Archives de catégorie : better to know…?

better to know...?, renewable energy

Hidden consequences of intermittent electricity production

by Jozef Ongena et al., 2017 in Arguments

The hidden consequences of a massive use of intermittent renewable energy systems for electricity production are highlighted, using existing electricity production data from Germany from the last 5 years, where presently a system is in operation with an installed capacity of about 50 GW in wind turbines (sum of onshore and offshore wind) and 40GW in photovoltaic panels.This fleet of intermittent renewable systems produces more than half of the yearly renewable electrical energy of Germany, the rest being produced by hydro, so-called ‘biomass’ and a very small fraction of geothermal sources

better to know...?

THE COP21 AGREEMENT – JUST THE FACTS, PLEASE

by Robert Lyman, June9, 2017 in FriendsOfScienceCalgary

French version here

Each country is committed “to prepare and maintain successive individual nationally determined contributions (INDCs) that it intends to achieve”, to update these plans every five years and to pursue and report on the related domestic emission reduction measures. After three years, a Party may withdraw from the Agreement with one year’s notice.

There is an unresolved debate as to whether to call COP21 an agreement or a treaty.

 

better to know...?, climate-debate

Abrupt summer sea ice decline has not affected polar bear numbers as predicted

by  Dr. Susan J. Crockford, July 14, 2017 in ClimateChangeDispatch

Yes, Arctic sea ice has declined since satellite records began in 1979 but polar bears have adjusted well to this change, especially to the abrupt decline to low summer sea ice levels that have been the norm since 2007. Some polar bear subpopulations have indeed spent more time on land in summer than in previous decades but this had little negative impact on health or survival and while polar bear attacks on humans appear to have increased in recent years (Wilder et al. 2017), the reasons for this are not clear: reduced summer sea ice is almost certainly not the causal factor (see previous post here).

better to know...?, renewable energy

New York Times: World’s nations building huge numbers of new coal plants despite emissions growth

by  NY Times, July 13, 2017 in WUWT

The level of renewable use is now so high in Germany that serious electric grid reliability and stability issues now exist which require both fossil power plant emergency backup for failed renewable production and dictate rejecting renewable energy to ensure operation of fossil plants required for electric grid reliability and stability.

better to know...?

On climate change, the uncertainties multiply— literally.

by Michael Bernstam, July 3, 2017 in GWPF

The following four stipulations must each be highly probable: 

1. Global warming will accumulate at 0.12 degrees Celsius or higher per decade.

2. It is anthropogenic, due largely to carbon dioxide emissions.

3. The net effect is harmful to human well-being in the long run.

4. Preventive measures are efficient, that is, feasible at the costs not exceeding the benefits.

But even if the probability of each of these stipulations is as high as 85 percent, their compound probability is as low as 50 percent. This makes a decision to act or not to act on climate change equivalent to flipping a coin.

better to know...?, climate-debate

Despite Paris accord, G-20 countries invest four times as much in fossil fuels as green energy

by Ben Wolfgang, July 5, 2017,  in The Washington Times

The biggest critics of President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord are also the world’s biggest hypocrites on energy policy, top environmental groups charged Wednesday in a report that found many top nations’ rhetoric on cutting emissions doesn’t line up with how and where they spend their money.

The key finding: The G-20 nations spend roughly four times as much in public financing for fossil fuels as they do supporting renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The report examines loans, grants, guarantees, insurance and other types of public finance offered either by the governments, government-owned financial institutions and credit agencies, and multilateral groups made up of G-20 countries.

better to know...?, biology+acidification

‘Perfect storm’ led to 2016 Great Barrier Reef bleaching

by James Cook University and Université Catholique de Louvain, July 3, 2017, in ScienceDaily

Professor Wolanski said the study was subjective to the extent that there was a lack of oceanographic field data in the Great Barrier Reef itself for the 2016 el Nino event. By contrast, the amount of oceanographic field data in the Torres Strait and the northern Coral Sea was very good.

