Comments on: Admiration For The Catlin Explorers

By: jim

jim — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:14:46 +0000

The goal of these people is to eventually tell us how to live, I hope they have to be rescued and their feet amputated so they have speak at their next convention or summit from a wheelchair. They will have to tell the story of how global warming almost killed them because it was too cold, even a 20 year old Harvard student would have trouble believing that.

By: stumpy

stumpy — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:01:02 +0000

Can someone please tell the Gaurdian that Polar Bears are excellent swimmers, its an insult to them that people believe they are so fragile they cannot get wet or they die!

By: Just Want Truth...

Just Want Truth... — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:10:47 +0000

“Bruce Cobb (07:17:31) : Wind energy is possible. So is hamster power, Bill.”

Economic solutions in YouTube video :

Merionis Unguiculatis power. There, all better now:

By: bill

bill — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:44:27 +0000

Steven Goddard (11:21:24) :

The RSPB have changed their stance on wind turbines and now support them with reservations:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/Positive%20Planning%20for%20Onshore%20Wind_tcm9-213280.pdf

What do you mean? An African or European swallow?

Although not a positive point one should always remember how much wildlife is destroyed by motor vehicles. Correctly sited wind farms will minimise deaths.

By: Steven Goddard

Steven Goddard — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:21:24 +0000

bill,

Those windmills in the countryside are hideous, and always placed in the most visible locations along the tops of ridges where birds migrate.

What is the air speed of a swallow?

By: bill

bill — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:55:42 +0000

[snip]
This is not a thread about windpower but I will say this:

Every watt generated by renewables means a watt less required to be generated by oil/gas/coal/nuclear. UK requires say 65,000,000,000 watts all generated by conventional means (say), if 1 watt is generated by wind then only 64,999,999,999 need be generated by non renewables – do you agree?. I think you will also agree this saves 1 watt * reciprocal of efficiency (=3 watts) equivalent of conventional fuel? This fuel is easily stored for when the wind does not blow i.e. energy has been stored.
Most engineering reports on the UK grid say that 20% approx windpower will cause no grid instability with the system as it stands. Adding better controls will improve this.

BarryW (07:44:02) :
So we build two complete systems incase wind power fails? Where has that been factored into the cost of wind power?

One system already exists but wil need relacing with 60% efficient CCGT base load or GT transient generation.

Future may include wind->Hydrogen for example:
http://www.hydrogen-yorkshire.co.uk/documents/Hydrogen_Generation_HMGS_fact_sheet.pdf

Bill

By: BarryW

BarryW — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:44:02 +0000

bill (05:00:37) :

So we build two complete systems incase wind power fails? Where has that been factored into the cost of wind power?

By: JFA in Montreal

JFA in Montreal — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:24:35 +0000

Human beings tend to think that suffering has a validating power, an ability to instill truth into a subject matter. Much of the Christian religious epistemology is based on that.

For me, their suffering does not bring any more intelligence to their quest. They choose to undergo these hardships mostly as a media stunt, exploiting the above phenomenon.

If they had more sense, they’d go measure the thickness of ice cubes in their drinks on a sunny sub-tropical beach…

By: Bruce Cobb

Bruce Cobb — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:17:31 +0000

Wind energy is possible. So is hamster power, Bill. Every watt/hour of power generated is nearly a watt/hour preserved for future generations. It does not matter that it is intermittent. It is still saved. This is typical AGWer nonsensical blather. You are confusing energy conservation with energy generation. You do not conserve energy by generating it. The question, which you conveniently ignore is, what is the cost, relative to say coal, or whatever energy source is the most readily available? And no, you can't include the completely bogus "cost" of Cap n' Trade and/or "Carbon Tax" scams to artificially drive up the cost of coal, gas and oil.

By: Lucy Skywalker

Lucy Skywalker — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:56:53 +0000

JM (18:23:56) :
all those comments you quote, not very nice perhaps. Yet I suspect that these folk might be the first to volunteer to rescue those three if they were on hand for a rescue call. Stanley Milgram showed the folk we need to worry about are the nice touchy-feelie folk who want to be liked, who defer to authority and do not think for themselves.

By: Lucy Skywalker

Lucy Skywalker — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:47:24 +0000

Bill and Jim
When I’ve done what I can to help the climate science back on track (eg the constantly updating Primer – click my name) I want to explore alternative energies further – not the conventional sun and wind. Harvest Illinois coal for nuclear fuel. Jetstream kites economically feasible: power available is proportional to wind velocity to the 4th power. Patents have been pouring in all last year at a record rate: an indicator of economic growth. Tidal energy: where I live there is enough to cover London twice a day, there are a few ways of harvesting it already on line and more in the pipeline, but I think there’s a lot more to be developed, right under our noses. Brunel’s iron ship was not supposed to float. Now if I could control the body energy of hot flushes I’d never have to worry about heating – the Tibetan lamas can (could) do it :) And more.

By: Mick J

Mick J — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:42:31 +0000

This increasingly seems to be the effort of well meaning but strangely naive participants. I would not think that they have a very long life as a wind direction indicator. :)

Lacy underwear secret tool of polar expedition
Arctic explorer Pen Hadow and his team are relying on a pair of lady’s knickers to navigate their way to the North Pole after compasses failed

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Last Updated: 7:25AM GMT 28 Mar 2009

Catlin Arctic Expedition: When it is cloudy they rely on following the direction of the wind helpfully indicated by a pair of lacy knickers shredded and stuck to the end of a ski pole.
Mr Hadow, who was the first person to trek solo to the North Pole, said the knickers were kindly donated by a supporter of the expedition. Photo: MARTIN HARTLEY

The Catlin Arctic Survey are trekking 700 miles to the North Pole to measure the thickness of the shrinking Arctic icecap.

However due to the proximity to magnetic north the compasses are “going haywire”. The freezing conditions also mean the latest global positioning satellite or GPS equipment will not work.

Therefore the team have to rely on navigating using the position of the sun. When it is cloudy they rely on following the direction of the wind helpfully indicated by a pair of lacy knickers shredded and stuck to the end of a ski pole.
More at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/5061498/Lacy-underwear-secret-tool-of-polar-expedition.html

By: bill

bill — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 13:00:37 +0000

“_Jim (19:55:00) :
Consider wind; wind generation *still* requires baseload (coal or other) plants be operational (EVEN when wind is turning the turbines since it takes days tp bring up or take down a large baseload boiler facility!) since there is no universal, cheap, easy, economical means to store any excess energy, and there is still be considered the means of transmission of this power from parts remote.”

Please look up your facts (I suppose the USA could be different).
In UK there is a 1.3GW generator that can provide 0 to 2GW in 12 seconds, another 1GW that is fractionally slower. There are gas turbines that can be cycled in less than an hour. There are stations running but not producing power that can be brought on line in minutes (not using much fuel) There are mothballed stations that will take months to bring on line, there are cold stations capable of being brought on line in days.

Every watt/hour of power generated is nearly a watt/hour preserved for future generations. It does not matter that it is intermittent. It is still saved.

Interestingly the only recent large scale outage was caused when a nuclear generator shut down unexpectedly.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/28/britishenergygroupbusiness

The pumped storage systems at Dinorwig and Ffestiniog can respond within 15 seconds and is about 60% (cannot find the figure) for complete cycle

Wind energy is possible.

By: Paul Dalier

Paul Dalier — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:39:21 +0000

[snip]

By: anonymous

anonymous — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 09:59:53 +0000

[snip - just a note to other posters, a valid email address is required to post here anonymous@spamhole.com won't cut it]