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’.]
One of the biggest flaws in environmental thinking is their assumption that the world is absolutely static – that we live in an unchanging perfect (or even semi-perfect) state that does not change. Its bollocks and Caroline Spelmans complete intellectual inadequacy is completely laid bare.
How long have we had wireless ? Not even 10 years …. How long have we had e-mails ? Barely 20 … maybe ? The rate of change of what we use technologically is infinitely faster than any climate effect – manmade or natural. And to make out that something we use now, which will have been superceded and obsolete within years- let alone decades – is a reason to be concerned due to something which changes over centuries ….. truly it makes me ashamed to be British. That we can elect such idiocy.
Report authors: http://www.aeat.co.uk/cms/solutions
Porky pies being one of them.
Douglas DC,
You might enjoy this blog.
Tracks buckle? How do these fools think Australia runs a railway through the hot Northern Territory?
Didn’t you know Ron? they only run the Ghan throught the cool parts of the Simpson and the Stony Deserts, the bits that only get to 55°C
When crack-pot liberals can’t get published, they head to the Guardian.
I will give this a bit of a try under controlled conditions: An S12 (transmission) test using a pair of 2.4 GHz dipoles on an HP Network Analyzer spaced a half a meter apart and between the two dipoles I’ll introduce a ‘layer’ or thin film of water on a suitable RF transparent material …
.
Re the buckling of roads and tracks
This is going to be more insidious than you may think.
Not too many years back I lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The roads there are, or at least were ( don’t know the current situation), notoriously bad. During one very hot summer heat wave many concrete roads, including Interstates buckled badly, but there was more than just the heat involved.
As you know, concrete expands, which is why there are expansion joints every few feet, filled with a rubbery-like material. The material will compress when the concrete expands, and expand when the concrete contracts, keeping the road uniform. Well, it seems like the politicians found other uses for the tax money collected for road maintenance – Lousiana has had a history of competing against Illinois for the title of, “Most Corrupt Government”. The expansion material had deteriorated and washed away over the years, and of course nothing done. In its place, gravel, road debris, bits of car parts, etc. had filled in the gaps between the concrete slabs. When the heat-wave came and the concrete expanded, the path of least resistance for the slabs was up.
If this were to happen now, what would be blamed? Global warming, of course. The ultimate CYA response for bureaucrats. I can see the future: politician: “We’re going to start replacing all the concrete roads and tracks we have with heat resistant materials to avoid global warming problems.” (and give my brother-in-law the billion dollar contract of which he’ll kick a couple of mill back to me). “Oh, and we’ll have to raise your gasoline taxes to pay for it.”
Are there any government run/subsidized Wi-Fi networks in the UK? I could see them “proactively” replacing them with “heat-tolerant” components – which will result in someone making a lot of money and give the government an excuse for another tax.
And when something does go wrong, it will be the fault of GW, not bureaucratic incompetence, graft, or corruption.
Global warming – the gift to government that keeps on giving.
There may be hope for Jolly Olde yet.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/nuclearpower/8501816/Nuclear-power-cheaper-option-than-offshore-wind-farms.html
Has all this warming yet brought back the British wine industry that the French wanted canned in the Medieval Warming? Just curious, we have Napa, French and Italian wines at the local Safeway, but no British ones so far! (H.H. Lamb, Vol. 2, p 277).
The great mysteries of history. How did the polar bears ever make it? And how high did the seas finally rise? Not as high as the British vineyards, thank God! Looking forward to the first sip of that delightful British wine. Too bad that Wi-Fi was not around then, I am sure HHL would have included it in his book.
I suppose everyone here is familiar with the UN climate shenanigans in progress, but if not check out http://sovereignty.net/p/clim/2011-GCF-html. Three reports by Cathie Adams.
Re: RR track buckling.
(1) We’re only looking at a couple of degrees in this century. If Arizona can have railroads, the UK should be able to handle an extra 2°C, unless their tracks were installed (a) in a shoddy manner or (b) without any safety factor at all or (c) without maintenance.
(2) Possibly 50% of the warming “record” is caused by higher minimum (nighttime) temps, rather than higher daytime temperatures, so 2° is more like 1°.
