Kamala Harris is oblivious to humanity’s need for oil as she is to these two basic facts: (1) No one uses crude oil in its raw form. The oil industry exists because of humanity’s need for products and fuels made from oil. (2) “Renewables” only exist to generate occasional electricity; they CANNOT make products or […]
via CFACT
August 2, 2024 at 03:36AM
By Paul Homewood
h/t Doug Brodie
The idiot is back again:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/08/02/carbon-capture-could-be-hero-green-economy/
The clown still does not seem to understand that nobody in the world has yet managed to make carbon capture work commercially at scale, though he blames this on Britain making a dog’s dinner of its grand ambitions for carbon capture.
Nor does he seem to realise we have no gas power plants which could be fitted with carbon capture, even if it could be made to work. In other words, we would have to spend tens of billions building new CCGTs.
Nor does he seem to realise that CCS is extremely energy inefficient, therefore requiring much more natural gas than a conventional gas power plant would. Hardly sensible when we wany to cut gas imports.
Nor does he seem to realise that electricity produced via CCS gas power plants is extremely costly.
Will the Telegraph please replace him with a journalist who knows what he is talking about.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
August 2, 2024 at 03:30AM
According to Wikipedia: ‘The 100,000-year problem refers to the lack of an obvious explanation for the periodicity of ice ages at roughly 100,000 years for the past million years, but not before, when the dominant periodicity corresponded to 41,000 years. The unexplained transition between the two periodicity regimes is known as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, dated to some 800,000 years ago.’ Of course the Wiki page then attempts to bring in CO2, for no obvious reasons except their desire to do so. But this study takes a different route, ignoring CO2.
– – –
Editor’s summary (@ Science.org):
During the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, between ~1.2 million and 700 thousand years ago, the length of Earth’s glacial cycles changed from ~41,000 years to ~100,000 years, but the reason for this shift is not clear. An et al. combined climate and ice sheet records to show that growth of the Antarctic ice sheet and the associated expansion of Southern Ocean sea ice caused northern high-latitude cooling, more vigorous moisture transport to the Northern Hemisphere, and subsequent rapid growth of the Northern Hemispheric ice sheet, thereby triggering the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. —Jesse Smith
– – –
<a href="https://phys.org/news/2024-08-link-asymmetric-polar-ice-sheet.html"Phys.org says:
Joint research led by Professor An Zhisheng from the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has revealed the pivotal role of the growth of the Antarctic ice sheet and associated Southern Hemisphere sea ice expansion in triggering the mid-Pleistocene climate transition (MPT).
It has also shown how asymmetric polar ice sheet evolution affects global climate.
The MPT refers to a shift in Earth’s climate system between about ~1.25–0.7 million years ago, marking a shift to more pronounced and regular glacial-interglacial cycles.
While providing insight into the rapid expansion of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheet since the mid-Pleistocene, this study also challenges numerous hypotheses regarding the origin and mechanisms behind the MPT.
Results of the research were published in Science, titled “Mid-Pleistocene climate transition triggered by Antarctic ice sheet growth.”
Due to the importance of the MPT for the evolution of Earth’s ice sheet dynamics over the last ~1.25 million years, such hypotheses have been debated and discussed frequently in the journals Nature and Science over the last decades.
“This study contributes to our understanding of the question ‘What causes ice ages?’—one of the 125 frontier scientific problems raised by Science in 2021,” said Professor An, also a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.
This work also illustrates how processes in the Earth system define and change characteristics of glacial-interglacial cycles, their dynamics, and their length.
Integrating geological records with numerical climate simulations, this study reveals the history of the asymmetric evolution of ice sheets in both hemispheres and the associated response of the Earth’s climate system.
The findings indicate that 2–1.25 million years ago, the ongoing growth of the Antarctic ice sheet and the associated expansion of sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere triggered a temperature drop and water vapor boost in the Northern Hemisphere through the modified cross-equatorial pressure gradient and meridional overturning circulation.
These changes thus fostered the development of the Arctic ice sheet and ultimately caused a shift in Earth’s glacial cycles from ~40,000 years to ~100,000 years.
By examining the changes in ice volume across both hemispheres, this work highlights the profound impact of the asymmetric evolution of polar ice sheets upon global climate, particularly on the climate of the Northern Hemisphere.
Full article <a href="https://phys.org/news/2024-08-link-asymmetric-polar-ice-sheet.htmlhere.
– – –
Image: Ice core sample [credit: Discovering Antarctica]
via Tallbloke’s Talkshop
August 2, 2024 at 03:29AM
Bird lovers are slowly waking up to the wind industry’s rampant habitat destruction and mass slaughter of the creatures they love so much.
Wiping out pristine rainforest is met with a shrug by armchair environmentalists; and piles of rotting bird and bat carcasses barely raise an eyebrow among inner-city ‘Greens’. But those who frequent what’s left of Australia’s bird and bat habitat are no longer prepared to give the wind industry the benefit of the doubt. One group, Rainforest Reserves Australia is starting to pay attention to the, wholly unnecessary, bird and bat carnage.
Biodiversity hotspot and birder’s dream no more: Kaban windpower facility repelling the birds it doesn’t kill
Facebook
Rainforest Reserves Australia
4 July 2024
Once a biodiversity hotspot and birder’s dream, the construction of the Kaban wind farm appears to have repelled a large number of bird species.
We’ve been going through the 2023 Annual Compliance Report for Kaban wind farm in FNQ, just published. The number of bird species surveyed on the site since 2018 has dropped markedly.
The sheer number of bird species observed in 2018 was huge: 85 species! But by 2023, 1 year after Kaban wind farm became operational, the number of species surveyed was only 39.
Alarmingly, some 50 species have not been observed via Bird and Bat surveys onsite since 2021. Windfarm construction began in June 2021; surveys done in October. This was the last time Brolgas, Red Tailed Black Cockatoos and others were observed in Bird and Bat surveys onsite.
The 1st turbine started turning in Sep 2022. Since then, these dead birds were found *incidentally* onsite: 2 Fork-tailed swifts, 1 Vulnerable White-throated Needletail, 1 Rufous Fantail, 1 Black Faced Monarch. 2 dead Endangered Spectacled Flying Foxes were found near turbines.
Incidental discoveries of carcasses are not the same as carcass surveys. In fact, official Kaban wind farm carcass surveys have not yet been released. Kaban wind farm is an important example of the impact wind farms can have in biodiverse places with rich birdlife.
Wedge-tails have been surveyed at Kaban wind farm site yearly. They fly at Rotar Sweep Area (RSA Height (80 – 255 m) and are likely to die of turbine strike. But the discovery of the dead Needletail, Rufous Fantail, Black Faced Monarch indicates unexpectedly that other birds may fly at the RSA.
The 2023 Annual Compliance Report reveals that Kaban wind farm is killing more birds and bats than anticipated. The original number of ‘high risk’ turbines was considered to be 15. Since then, the number of High Risk turbines has risen to 24 turbines.
It seems to us that overall, loss of bird species at Kaban wind farm site is at least partially due to the recent increase in human activity to construct the wind farm, the heavy vehicles, habitat destruction, then colonisation of aerial space by large turbines and maybe sound of turbines themselves.
We’re interested to learn what ecologists, scientists and bird lovers here think of our analysis of the Kaban wind farm 2023 Annual Compliance Report. If anything we’ve written looks incorrect, please let us know.
The report is available to read here: https://kabangreenpowerhub.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/QEJ21046_FY23_EPBC-Act-Compliance-Report_Rev1_Redacted.pdf
via STOP THESE THINGS
August 2, 2024 at 02:31AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 