.

Authorities said there was no estimate when it would be re-opened.

“Dangerous and potentially life-threatening snow related impacts are likely for mountain, desert, and foothill roadways in southern California,” the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

Climate signals from ancient ice and wood

Hunger stone at Decin on the River Elbe, with dates back to 1616 or earlier [image credit: Norbert Kaiser @ Wikipedia]

We looked at some of this recently, here and here. Of course the problem nowadays is that weather news is liable to be subjected to the melodrama treatment by climate obsessives. Re. the European droughts, there’s also the evidence of the ‘hunger stones’, for example.
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The Holocene – the time since the end of the last glaciation – which has witnessed all of humanity’s recorded history and the rise and fall of civilisations – began only 11,700 years ago, says Dr David Whitehouse @ Net Zero Watch.

It is a relatively warm period, but how warm was it at its warmest?

What happened in the past informs current climate models placing the current global warming into perspective.

Net zero is the reason we have empty supermarket shelves

Green blob [credit: storybird.com]

If officials think empty food shelves are a price worth paying for vain attempts to change the climate, they’re way out of touch with reality.
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It wasn’t meant to be like this: rationing is back, now being introduced in some supermarkets for fruits and vegetables, says farmer Jamie Blackett @ The Telegraph.

Typically, the public debate remains stuck on Brexit – or “Vegxit”. But this is much more to do with cold weather in farming regions, poor harvests in North Africa and Spain, and continued high energy costs.

If public expectations are that they should be able to eat tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in February, something previous generations could barely imagine, it is perhaps understandable that logistics along an attenuated supply chain will play a major part.

Study finds sinking tundra surface unlikely to trigger runaway permafrost thaw

Alaskan permafrost: [image credit: insideclimatenews.org]

Nature has its own adaptations. Eventually the process, should it occur, becomes self-limiting.
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Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists set out to address one of the biggest uncertainties about how carbon-rich permafrost will respond to gradual sinking of the land surface as temperatures rise.

Using a high-performance computer simulation, the research team found that soil subsidence is unlikely to cause rampant thawing in the future, says EurekAlert.

The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified the possibility of soil subsidence leading to a feedback loop that could trigger a rapid thaw as a major concern in the decades ahead.

Accelerated thawing caused by uneven land subsidence has been observed on smaller scales over shorter time frames, but the IPCC’s assessments were uncertain as to what may happen over the long term.

Study finds exchange of carbon between ocean and atmosphere ‘is much more complicated than we first thought’

The ocean carbon cycle [credit: IAEA]

Photosynthesis springs a surprise. Why not find out what nature is doing before accusing humans of altering the global climate?
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A new study demonstrates the important role of a common group of marine calcifying phytoplankton (coccolithophores) in the regulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the atmosphere, says Phys.org.

The ocean has removed roughly a third of the CO2 released by humans since the Industrial Revolution.

It is one of the largest sinks of anthropogenic CO2 and the largest reservoir of carbon that can easily exchange with the atmosphere on our planet.

Understanding the processes that control the exchange of carbon between the ocean and atmosphere is key for projecting the future effects of carbon dioxide on climate change, ocean acidification, marine organisms, and society.

Energy providers to UK government: more handouts for ‘green’ projects please

An interesting (?) concept from renewables promoters here, partly to boost ‘innovative’ (generally expensive) technologies. We’re supposed to believe that bigger subsidies, or ‘fiscal incentives’, will lead to lower bills.
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The energy sector is ramping up pressure on the government to bolster investment in green projects, with Renewable UK the latest to raise concerns the country could be overtaken by rivals such as the US and EU, reports City AM.

The industry body, which supports wind and tidal energy, has called on Downing Street to bring in fiscal incentives such as new capital allowances for renewable technology.

It also favours sustained supply chain investment in the UK to expand green jobs, and speeding up the planning process – with offshore wind developers waiting an average of five years for planning approval under current restrictions, and some projects taking up to a decade to secure a grid connection.

I can’t feel fingertips after rowing in Antarctic seas

Scotia Sea, Antarctica [image credit: Antarctic96]

Midsummer in the Antarctic – no picnic.
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Adventurer Jamie Douglas-Hamilton says his latest rowing challenge in the world’s most treacherous waters has left him in the worst pain he has ever felt, reports BBC News.

“I still can’t feel my fingertips and can’t wiggle my toes,” he says.

“I couldn’t even walk to the bathroom from my bed without hanging on to things along the way.”

Jamie was part of a crew of six who battled 30ft (10m) waves, crippling seasickness, icy cold winds and constant terror in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean and Scotia Sea.

No Current, Viable Alternative To Fossil Fuels

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It follows that converting all powered transport to electricity is doomed.

PA Pundits International

By Larry Bell ~

During his State of the Union Address, President Biden blamed high U.S. energy prices on greedy oil companies despite as former presidential candidate Biden having virtually pledged to put them out of business.

During a Democratic primary debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders, Biden said, “No more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. No more drilling on federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill — period, [it] ends, number one,” later adding, “No more, no new fracking.”