“What we presented is our best-informed attempt to reveal the mechanisms involved in causing the event, based on the available oceanographic data combined with the existing body of knowledge on the water circulation in and around the Torres Strait/Northern Great Barrier Reef region.”

better to know...?

Just When You Thought Scientists Couldn’t Possibly Get Any Stupider …

by Tony Heller, July 4, 2017

Venus is hot because it has an atmospheric pressure almost 100X that of Earth. The same reason why the top of the Grand canyon is cold, and the bottom of the Grand Canyon is hot. Temperatures in Venus troposphere at the elevation where pressure is 1 bar, are similar to earth.  Only a complete moron would believe that adding 0.0001 mole fraction CO2 to the atmosphere would cause that.

better to know...?, climate-debate

As Beijing Joins Climate Fight, Chinese Companies Build Coal Plants

by Hiroko Tabuchi, July 1, 2017

When China halted plans for more than 100 new coal-fired power plants this year, even as President Trump vowed to “bring back coal” in America, the contrast seemed to confirm Beijing’s new role as a leader in the fight against climate change.

But new data on the world’s biggest developers of coal-fired power plants paints a very different picture: China’s energy companies will make up nearly half of the new coal generation expected to go online in the next decade.

These Chinese corporations are building or planning to build more than 700 new coal plants at home and around the world (…)

better to know...?, climate-debate

97% de scientifiques d’accord avec la théorie du dérèglement climatique ?

by Christian Gérondeau, 18 juin 2017, in Atlantico

Les hommes politiques, à l’image de Barack Obama avancent que 97% des scientifiques sont d’accord sur les causes humaines et les dangers du réchauffement climatique. Des chercheurs ont étudié l’ensemble des 11 944 publications sur le climat parues entre 1991 et 2011. Les résultats publiés en 2013 montrent que près de 66% des publications n’expriment pas d’avis, ni positif, ni négatif sur le réchauffement climatique.

better to know...?, climate-debate

Estimating economic damage from climate change in the United States

by S. Hsiang et al., June 2017,  Science 

Estimates of climate change damage are central to the design of climate policies. Here, we develop a flexible architecture for computing damages that integrates climate science, econometric analyses, and process models. We use this approach to construct spatially explicit, probabilistic, and empirically derived estimates of economic damage in the United States from climate change.

better to know...?, climate-debate

Deaths and Death Rates from Extreme Weather Events: 1900-2008

by  Indur M. Golkany, Ph.D., 2009, in  J. of America. Phys.&Surgeons

Proponents of drastic greenhouse gas controls claim that human greenhouse gas emissions cause global warming, which then exacerbates the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including extreme heat, droughts, floods, and storms such as hurricanes and cyclones.

In fact, even though reporting of such events is more complete than in the past, morbidity and mortality attributed to them has declined globally by 93%–98% since the 1920s

better to know...?, energy and fields

Bacteria Are Eating Most Of The 2010 BP Oil Spill

by Andrew Follett, June 28 in ClimateChangeDipatch

The study found that dispersants broke up the oil into tiny droplets, making them less buoyant and unable to float to the surface. This meant that the oil formed a layer deep below the surface of the water, making it easier for microbes that live in the deep ocean to eat it. However, scientists weren’t able to measure the exact amount of oil eliminated by the microbes.

Due largely to these oil-eating bacteria, the Gulf of Mexico recovered from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill faster than scientists thought possible and has returned to pre-spill levels of environmental health.

better to know...?

