28 Feb 2020 – Total reported coronavirus cases: 83,909 – I say reported, because I don’t believe the reports coming out of China’s communist government. (See China Hundreds of thousands infected but not reported.

8,090 reported in serious or critical condition

Total reported deaths: 2,869

Total reported recovered: 36,872

New cases in Italy not announced
571 new cases in South Korea
143 new cases in Iran
A total of 60 cases in the U.S. but no deaths.

Source:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

See also this interactive map:
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

The post Coronavirus – 1,321 new cases, 55 new deaths appeared first on Ice Age Now.

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February 28, 2020 at 10:10AM

Nobody anyone outside Europe’s green bubble really cares about the UK’s apparent decision to stop building new runways. This has nothing to do with the Paris Agreement, of course. China and India are both signatories to the accord – yet they are building 320 new airports in the next 10 years.

China To Build 216 New Airports By 2035
Airport Technology, 12 December 2019

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) aims to construct 216 new airports by 2035 to meet the growing demands for air travel.

China had a total of 234 civil airports at the end of October, and this number is likely to hit 450 by 2035. This is part of China’s ambition to become an aviation power, reported Reuters.

Data shows that demand for passenger air transportation in China will surpass the US by 2035, representing almost one-quarter of the world’s total flights.

Airports in China managed 552 million travellers last year, which is expected to grow to 720 million by 2020.

China’s current number of airports would not be able to handle this rise in passenger volume. As a result, it has plans to build additional airports to cope with the growing demand.

The primary factors for the aviation sector growth are an expanding middle-class and government policy.

Full story

India is planning to open 100 additional airports by 2024, as part of a plan to revive economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, according to people with knowledge of the matter. 

The proposal, which includes starting 1,000 new routes connecting smaller towns and villages, was discussed at a meeting last week to review infrastructure needed by 2025, the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussion is private. Steps to start a plane-lease financing business in the country was also discussed, they said. 

Full story

The post Forget Paris Agreement: China And India To Build 320 New Airports In 10 Years appeared first on The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF).

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February 28, 2020 at 09:37AM

Heathrow expects… [credit: your.heathrow.com]

This may all be a bit of an over-reaction, as a legal appeal is pending. Even if the appeal fails, it’s not clear what taking the Paris agreement into account really means, as far as the courts are concerned. Having said that, some cages must have been rattled at the prospect of various projects being undermined.

Dozens of airport, road and energy projects have been thrown into doubt after judges delivered a crushing blow to plans for a third runway at Heathrow over its impact on the environment, reports The Times (via The GWPF).

The Court of Appeal ruled yesterday that the government’s policy on expanding the airport was unlawful because ministers had failed to take proper account of how it affected Britain’s climate commitments.

A refusal to properly consider the UN Paris agreement, which limits rises in global temperatures, when approving the third runway was “legally fatal”, the judges said.

The government said it would accept the ruling, striking a severe blow to plans for the runway.

Environmental groups and lawyers heralded the verdict as a milestone in the development of huge infrastructure projects, saying it had “wider implications for keeping climate change at the heart of all planning decisions”.

It could open the door to a series of challenges against plans for roads, the expansion of other airports, gas-fired power stations and coalmines on the grounds that they too are inconsistent with the legally binding climate change commitments.

The Heathrow decision could also have a big impact on plans for the budget next month, which is being billed in Whitehall as an infrastructure budget. The Conservatives are preparing to spend £100 billion over the next five years on building programmes.

Friends of the Earth said the ruling could lead to successful legal challenges on climate change grounds against plans to expand Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Leeds Bradford, Southampton and Bournemouth airports.

It warned that big road projects could be challenged on the same grounds, including plans for a route between Oxford and Cambridge, the A303 Stonehenge tunnel and the Lower Thames Crossing, a 14-mile motorway and tunnel to the east of the Dartford Crossing that is the biggest scheme of its kind in decades.

It may even raise questions over HS2, which has been criticised over the damage it will cause to ancient woodland.

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February 28, 2020 at 09:01AM

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach

For those who enjoy mathematical puzzles, I’m putting this one out there for your pleasure.

Suppose we have a 1 metre by 1 metre by 1 metre concrete block floating in outer space. For the purposes of the puzzle, let’s suppose that there is no longwave background radiation at all.

The block is insulated on four sides, as shown in blue below, with the front and back of the block uninsulated. We’ll further suppose that the insulation is made of Unobtanium, which is a perfect insulator, so no heat at all is lost from the four insulated sides.

Next, let’s assume the emissivity “epsilon” of the concrete block is 0.95. And we’ll say that the thermal conductivity “k” of the concrete is equal to 0.8 watts per metre per kelvin (0.8 W/m/K)

Finally, let’s assume that it gets full-time sunshine on the front side at a rate of 1360 watts per square metre (W/m2). Figure 1 shows the experimental setup.

Figure 1. Setup for the thought experiment. The concrete block (gray) is a one-metre cube. The blue insulation prevents any heat from escaping from the four sides. However, the block is free to gain heat by radiation on the front side, and to lose heat by radiation from both the front and the back sides.

Here’s the puzzle. If the concrete block starts at absolute zero, it will slowly warm up until it is at steady-state, neither warming nor cooling. 

So the question is: at steady-state, what will be the temperature T_hot of the hot side and the temperature T_cold of the opposite cold side?

w.

REQUESTS: First, let me ask that when you comment, please quote the exact words you’re discussing. It avoids many problems.

Next, as my high school math teacher would say, please show your work.

Finally, please focus on the question and the answers, and leave out all ad hominems, personal comments, and insults, as well as abjuring any discussion of your opponent’s education, age and species of likely progenitors, improbable sexual habits, or overall intelligence. 

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February 28, 2020 at 08:53AM