News Post by Ryan Maue
A government issued report from the UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) sounds the alarm about the incredible impacts of climate change upon UK: Wi-Fi signal range and strength will be greatly affected because of warmer temperatures. Of course, there are other concerns like railroad tracks buckling, better wind turbines to deal with higher winds, and flood protection.
I think the UK Telegraph and Guardian are sort of mocking the story, especially with the deadpan language and imagery in their stories. To me, it seems there are better ways to promote infrastructure stimulus funding rather than highlighting the effects of climate change on Wi-Fi signals.
Climate change ‘threatens UK wi-fi connections’, says government report — UK Guardian
Climate change ‘could disrupt wi-fi and hit power supply’ — UK Telegraph
[note: commenter wiglaf says: They are missing a word in the title. It should read: Climate change regulation ‘could disrupt wi-fi and hit power supply’.]
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Ryan…
This is my Government.. This lot are just as stupid as the last lot. I guess politicians are very sensitive to this extra CO2.
Over at ace.mu.nu , they headlined this story thusly;
“New Attempt To Scare You: Global Warming Will Destroy Your Access To Internet Pr0n”
without the typos in the P word…
RR
Do not fall into the trap of believing that the Daily Telegraph mocks environmental issues. The journalist concerned (Louise Gray) is nothing other than an unthinking mouthpiece for the ubergreenists.
Where does she get her “science” from?
99.9% of wi-fi is used inside buildings, so even if she were correct, since when do we get heavy rainfall indoors?
Wi-fi affected by temperature? Poppycock!, maybe by increased humidity.
Then she is only talking about 2.4GHz signals, which are slap bang on the water absorption frequency (which is why microwave ovens use that frequency — hey! she missed that one — YOUR MICROWAVE WILL STOP WORKING!).
Absolute garbage – for which she should really be looking for a new job. Since she isn’t her boss most certainly should be!
Because I use most of my Wi-Fi indoors, this tells me to crank up the air conditioning. If I’m going to use Wi-Fi in the backyard, turn up the air conditioning more so there will be less signal lost inside the house and that will compensate for the loss outdoors due to higher temperature.
Be careful what you warn people of, they might get the wrong message.
If Heineken made stupid people:
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2011/05/if-heineken-made-stupid-people.html
Never take your laptop outside on the patio where it may be a few degrees warmer…it could be bad. /sarc
This is the most effing stupid thing I’ve ever read.
The Telegraph and the Guardian both have articles on this report, only the Telegraph allows comments and they are virtually 100% disparaging of both Journalist and Govt Minister.
The Guardian supports this guff but even they knew allowing comments would be an own goal 😉
Sadly our Govt believes this tripe despite WiFi working very well in the Sahara at 40C summer after summer.
Meanwhile, according to NCDC, this April was cooler than last April and the temperatures for the most recent 12-month period going back to 1998 shows a trend of 0.73 degrees F per decade of cooling.
But they have already convinced the children that things are warming.
Please see Dr North’s view at http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/. Mind you, the comments at the Telegraph say it all. In the last few days I had become more optimistic re the UK political climate on energy – and then this nonsense.
and i thought our pols ( U.S.A ) suck the most. Guess U.K. pols suck too!!!
Cross posted on The Daily Telegraph:
“Already the transport sector is preparing for temperatures above 104F (40C) this summer, which could lead to breakdowns on the railways.”
Dear Loiuse
If you were just a reporter I suppose you could get away with your article. However as the environment correspondant for this paper do you not think it would be appropriate to question why they are “planning for 40C and also to question if this temperature was to be reached could the railways accommodate the thermal expansion.
I guess it probably could because it is not the temperature that is important its the range the track was designed to expand and contract. Most engineering solutions adopt a factor of safety. Are there any specialists out there who could help? Also most track in the uk is I think welded?
From the Gruaniad article:
“The UK’s entire major infrastructure will be affected by climate change,…”
Yeah… like during the next glacial. Otherwise, the UK seems to be doing just fine during this interglacial.
Is anyone out there in the UK sunk up to their axles in the melting tarmac? …Anyone? …Anyone?
I thought not.
Nuts …
Quite the amusing read
I have often wondered what the net impact of the millions of varied technological emissions that we have taking place everyday, 24×7, has on our atmosphere.
Think of how things have changed over the last half century.
We now have 800 or so Satellites beaming down on us.
Perhaps 10’s of thousands of cell/communication towers and billions of cell and cordless phones and wireless network device.
How many more, and also more powerful, radar systems on Land, Sea and Air globally.
The list is long and getting longer each day.
I find nothing published that explores the cumulative impact on our global conditions from the ever increasing use of varied wireless technologies. Just wondering if anyone else may ?
They are missing a word in the title. It should read:
Climate change regulation ‘could disrupt wi-fi and hit power supply’.
[ryanm: nice…copied comment up to the end of post]
Lol: “Crazy bureaucrat”. That’s exactly what I thought when I saw that picture.
Dear Anthony
I think you need to set up a special page so that we can all make up stupid reasons for anything that could be affected by global warming. 🙂
Buildings will start to crack and fall down because of excessive expansion.
People with pacemakers are advised to place ice packs over their hearts in heatwaves. The ice should be contained within a lead shell which will protect the pacemaker from long and short wave radiation generated by the heat.
Oh, my God!
Does this mean that Wifi is bad in Africa, and runs super-fast in the poles?
Or, since I need some more bandwidth, I’ll try to put the antennas on the floor, where it is colder (hot air rises), but propagates less? Or use it at night?
Anthony, you’re right. It can’t get much stupider than this! But it will!
Ecotretas
Well, you know they have been complaining about not getting their message out….
..or re-framing the message they do get out
Why do they feel so driven to make predictions…
..when it’s their predictions that have made them look like utter fools
A popular misconception; it happens to be a convenient frequency (for a variety of reasons I won’t go into).
From wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven
Electromagnetic absorption by water: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_absorption_by_water
.
“Wi-Fi signal range and strength will be greatly affected because of warmer temperatures.”
Aussies!
Hows yer bloody wifi?
The cumulative impact of these wired technologies is a rounding error compared to the varied effects of the Electro-Magnetic radiation being emitted by that great fireball in the sky.
The only threat to UK power generation is the insane UK Government’s energy policy.
You can read that both ways: That the UK Government is insane or that the energy policy is insane; both are true.
2.4 GHz will get cut off in fog. I used a WISP for a while that was about 6 miles away. The only time I lost access was in fog (pretty dense fog). I’m not a “climate scientist”, but global warming should bring us less fog (in theory the CO2 keeps the air temp from dropping as close to the dewpoint as it otherwise would. Temperature has no effect on those signals.