Jeez Louise, what a load of bollocks from Time Magazine.
The article goes on to say:
Climate modelers have long known that households are far bigger contributors to global warming than most laypeople realize. For all the blame tailpipe emissions take for escalating temperatures, homes and office buildings are actually the single largest contributor to greenhouse gasses. One key reason is the 100-plus million refrigerators in America’s 111 million households. According to the Department of Energy, the standard fridge sucks up about 8% of the electricity used by all homes—a pretty big share given the dozens of big and small appliances and electronics that are also drawing juice.
Forget climate modelers, lets look at some real data.
On the other side of the energy and emissions issue, we have this recently released (March2011) report from the US Energy Information Administration (PDF)
Total U.S. anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse gas emissions in 2009 were 5.8 percent below the 2008 total (Table 1). The decline in total emissions—from 6,983 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) in 2008 to 6,576 MMTCO2e in 2009—was the largest since emissions have been tracked over the 1990-2009 time frame. It was largely the result of a 419-MMTCO2e drop in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (7.1 percent).
Have a look at CO2 emissions graphically, by energy sector this is from the EIA report:
Now let’s look at CO2 emissions by industrial fuel, still falling fast.
Now here’s the kicker. World Climate Report took the EIA data for total CO2 emissions from the USA, and graphed it against the CO2 emission data for the same period from China:
And these morons at Time magazine are worried about the few extra watts of electrcity used in my electric ice maker and trying to make me feel guilty about it?
I can’t print what I’d like to say.
UPDATE: Some commenters asked about employment -vs-CO2, here’s a graph that is a close proxy for employment, per capita income -vs- CO2.
I do not know how NIST performed their tests, but to say that an Icemaker in the refrigerator increases the energy consumption by 12 to 20% is very high. I design controls for refrigerators for a major company, and trust me there is no heater for the motor that ejects the cubes. There is a mold heater that runs for about at most 30 sec to a minute to release the cubes. And yes it does dump heat into the cabinet that has to be removed. But it does not increase energy consumption by the amount shown in the article.
The primary drivers of power consumed by refrigerators is room ambient temperature, Dew Point (latent heat), clearance around the refrigerator, refrigerator size in volume, configuration (top mount, side by side, bottom mount of the freezer), and usage patterns. In our studies, to produce the same amount of ice by ice cube trays as compared to an icemaker is about a wash according to the methods used.
In very efficient models the icemaker performs better since the pre-chilled water freezes rapidly without a significant amount of evaporation into the cabinet. The evaporated moisture has to be removed by the evaporator coil, which must be defrosted. The defrost operation consumes significantly more power than the icemaker by over a factor of 10. The most efficient icemaker molds are small in size and thus require very little power to heat and they cool rapidly. Thermal heat is removed at about a ratio of 1 watt in takes two watts to remove. Latent heat on the other hand takes about 12 times the energy to remove. This is due to the removal of the latent heat, the defrost heater power for up to 30 minutes, and then the removal of the heat from the defrost at a 1watt in 2watts out ratio.
Obviously this article does not give sufficient information to determine the appropriateness of this test to real world conditions. In studies I have performed I can show the average usage of ice from the refrigerator, the power dissipated and usage conditions. Any method of ice making increases energy consumption. When taken at comparable production rates both methods are very close. And in very efficient models automated icemakers perform better than trays. To make this blanket statement and inaccurate information is just irresponsible advocacy journalism.
I am soooo glad I don’t subscribe to TIME (and don’t remember ever having done so). This AGW alarmist thing is getting REALLY ridiculous. I should remind myself to start using MORE ice from now one — right after I burn the next copy of TIME that I see.
I have just received an Energy Efficiency Certificate for my house, for which I paid £120. The terms ‘Carbon’, CO2, Carbon emmisions, environmental impact, global warming and the like litter every page. The advice given to me to reduce my CO2 emmissions is remarkably similar to that in Gore’s unmentionable book which makes me wonder if perhaps it was he who designed this 6 page document. There is no mention anywhere of my very large fridge and the possible contribution it might be making to the destruction of the planet. I am observing a Lenten discipline at the moment so will not comment on the lack of beer in the house but would add that anyway I prefer a glass or three of red wine which, as it needs to be drunk at room temperature, should earn me a few brownie points!
Cheers (after Easter) Tony
Curiousgeorge says:
April 15, 2011 at 7:23 am
It’s the ancient Romans fault. They started this whole ice cube thing by having caravans of mules going up in the Italian Alps to haul chunks of ice down to Rome.
——————————————————————–
So that’s where the glaciers went. I *knew* those Romans have done nothing for us.
“Climate modelers have long known that households are far bigger contributors to global warming than most laypeople realize.”
I wish I was a “climate modeler” and not just a layperson…I feel…deficient!
