Tom Nelson writes:
Water vapor as “pollution”?: Sierra Club’s claims are based on opacity, which measures the thickness of emissions from a smoke stack by how much light passes through it.
Readers will surely recall some of our stories about photoshopping smokestack emissions to make them look worse, and specifically choosing images with low sun angles to make steam look like smoke (a video follows).
I wonder if they really have that sort of low information comprehension about emissions.
Sierra Club plans to sue Minnesota Power over pollutants at coal plants
“The Sierra Club’s claims are based on opacity, which measures the thickness of emissions from a smoke stack by how much light passes through it, the AP says. Minnesota Power disputes the contentions in the Sierra Club’s intent-to-sue notice. Officials with the utility tell the AP opacity can be caused by factors other than pollutants, citing water vapor as an example.”
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This is likely just well funded harassment. The process of dealing with the suit is the punishment.
Quick, fix the formatting issue.
According to the Sierra Club, I’m nothing but a pollution generator. First it was the CO2 coming out of my lungs, and now it is the steam coming out of my ears. Why would anyone who doesn’t hate humanity contribute money to these groups?
The Sierra Club should be sued for harrassing and frivolous lawsuits and a basis for such a lawsuit can be found amongst the results of this one, I’m sure. I’m tired of businesses simply paying off agitators and not fighting back.
In answer to your question, no they do not know. Because they do not want to know,
When, I wonder, will the cowardly weasels at the Audubon Society gather evidence of the damage done to our fine feathered friends by wind turbines and start suing the Dept of Energy, etc. etc. ???
Greens are stupid as fnark. Check out one of their campaign posters for a Hamburg Senate election, in which they aimed at a word play with “Kohle” (German for coal) and the conservative CDU’s candidate’s given name Ole. Soot from a cooling tower. They weren’t even aware of their ignorance, when asked whether they didn’t feel embarrassed by this bulls***. Here’s the link:
http://nerd6.fr33bas3.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Gruene_Kohle_Umweltschutz_Hamburg.jpg
Typically, opacity measurement for pollution control trains are taken within the stack and no water vapor has condensed. If the Sierra Club is using the company’s data, they may have a case. If they are using measurements from outside the stack then it is most likely water vapor.
Another name change: Deniers are now Watties.
On the other hand, William M Connolley of The Gaia Gazette feels things are going swimmingly for Dr Mann:
Various people have pointed out that Mann vs Steyn is descending into farce, as Steyn demonstrates ever more clearly his incompetence. Eli. Barry B. Mind you, the Watties are still whistling in the wind: Watts is like Steyn countersues Mann for 10 millon dollars and the crowd are all like “hey wow, that must mean he’s winning”. Its an interesting illustration of the basic inability of the two “sides” to agree on anything. Presumably the wavefunction will collapse at some point when the case actually gets heard, but that could be a way off. Speculation: this is already a success for Mann, in that it will make anyone vaguely sane hesitate to go down the Steyn route to insanity.
[Reply: Connolley is just emitting sour grapes, since he got himself banned from this site. ~ mod.]
The video, at about 1:26: “These towers are releasing the steam after it’s been used in the electricity-making process.” Their own diagram, however, shows the turbine steam passing through a condenser to be re-used. It’s a minor nitpick, but with most of the traditional news media in the alarmist camp, CAGW skeptics need to be scrupulously accurate.
“Officials with the utility tell the AP opacity can be caused by factors other than pollutants, citing water vapor as an example.”
Isn’t water vapor transparent to visible light? Shouldn’t that be “steam” instead?
Louis, you forgot about the methane coming out of your…
Harry,
As all Chief Engineers I sailed with never tired of saying, steam is water at or above boiling point and it is invisible, but when it condenses back below boiling point what you see is water vapour, the same thing that makes up clouds.
The Globe and Mail was a huge offender of the truth wrt this very subject.
They were pushing the green agenda full tilt and even had a menu on their web site called Climate Change” Not environment or Climate like an objective news source might otherwise do.