(3) Temperatures have flatlined, so 0° or less is more probable. .
(4) Long pipelines are protected from expansion kinks by suitable joints. For an example of one such joint in RR applications, see: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4171774.html
Not really a big deal, just more AGW reaching-for-straws.
The comments at the Telegraph say it all.
What a pile of crap!
It has to be said that whoever is in charge of the home page for the Daily Telegraph has a sense of humour. It is noticeable that they now ensure there is a front page link to Gray’s “Cut and Paste” delusions!
I guess they know we can all do with a good laugh to start the day and my, my, she does get panned in the comments! Even the trolls that used to turn up to support her have given up along with the Met Office media people that used to feed her fodder.
This is what we have to put up with in Britain.
The Earth has survived six great ice ages lasting millions of years, but, according to her previous statements on global warming, Caroline Spelman believes the Earth will be destroyed by cow farts.
Fortunately Australia will be perfectly safe from the loss of Wi-Fi due to AGW – we are investing at least $35B AUD (and probably double that again) in a “National Broadband Network (NBN)”.
Everyday I count my blessings for having such a wise and benelovent Government to spend the tax money that I earn.
I’m sure that the British politicians could learn a thing or two from their colonial cousins, especially wrt devising plans to save themselves from the ravages of AGW. All we seem to need in Australia is a politician, a paper napkin, a pen and a few glasses of red wine served by an RAAF hostie…
I’m a bit late to this but if I (as a retired former railway engineer) may interject?
Yes, rails are installed deliberately to cope with a wide range of temperatures. They are either continuous welded steel installed under tension to allow for thermal expansion or, for secondary routes, are mainly 60 ft. sections bolted together with a small gap to allow for expansion. The trick is to get the amount of tension right to cope with the expected temperatures over the whole summer period as it’s not a job that can be done quickly to react to continuously changing circumstances. It is not always possible to get this right so occasionally buckles do occur; what is more likely is that speed restrictions are imposed to cope with major short term variances.
Now to the temperature bit. Do not confuse track temperatures with air temperatures. Anyone who is a motor racing fan (especially F1 fans in the UK) will be familiar with the difference between the temperature on the tarmac and that of the air around the circuit. Don’t forget that the air temperature is not that in exposed sunny areas whereas the track temperature certainly is. The same is true for railways – temperatures at the rail exceed 40C virtually every summer at least somewhere in the UK, sometimes by a very large margin, even though we’ve never had a recorded temperature above 38.5C (IIRC).
All the above is well known to railway engineers and is not surprising, unusual and definitely not caused by ‘global warming’. Oh, and for the record, Spelman is definitely an arse, as is the journalist involved.
See earlier comment.
It makes you wonder how they manage to operate in the UAE and other very hot places!
It is quite alarming how many politicians lack intelligence and common sense. It frightens me that these people are running countries. Don’t they think things through in a logical scientific manner or even have advisors with an ounce of intelligence?
How did WiFi do during the UK’s 2010 heatwave? Moscow? Was it a total failure?
DaveS says:
May 9, 2011 at 11:33 am
This is my Government.. This lot are just as stupid as the last lot. I guess politicians are very sensitive to this extra CO2
It is probably caused by ‘back-radiative cephaloporosis,’ a politician’s disease, amplified by the fresnel lens over the Palace of Westminster. So the problem really is global warming.
Spelman is nearly as daft as that loon that chairs the EPA.
I can see solar flares doing this sort of damage. Perhaps Spelman sees climate change driving solar flares!
WARNING: SUN SOON TO GO DARK
UK Government discovers Global Warming blocks photon transmission….
Possible to go dark in broad daylight. Extra lights to be installed to make up the loss.
Glad we invented those solar panels for power…. oh, wait a minute….
Never mind, just follow me over this cliff… aaaaaaahhhhhhhh…. SPLAT !
_Jim and Scottish Sceptic, it was fog. I had a 200 foot drop to the valley floor and the WISP was on the other side of the valley. When the fog lay below the line of sight I had signal, when it was above, I lost signal. I also did some neighborhood point to point links and foliage was worse than nonfoliage and wet foliage was even worse. Fog was a problem too if it was dense enough.