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’.]
The only warming that will disrupt your Wi-Fi connection is that from heating your “hot pockets” in a microwave oven.
Both 802.11b and 802.11g operate in the same spectrum as the average microwave oven, i.e. 2.4 GHz. Later version wireless base stations try to go around any interference from microwave ovens, but it can easily reduce your speed by a factor of 10 or more for older Wi-Fi units.
Obviously this person has never had the delights of sitting by a pool with an iPad, beer and 80 degrees temperatures and wifi working perfectly.
The tracks In hrs uk allow for thermal expansion and contraction. Were quite good at engineering here.
Utter bollocks and drivel such as this does the anti-global warming movement the best service possible, as anyone with half a brain can see it’s a load of crap.
Jimbo says: “WiFi works perfectly fine in our tropical country. It’s in all the major hotels.”
Ah, I see a perfect research project for a climate scientist: WiFi works well here, but we all know it has been affected (negatively) by climate change. For a nice research grant we can determine – through modeling – how much better it would have worked without the negative effects of extra CO2 in the atmosphere.
The above is the framework for a successful career in climate science. Just apply and repeat as often as it takes to get tenure.
Excuse me? Anyone want to explain how 0.2°C change in average global temp is going to effect the RF of a WiFi signal? This 25 year veteran of Space Communications for NASA (which includes all wavelengths, environments, distances and error correction/detection options) wants to hear a valid and defensible theory on how air temp effects EM for WiFi distances.
“[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’.]”
Yes.
Steve Holliday, chief executive of National Grid, UK says:
”The days of permanently available electricity may be coming to an end […] We keep thinking that we want it to be there and to provide power when we need it. It is going to be much smarter than that. […] We are going to change our own behaviour and consume it when it is available”
Indeed, if electricity is not available permanently or at least when it is needed, that can have a somewhat detrimental effect on wi-fi. Common sense is not enough to show it is that way, that’s not scientific enough. We are much smarter than that. We need guvmint grant money and need it now.
Louise Gray rearranges as
Yo Rag Lies Us !
hmm……
BTW, where is the peer reviewed study showing how this would work – I want to see what morons passed this crap off as valid engineering or science.
Good lord, if you can sit in your house detect 5-7 home WiFis (as I can) clearly we are not on the verge of signal degradation.
The real tragedy here – our school systems have produced people so naive and gullible this kind of story does not get you fired for total incompetence.
Death Valley WiFi Hotspot
sorry – extra ‘s’ – should be
“Yo Rag Lies U” – but you get the gist anyways………….
Let’s not ridicule them TOO much – we don’t want them to stop! You can’t make it up!
Ladies and Gentlemen today you have just witnessed a little bit of history:
The United Kingdon of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has officially been declared the World’s first ‘Parliamentary Idiocracy’.
Too many Idiocrats with too much time and too much of our money!
jorgekafkazar says: May 9, 2011 at 12:30 pm
“• More heat-resistant rail tracks to prevent buckling…”
Beyond stupid. Doltish, ignorant, idiotic pseudoscientific drivel without any connexion to reality.
———————————————————————-
Railroad (railway in the UK) rails are welded now. When the temperature rises, the rails get longer. That’s the temperature coefficient of expansion of steel, a structure insensitive property. Rails are slender members in engineering parlance and will buckle if loaded in compression. To prevent this, the rails are torch heated before welding so that they cool and go into tension, which is a stable state. As long as the rail ambient temperature doesn’t exceed the temperature when welding, they will be OK. But if the ambient temperature rises too high, the rails will buckle and possibly derail a train. Here in the US Southwest desert, the rails are heated to higher temperatures before welding so they can take higher ambient temperatures.
That long-winded explanation just means that higher-than-predicted temperatures can buckle the rails. Here’s an example of a UK RSSB report: Review of the Effect of Track Stiffness on Track Performance . It’s a .pdf online, so I can’t link it directly. The report claims 70 derailments in the UK in 2003 due to temperature stresses.
Keep a watch out for Climate Change being blamed for wreaking havoc on Digital TV reception when the enforced switchover from Analogue to Digital transmission here in the UK gathers pace.
Digital TV has been promoted as a higher quality alternative so we must all rush out to shell out more money for set top boxes or new TV’s with receivers built in.
Here on the outer fringes of East Anglia we already lose this wonderful signal in a mass of pretty pixellations when it rains heavily or there is a high pressure system with a mass of warm air over us. Just as the old analogue signal used to dissolve into a a mass of hissing static in the same situations.
But with new super duper Digital you can bet it will be good old Climate Change getting the blame, and what’s the betting we’ll have to pay an increased licence fee to build new transmitters to combat that nasty CO2 build up ?
Good god, where do we find them?
I suppose I’d better leave my fridge door open?
This article is based on a government issued report. Although we should be criticising the ‘reporter’ for her lack of critical thinking, we should also be aiming our vitriol at the report.
From http://www.defra.gov.uk/publications/files/summary-report-final-version2.pdf they state:
1. Information gaps: improving specific climate information and research to industry. Work by PwC8 found that while there is growing awareness of climate change based on Government funded information, …..
It’s the “Government funded information” that we should be worried about.
I also note that, although they mention climate change, the premise is that the change will only be in one direction – higher temps. No chance of being prepared for more cold winters.
(Wi-Fi working fine in Oz)
Correction: That high number was track buckles, not derailments in the UK in 2003. The report claims one derailment that year due to temperature buckling. Sorry
Heat and electronic equipment don’t mix: if the smoke escapes, it’s dead. So they gotta do something, anything, *NOW* to keep all the smoke in!
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.
Life is tough. It is even tougher when you are stupid.
“Berényi Péter says:
May 9, 2011 at 2:11 pm
“[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’.]”
Yes.
Steve Holliday, chief executive of National Grid, UK says:
”The days of permanently available electricity may be coming to an end […] We keep thinking that we want it to be there and to provide power when we need it. It is going to be much smarter than that. […] We are going to change our own behaviour and consume it when it is available”
Indeed, if electricity is not available permanently or at least when it is needed, that can have a somewhat detrimental effect on wi-fi. Common sense is not enough to show it is that way, that’s not scientific enough. We are much smarter than that. We need guvmint grant money and need it now.”
So, should this actually happen here is how it could, possibly, maybe go down.(to borrow from the pro-agw crew)
If your last name starts with “Los” and it is Tuesday, even number date, with a full moon, odd numbererd address on a north/south aligned street, you are left-handed, and the town you live in starts with a “Z”, you may turn on ONE light for 5 minutes.
I don’t see a problem. When the roads melt it will merely fill in all the pot holes made by that nice warm December we had in the UK.
I’m sceptical of that one derailment. Snow causes much more rail havoc. Just ask UK Joe public.
Now this is what you call living in denial. It’s all part of the theory of Warmcold Wetdry.
WiFi connection too slow? GLOBAL WARMING!
Neighbor’s kids outside playing too loudly during your favorite TV program? GLOBAL WARMING!
Barista at Starbucks took too long making your Venti Macchiato? GLOBAL WARMING!
Somebody cut you off on the way home? GLOBAL WARMING!
There hasn’t been a scapegoat that fits all the world’s ills so nicely since Bush 43 left office…
Blundering Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman to spend less time being grilled by MPs.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/2011/04/29/blundering-environment-secretary-caroline-spelman-to-spend-less-time-being-grilled-by-mps-115875-23093162/