…and 13 years old.
About as good a proxy as tree rings are for temperature. There are confounding factors. Population growth and average number of children per adult can lower/raise per capita personal income independent of unemployment figures.
Also, per capita personal income includes all sources of income including capital gains. Profit-taking in the stock market is not necessarily related to unemployment and at times the relationship is (perhaps non-intuitively) backwards of what you might think. Layoffs at an otherwise healthy company is seen as increasing the efficiency of the operation as the less productive, less critical employees are ostensibly the first to go. This then raises the prospects for increased earnings/share and inspires buying which drives up the price. When the company stops laying off and before they are rehiring profits are taken. Perhaps not a large confounding factor as capital gains are a minority share of per capita personal income. Also in a declining economy where prices are expected to fall the saavy investor will profit not only by taking capital gains but also by shorting the market and hence the shortsellers’ profit goes into per capita personal income. Short selling by institutions playing with OPM (other people’s money) happens a lot.
re: Richard P
This is what I find so amazing about this site. It seems no matter what the topic there is at least one poster who has experience/expertise that can refute the AGW claims. This is science at its best! I just wish the media/government would start listening to people with OBSERVATIONAL evidence instead of a bunch of computer models…
(Bob rolls eyes…)
What next, eating ice cream causes global warming?
How about this one, reading Time Magazine causes global warming!!!
The fact of the matter is that the publication of Time Magazine requires vast amounts of energy to power their offices, printing presses, and distribute it.
Save the Earth, cancel your subscription to Time Magazine. 😉
More on per-capita income.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_capita_income
It’s no secret that in the US a majority of the wealth is controlled by a small percentage of the population – what most of us would call “the leisure class”. It’s also no secret that the rich keep getting richer regardless of how the plebs are faring.
In fact one of the few things that Obama mentioned in last address to the nation is we need to raise the marginal tax rates on wealthy individuals. We have now (IIRC) the lowest marginal rates in history. When Eisenhower and JFK were presidents the top marginal rate was 90%. It’s under 40% right now. The across the board tax cuts signed into law by GW Bush were probably unwise as structured. As Obama said, and I must reiterate there are few things he says that I agree with, the only viable solution to the unsustainable rise in national debt must include both cost-cutting and tax increases. Using himself as an example he said the Bush tax cuts saves him $300,000 per year. “What’s better”, he asked, “taking that $300,000 tax savings away from me and I wouldn’t feel a bit of pain over it because I still make millions per year, or taking $6000 per year away from average middle class folks who are already struggling to pay their bills?” I can’t argue with his logic. I might just have to hold my nose and pull the lever for him in 2012 if the Republicans keep insisting that voodoo economics (re; Reagan “trickle down economics”) works. It clearly doesn’t.
The wealthy elite may air condition their 10,000 sq ft homes, but the common masses must not dare put ice in their cola. I’m sure A Gore does both and more. It is not just Libya that is brewing revolution. Soon they will want to exercise “primae noctis” with our blushing brides. That way, they can breed out skeptical tendencies among the masses. GK
Well duh ! When the gummint drives the economy in the toilet, and people are out of work, and gas prices are $4.20 a gallon or more, more people are going to sit around doing nothing but drink cold beer. So of course the Frgi is going to get a workout.
We have a frig in our “lunch room” at work, along with a coffee machine, and a couple of nukes. Also some soft drink vending machines that gorge on electricity.
But back to the frig; it makes ice water in the main cabinet, as well as ice in the freezer. So to get to the ice water, you open the frig door, and then stand there with your glass, under the cvarefully hidden spigot inside the frig, and you push on a lever and ice water comes out.
And then you are left with a frig full of dry hot air that swooped in out of the office, because all the nice cold air in the frig, just spilled out all over the ground while you were inside getting your ice water.
BUT !, this frig full of hot air is essential for keeping the door closed, because when you close the door, the hot air inside, is going to cool rapidly by sucking cold out of all the food inside the frig, and then the Van der Waals equation takes over, and the pressure drop sucks in the door against the rubber seal, so it stays shut. Hint to frig makers ; put the damn ice water spigot and lever outside the box, so you don’t have to open the door and let all the cold air out.
As you can tell, this is a science aand engineering company, that put in a pice of machine crap like that.
Oh we do actually have an ice water machine, that also makes hot water for tea, and it is outside of the frig; so why they need a spigot inside the frig, I’ll never know.
And yes; there is a certain yuppie clique, that just have to get their ice water out of the frig spigot, instead of the filtered ice water machine. Well they are all greenies, too, and some of them take the ice water out of the frig spigot, and then put in their “real” orientally sourced green tea leaves (not the baggie), and then they put that in the nuke to heat it up to proper tea temperature.
Well you don’t think these people would drink coffe out of the coffee machine, do you, when they can go down stairs to the real green Starbucks coffee place.