Joe has largely kept his promise, evidenced by an aggressive war against fossil energy which has included banning of the Keystone XL pipeline along with myriad other executive orders placing regulatory restrictions on drilling.

It is perhaps forgivable then, that Republican attendees loudly groaned at his ironic SOTU temerity when Biden said, “When I talked to a couple of…

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Elephant seal remains show Antarctic sea was warmer in the mid-to-late Holocene

Antarctica

Once again, evidence of times in the past long before the industrial era when warming similar to or in excess of the present ‘crisis’ conditions occurred in a polar region. Natural climate variation is the norm.
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Studying the response of Antarctic ice sheets to past warming episodes is essential to understand how they may respond to the present warming climate, as their melting and collapse can contribute to global sea level rise, says Phys.org.

Detailed records of past ocean temperatures close to the continent are rare, but clues to how ice sheets and sea ice responded to global conditions in the past can be found in funny places—even in the remains of animals that once lived there.

A study led by the University of Maine used the presence (and eventual lack thereof) of elephant seals to illustrate how the area transformed in a warm period in the recent past.

Why the intermittency problem can’t be solved – Net Zero Watch

[image credit: latinoamericarenovable.com]

In short – costs and practicality.
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I often ask renewables enthusiasts to explain what we are supposed to do when the wind isn’t blowing if we can’t fall back on fossil fuels, says Andrew Montford @ Net Zero Watch.

The other day, I pressed James Murray, the editor of Business Green magazine, what forms of storage he thought we could use, and this is what he said:

Continued here.

European summer droughts since 2015 ‘most severe in centuries’, but multi-year droughts also happened in the past

Freighter passing a sandbank on the Rhine river [image credit: worldcargonews.com]

Mixed messages from climate research here. In between evidence-free waffle about ‘potential’ human influence, they report that severe drought spells are nothing new in Europe, implying climate cycles of some sort. This means attribution of such drought to human causes is debatable, as the article admits.
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The 2015–2018 summer droughts have been exceptional in large parts of Western and Central Europe over the last 400 years, in terms of the magnitude of drought conditions.

This indicates an influence of man-made global warming, claims Phys.org.

However, multi-year droughts have occurred frequently in the 17th and 18th century, although not as severe.

This is the result of a new study in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

Climate models and the Holocene global temperature conundrum

Earth and climate – an ongoing controversy

Here we learn “our review revealed how surprisingly little we know about slow-moving climate variability”. In between unsupported assertions about human-caused modern warming, the authors of the review article ponder the realities of natural climate variability, including a warmer-than-today period in the Holocene, under the headings ‘What we know’, ‘What we don’t know’, and ‘Why it matters’. The closing line: “Our review suggests that climate models are underestimating important climate feedbacks that can amplify global warming.” Is this another way of saying long-term natural variation is being underestimated by the models?
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Accurate climate models play a critical role in climate science and policy, helping to inform policy- and decision-makers throughout the world as they consider ways to slow the deadly effects of a warming planet and to adapt to changes already in progress, says Eurekalert.

To test their accuracy, models are programmed to simulate past climate to see if they agree with the geologic evidence.

The model simulations can conflict with the evidence. How can we know which is correct?

A review article published today in Nature addresses this conflict between models and evidence, known as the Holocene global temperature conundrum.

Phys.org Claims Atmospheric Rivers And Hurricanes Getting Worse. Data Says No

Credit: NOAA

Climate modellers claim to be able to prove weather is getting worse than ever before. They seem to have a method problem.
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A recent article at Phys.org, originally published by the Chicago Tribune, says that climate change is behind the recent atmospheric river events in California, as well as an alleged increase in Category 4 and 5 hurricanes.

This is false, says Linnea Lueken @ Climate Change Dispatch.

Atmospheric rivers are a natural part of the West coast’s climate, and neither historic data nor recent trend data indicate that the frequency or severity of those events is increasing.

Likewise, there has been no increase in major hurricanes over the past hundred years of global warming.

Biden’s Hometown Just Vetoed A Solar Farm: ‘No Benefit’ To City

Image credit: MIT

Scranton’s zoning board vetoed a four-megawatt solar project, one resident saying ‘nobody wants to look at them’. So much for the President’s ‘most significant investment ever in climate change’.
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Last Tuesday during his State of The Union speech, President Joe Biden repeated a claim he has made many times over the past few years about renewable energy, says Climate Change Dispatch.

Biden declared that the Inflation Reduction Act is “the most significant investment ever in climate change, ever. Lowering utility bills, creating American jobs, leading the world to a clean energy future.”

In 2020, while campaigning for the White House, Biden released an energy plan that promised to “spur the installation of millions of solar panels, including utility-scale, rooftop, and community solar systems.”

In 2021, Biden’s White House released a plan that claimed the U.S. could be getting nearly half of its electricity from solar by 2050.

The plan was released a few days after Biden declared we need to overhaul our energy and power systems because climate change poses “an existential threat to our lives.”
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The rejection of the solar project in Scranton provides yet more proof that land-use conflicts are slowing or stopping the growth of renewable energy projects all across America.

Full article here.