Essay by Eric Worrall

“… we can see that …, we are actually engaging with unique audiences and bringing people along to that conversation. …”

Climate change can be a laughing matter

Published 27 April 2025 7:00am
Source: SBS News

The climate is changing and so is the way people are talking about it – with science communicators around the world using laughs over lectures to drive the climate conversation.

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“Everyone’s an audience! When it’s a wicked problem like climate there are infinite audiences, everyone deserves quality information about climate change.”

Dr Naomi Koh Belic is a biologist and award-winning science educator, based in Sydney but travels Australia offering creative science communication events.

This includes a series of events called “The Drag Experiment”, where drag performers with a science background – including Milton Mango – collaborate with other scientists to create factually informed comedic performances.

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“Almost half of that audience, it was their first time coming to a science event. So, we can see that when we put forward these creative approaches for science communication, we are actually engaging with unique audiences and bringing people along to that conversation.”

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Read more: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/podcast-episode/climate-change-can-be-a-laughing-matter/ap3xqm9lq

I applaud the scientists for trying to broaden the horizons of climate communication, but aren’t drag acts a bit 2024?

What they need to truly get the message across is Mime. I mean, how can they create a truly inclusive act representative of all the voiceless victims of their climate crisis, when the performers are still using their voices? Only through the noble silence of mime can scientists truly stimulate their creativity and overcome the final barriers to climate communication and informing the public.

By Jo Nova

Is this the Net Zero world we’re aiming for?

It could be a coincidence, but  Spain’s grid ran entirely on renewables for the first time on April 16th. Less than two weeks later, at lunchtime Monday Spain and Portugal and even parts of France suffered massive cascading blackouts. Thirteen gigawatts of electricity, about half the grid, suddenly disappeared at 12:30pm. Trains were halted, and people were stuck in dark subway tunnels. A tennis tournament was stopped, flights were cancelled and diverted, and prosaically, as an emblem of the Western World, Spain’s nuclear plants shut too, and are now running on diesel back up. Shops have been stripped, people are fighting over taxis, and landlines and ATMs are down, and even the mobile network failed in Madrid. The mayor of Madrid has urged the PM to declare an emergency and deploy soldiers.

Electricity has been restored to some areas, but the grid operator has said “it could take up to a week to fix”. Other reports say “six to ten hours”.

Notably, Spain has one of the highest proportions of renewable power in Europe — with 50% of the national supply coming from pure unreliable power. Spain has 32 GW of solar power, and 32GW of wind turbines. As it happens, the wind turbines have been largely useless for the last 24 hours. The Telegraph is reporting that solar power was providing almost 60% of Spain’s power two hours before the blackout.

DailyMail, UK

Panic buying has swept Spain and Portugal as nationwide blackouts paralysed both countries, shutting down transport networks and prompting people to clear supermarket shelves amid fears the chaos could last for days.

Huge queues formed outside shops and banks as residents and tourists desperately sought to stockpile essentials and take out cash as much cash as they could amid the uncertainty. Rows of cars were pictured lining up at petrol stations as people hoped to fill up their vehicles and fuel cans, with ex-pats detailing how they have tried to power generators to keep their homes going.

Airports have also been hit by the outages, with flights delayed and cancelled and holidaymakers in Portugal warned by the country’s flagship airline TAP Air not to travel for their flights until further notice. A British holidaymaker in Madrid described the situation in the city centre as ‘carnage’, telling MailOnline: ‘People are starting to panic. It’s going to get really bad if they don’t restore power quickly.’

It must be an attack of the “Rare Atmospheric Phenomenon”

There were rumors it was a cyber attack, or a fire in a transmission line. But Portugal is blaming Spain and says it was due to a “rare atmospheric phenomenon” which sounds like a polite way to say “a renewable energy failure”. After all, it’s hard to imagine a rare atmospheric phenomenon blacking out a nuclear plant.

The Guardian

The Portuguese prime minister, Luís Montenegro, said that the issue originated in Spain. Portugal’s REN said a “rare atmospheric phenomenon” had caused a severe imbalance in temperatures that led to the widespread shutdowns.

REN said: “Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior or Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 kV), a phenomenon known as ‘induced atmospheric vibration’. These oscillations caused synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network.”

It appears the phenomenon occurred when it was a climate extreme of 23 degrees C in Madrid today.

But it’s all kind of obvious when we look at network five minutes before the crisis. Some particular event may turn out to be the trigger, but a system that is 78% reliant on unreliables could probably be knocked over by a teddy bear, or perhaps a wayward cloud.

From CLIMATE DEPOT

By Marc Morano

https://blackmon.substack.com/p/mass-blackouts-hit-spain-portugal?utm_medium=ios

By David Blackmon

Spain and Portugal, both of which generate a majority of their electricity with renewables, were simultaneously hit by widespread power outages on Monday, with no explanation immediately forthcoming about the cause. Some reports said the outages also hit some parts of France.

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Cellular service and Internet were reported down throughout both countries, and airports lost power as well, according to sky news:

The extensive rail service in both countries was also impacted, and the metros in major cities like Madrid and Barcelona had to be evacuated:

Here’s an excerpt from a report at Sky News:

Large parts of Spain and Portugal – including Madrid and Lisbon – have been hit by a power outage.

Spanish power grid operator Red Electrica says it is working with energy companies to restore power.

The Spanish government has convened a crisis meeting at the offices of Red Electrica due to the outage, according to the El Pais newspaper in the country.

It comes as France briefly lost power following the outages in Spain and Portugal, French grid operator RTE said.

Parts of Madrid underground have been evacuated and traffic lights in the city are not working, according to local media.

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Play has been suspended at the Madrid Open tennis tournament due to the outage – with Britain’s Jacob Fearnley forced off court in a critical moment during his third-round tie with Grigor Dimitrov.

The loss of power affected scoreboards and the camera above the court.

Maddie Sephton, who is from west London, was on the Madrid Metro when the power outage occurred.

“We got on the train and everything was fine,” she told Sky News. “But then everything went dark.”

She was stuck on the train for 20 minutes until a staff member opened the doors manually.

Mrs Sephton says she was on her way to the airport at the time – and had to exit the station by hiking up 15 flights of stairs with her luggage.

“No lifts are operating – making it difficult for elderly people with limited mobility,” she added.

Above ground, she said that “everyone is just standing around and waiting”.

Bars are unable to take card payments, cash machines are down, and traffic lights aren’t working either.

“I currently don’t have any internet service and just €15 in my wallet – I can’t withdraw any money from the ATM,” she added.

“A couple have offered to let us get a ride in their taxi to the airport. Their flight is at 4.30pm so they’re pretty relaxed – but my flight back to London is at 3pm and I’m nervous.”

I’ll probably have more on this later today as more information is made public.

That is all for now.

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