Reminds, today is actually April 15, Tax day; not like it was the 12th on Tuesday. So I am going to need a couple of those green tea bags, to wear to the TEA party festival this afternoon (after work) Tea party rallies have to be held after work hours, because for some reason tea partiers, all seem to work. The Code Pinkers, can rabble rouse, any time of the day, because none of them work at any job.
But it’s nice to see that the US energy policy seems to be congealing around the ice machine; as the main culprit for climate change.
The one thing the IPCC has correctly surmised, is the link between GHGs, population, and global GDP growth. Intuitively, most people understand that as global populations grow and improve economically, the global GHG concentrations increase. Between 1983-2007 historical improvements in the global economy and attendent population growth caused significant increases in GHG concentrations. However, in hindsight we also see a synchronization of positive Pacific Ocean SSTs and positive Central Atlantic SSTs. From 1976-2007, El Nino events along with a positive AMO from 1995-present enhanced the upward spike in global temps. The IPCC focused on a trace gas (CO2) and its so-called positive feedbacks, and downplayed the role of oceanc circulation anomalies. It goes without saying that we can within reason chart global temperature trends with that of ENSO.
A hobby of mine is following global population trends -especially the Total Fertility Rates (TFRs). The UN data indicates that populations the world over are becoming older (the big exception is Africa, where AIDS, wars, and famines continue to decimate populations despite high TFRs). All of the G-20 nations have TFRs at or significantly below replacement levels. The US is an exception with a TFR in 2009 of 2.09. Even China is flirting with a TFR of at or below 1.5 children per female. What this means for global economic output isn’t totally clear. But, we can look use Japan as the canary in the coalmine. Economically, Japan is undergoing price deflation. It is still an exporting powerhouse, but depends upon US and European imports. Whether Europe can sustain its standard of living beyond this decade is doubtful, as many European nations will see huge swaths of thier capital go to maintaining the standard of living of its large baby-boom population(s). And US will be fighting to pay off its staggering debt load for some decades (either that, or it will inflate its way out of debt. Or worse, default). And Asia is seeing the same demographic shifts that Europe underwent 2-3 decades ago. In short, where will all of those well-off consumers come from? The world still depends upon the US to float all boats. China has its own problems, and as some economists say, China will get old before it gets rich.
In all probability, the world saw an economic Golden Age come and go between 1983-2007. Populations will age and then begin to fall. And economic output on a global scale will certianily not repeat the post Cold War output (1992-2007). CO2 levels on a global scale, therefore, will begin to fall sometime late this decade or early next. We will then see how the IPCC begins to change thier tune. My thinking is that the IPCC will gradully drop thier more Hasenesque rhetoric, and begin to devolve out of the GHG meme entirely. Climate Change will also be recasted. In what form we can only guess. People like Dr Trenbeth can only decalre that AGW remains hidden in our oceans for so long before people stop listening.
I love the last graph, labeled figure 12.
Correlation is causation is the hockey team mantra, right?
I see our CO2 emissions going down, and so is our income…
-Jay
What do people do that wastes the most energy at the refrigerator? Stand there with the door open wondering what to eat, or what not to eat. Now, people might not go for a glass door (gas insulated) because then you’d have to keep it clean all the time, put flowers in there and maybe some pictures of the kids. But how about a door made of Glass with liquid crystalls sandwich between. I’ve seen this before, when the power to the glass is off it is opaque, with a little current the crystalls align and the glass becomes trasparent. You could hook it up so that when you touch the handle it goes clear and then, when you finally open the door to retrieve whatever, an alarm would begin to ring reminding you that you are destroying your children’s future. I think I smell a new law.
Here’s a news story about Unilever looking into selling warm ice cream that you take home and freeze to help tackle global warming.
Unilever wants ice cream to ease global warming
Ian Summerell says:
April 15, 2011 at 12:33 am
The next thing may be ban humans for living on the planet? If you think like a Climate modeler, the next thing will be that humans produce CO2, which they says is a greenhouse gas, if there is less humans we could save the planet. I know the is off the wall but you wait and see.
Just for fun, I looked up a few things this morning. For satisfactory oxygenation of the blood, humans need to transpire 5 to 8 liters of air per minute. Expelled breath contains about 4% carbon dioxide. An exhaled breath therefore contains about 40,000 ppmv of CO2.
If my calculations are close to right, assuming a world human population of 6.5 billion, CO2 density of 1.98 grams/liter and an average of 6.5 liters of air breathed/minute/person, we inject approximately 4.9 billion kilograms of CO2 into the atmosphere per day.
This says nothing about all the animals and their contribution of CO2 and, er, other gasses.
No wonder the greenies want us gone. And, when we’re gone, no more deadly ice makers.