Serge Galam : « La peur est le plus mauvais moteur d’enseignement qui soit »

Interview par V. Anger-de Friberg, 8 février 2011, in Agora Vox

Serge Galam, directeur de recherche au CNRS, est physicien, théoricien du désordre et inventeur de la sociophysique. Il travaille sur la propagation démocratique d’opinions minoritaires, le phénomène des rumeurs, les effets du mensonge et de l’opposition systématique dans la formation de l’opinion publique, le soutien passif au terrorisme, les dictatures démocratiques, la formation des coalitions et la nature millénariste du réchauffement climatique.

better to know...?, climate-debate

The Laws of Averages: Part 2, A Beam of Darkness

by Kip Hansen, June 19, 2017 in WUWT

As both the word and the concept “average” are subject to a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding in the general public and both word and concept have seen an overwhelming amount of “loose usage” even in scientific circles, not excluding peer-reviewed journal articles and scientific press releases,  I gave a refresher on Averages in Part 1 of this series.  If your maths or science background is near the great American average, I suggest you take a quick look at the primer in Part 1 before reading here.

better to know...?

Plastic pollution in the Antarctic worse than expected

by British Antarctic Survey, June 19, 2017 in ClimateChangeDispatch

The levels of microplastic particles accumulating in the Antarctic are much worse than expected, a team of experts has warned.

The continent is considered to be a pristine wilderness compared to other regions and was thought to be relatively free from plastic pollution. However new findings by scientists from University of Hull and British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have revealed that recorded levels of microplastics are five times higher than you would expect to find from local sources such as research stations and ships

better to know...?, renewable energy

Denmark Is Killing Tesla (and Other Electric Cars)

by Peter Levring, June 2, 2017 in Bloomberg

The electric car has dropped out of favor in the country that pioneered renewable energy.

Sales in Denmark of Electrically Chargeable Vehicles (ECV), which include plug-in hybrids, plunged 60.5 percent in the first quarter of the year, compared with the first three months of 2016, according to latest data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). That contrasts with an increase of nearly 80 percent in neighboring Sweden and an average rise of 30 percent in the European Union.

better to know...?

River plastic emissions to the world’s oceans

by Laurent Lebreton et al., June 7, 2017 in Nature Communication

Plastics in the marine environment have become a major concern because of their persistence at sea, and adverse consequences to marine life and potentially human health. Implementing mitigation strategies requires an understanding and quantification of marine plastic sources, taking spatial and temporal variability into account. Here we present a global model of plastic inputs from rivers into oceans based on waste management, population density and hydrological information.

better to know...?, climate-debate

Earth’s forests just grew 9% in a new satellite survey

by J.F. Bastin et al., May 11, 2017 in ScienceDaily

in Science May 11, 2017

The Age of Exploration may be long past, but even in the 21st century, our maps can still get a major update. Using satellite imagery, a new study has found hidden forests all over the world—almost enough for a second Amazon—in areas with little moisture known as drylands.

 

A new estimate of dryland forests suggests that the global forest cover is at least 9 percent higher than previously thought. The finding will help reduce uncertainties surrounding terrestrial carbon sink estimates.

See also L‘équipe d’un chercheur belge découvre 467 millions d’hectares de forêt passés sous les radars

better to know...?

They are diseases hidden in ice, and they are waking up

by Jasmin Fox-Skelly, BBC, May 4, 2017

Throughout history, humans have existed side-by-side with bacteria and viruses. From the bubonic plague to smallpox, we have evolved to resist them, and in response they have developed new ways of infecting us.

However, what would happen if we were suddenly exposed to deadly bacteria and viruses that have been absent for thousands of years, or that we have never met before?

better to know...?

Five reasons blog posts are of higher scientific quality than journal articles

by Daniel Lakens, April 14, 2017

The Dutch toilet cleaner ‘WC-EEND’ (literally: ‘Toilet Duck’) aired a famous commercial in 1989 that had the slogan ‘We from WC-EEND advise… WC-EEND’. It is now a common saying in The Netherlands whenever someone gives an opinion that is clearly aligned with their self-interest. In this blog, I will examine the hypothesis that blogs are, on average, of higher quality than journal articles. Below, I present 5 arguments in favor of this hypothesis.  [EDIT: I’m an experimental psychologist. Mileage of what you’ll read below may vary in other disciplines].

See discussion here