CARBON DIOXIDE IS CO2. CO2 IS IN BEER/SOFT DRINK’S; CO2 IS BENEFICIAL TO ALL LIFE EVEN DRINKS!
These Eco fascists/ green progressives are truly out of control theirs no end to their tyranny or hatred for the human race, except for themselves. It is all set out in the UN Master Plan AGENDA 21 coming to your neighborhood soon!
Here’s a CO2 guild/rules the Progressives/Greens might/could/will introduce:
WAYS TO REDUCE CARBON DIOXIDE
Here’s a CO2 guild/rules the Progressives/Greens might/could/will introduce:
WAYS TO REDUCE CARBON DIOXIDE and YOUR CARBON FOOT PRINT
Don’t drive = CO2
Don’t fly – Only VIP’s on CLIMATE DISRUPTION OR GOVERNMENT business allowed
Don’t live or work in ANY building using gas or electricity – They produce 2-5 times the CO2 of a car
Don’t wear shoes or clothing factory made. Grow Cotton. Make your own clothes go bare foot in summer and winter
Quit school – Schools and especially University buildings produce more CO2 in a year then you do in 20 years.
Don’t use books or paper it kills trees – use your memory and imagination instead.
Eat meat raw and uncooked foods – Cooking with gas, fire or electric produce’s CO2
Be kind to GAIA – Kill a Cow, a Pig, an Elephant or anything that breaths, its good for the Greens & there’s less CO2 exhaled
Don’t use tap water or wash = less CO2 = Sustainability & no electricity
Don’t use toilets, urinate or defecate on the plants in your backyard or your – neighbors it feed the plants creates delicious local foods = sustainability/biodiversity!
Stop exercising – It produces CO2.
Don’t use electric appliances of ANY KIND – ESPECIALLY COMMUNICATION DEVISES AND CELL PHONES, and NO smoke signals please?
Turn off this computer – You hypocrite.
Stop breathing – You exhale carbon dioxide.
Die – Dying younger means you will do LESS of the above. You will save the earth 8.4 tons of CO2 every year you’re not here!
Stop thinking you zombie, that’s a good boy, your feeling better already?
Now off to the sheep pen with you, your a useless human CO2 exhaling peace of trash to be sheared, fleeced, shook down, drawn and quartered, reduced and turner into a little Soylent green protein pill or fertilizer for Mother Gaia!
To bring about this Utopian world – Vote Progressive – Eco fascists or Greens = same results!
They caught me. I’ve been making ice to replace that lost in the Artic.
Pingo says:
Beer shouldn’t be cold, it should be around 14c or 57f in order to enjoy its full flavour. Thats if it has any, dear americans..
Pingo, I can assure you that my beer has flavour. Of course, I make it myself.
I wonder how much CO2 THAT pumps out – my bubbler goes quite mad with the CO2 passing through it during fermentation…
Jimbo says:
[self snip]
Careful, don’t hurt yourself!
Seriously – I think we should encourage more of this sort of article. It really helps get across how loony these ideas are.
Andy G says:
April 14, 2011 at 10:41 pm
And I am NOT turning my fridge down for anyone. I like my beeer COLD !!!
Now listen old chap, I appreciate that you colonials have some weird ideas about the most appropriate temperature for beer, but we from the old country understand that it’s best served at around 56-60 degrees (in old money you understand) and (I know this may come as a shock to some people, without bubbles in it (and I’m not referring to any monkey here, either)).
Mind you, I am partial to some Anchor Steam whenever I’m in SF (but please don’t report me to the British beer police).
… and there was me so determined to get my html attributes right that I messed up the brackets.
We in the old country have an 8 letter word to use at this point. It starts with ‘b’ and ends with ‘s’ and has the letters in ‘ollock’ in the middle, (not necessarily in that order, but you never know 😉 ).
How much of that decline in coal use is due to the economy and how much is due to the decline in temperatures? My monthly usage rarely exceeds 2000 kw-hrs these days (deep south).
It’s not hard to see why Time magazine is such an idiotic publication when you realise that they partners with the Communist News Network (CNN). I’ve seen the most abysmal lies being intentionally spouted on CNN, especially regarding AGW. Probably explains why their ratings are so bad.
Anthony, that’s a great graph you got there. I can’t think of a better way to illustrate that CO2 emissions are a proxy for prosperity.
@Mr. Green Genes says: April 15, 2011 at 11:16 am
My thoughts absolutely.
America is a wonderful country. I like the great majority of Americans I have met.
Unfortunately most mass-produced American beer is [fizzy self snip]. The fact that it is wet and cold is the best thing about it. (Mass-produced Australian beer is even worse).
But English real ale is absolutely wonderful (when in good condition).
And you spoil it by serving it chilled.
I’m pleased to say that a lot of CO2 is released in the brewing process.