They regularly hyped (lied) about pollution to advance the green tax issues. Often they would put up images of cooling towers and steam vents and processing plant water effluent stacks with water vapor clouds billowing. They would have such water vapor cloud images associated with Global Warming and environmental activist issue du jour.
The use of steam vents, cooling towers, especially with the strategic use of light to imply soot content in the water vapor, is a classic lie that the news editors use to peddle their propaganda.
From today’s globe and mail…
Notice the choice the editors made to put the water vapor in the middle of the image, Oh No!!! its is pollution, water vapor is pollution…
http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/dea/report-on-business/rob-commentary/rob-insight/article16681583.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/bp-refinery.JPG
The globe and mail has long engaged in news fraud, faking news about the climate, polar bears, rivers drying up by blaming all of it on CO2.
Water Vapor is not pollution. CO2 is not Pollution.
Cx-H2x -2H + ~3/2 O2 –> xCO2 + ~ (X)H2O
Combustion is mostly pollution free. What you see is not the pollution part.
And of course that should read “Gary”.
Stupid transatlantic computer can’t spell properly.
Mods: completely off-topic, but MUCH too funny to pass up:
At JoNova, there is a parody video, called “Canadians dreaming of ‘Plus One’ ” I just watched it, and cannot stop laughing!!
Mark H.
Paul Westhaver says:
Water Vapor is not pollution. CO2 is not Pollution.
Exactly right. But try telling that to a Green-indoctrinated lemming.
The Beeb has been known to illustrate ‘alleged smoke pollution’ stories with images of (water vapour) emissions from cooling towers. The planks.
Oldseadog says (March 26, 2014 at 11:05 am): “As all Chief Engineers I sailed with never tired of saying, steam is water at or above boiling point and it is invisible, but when it condenses back below boiling point what you see is water vapour, the same thing that makes up clouds.”
Clouds are actually water droplets or ice crystals, not vapor:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud
You’re correct, however, in describing “steam” as (technically) water vapor, although in everyday language “steam” means “mist”, or rather a very hot mist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam
The video isn’t entirely accurate. Steam produced in a boiler is condensed, reclaimed, and returned to the boiler as feed water. The stacks release the products of combustion from the boilers furnace.
Having said that, the visible stack emissions is indeed water vapour, a by-product of the combustion of the hydrogen in the fuel source. It becomes more pronounced when the ambient air temperature is lower because colder air can’t hold as much moisture as warmer air, so it becomes saturated more quickly when in contact with the emissions.
The same is true of vehicle exhaust in colder climates. Where it’s really cold, vehicle exhaust pipes will drip water due to rapid condensation of water vapour in the pipe.
off topic but good news .
25th MArch 2014
New paper finds no effect of “acidification” on plankton from CO2 levels 8 times higher than today
A paper published today in Biogeosciences finds that prior claims about the effects of ocean “acidification” on calcifying plankton are highly exaggerated because the artificial laboratory conditions utilized do not correctly simulate the effects in natural seawater. The authors find exposure of the plankton to “acidification” from elevated CO2 concentrations of up to 3247 ppm [over 8 times higher than the present] had no effect on the life cycle (population density, growth and reproduction) of calcifying plankton when natural buffering sediment was present in the experiment
Global Warming will not cost the earth leaked IPCC Report Admits: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/03/26/Global-warming-will-not-cost-the-earth-leaked-IPCC-report-admits
All the photoshopping obviously has been in vain.
Now give me my money back, get rid of those horrible wind farms and stick those solar panels where the sun don’t shines/
The Sierra Club obviously never drove in fog.
For contrast, this iconic photo is no alteration. http://www.pakwheels.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/welderup-cummins-large.jpg Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=mVOFWcXffs0#t=9
Martin Toden says:
March 26, 2014 at 10:26 am
“Soot from a cooling tower. They weren’t even aware of their ignorance, when asked whether they didn’t feel embarrassed by this bulls***. Here’s the link:”
It will work for their base though; the Green Maoist teachers and their brainwashed victims; as they don’t know a thing about technology anyway.
Heh, water vapour is invisible, too, except to them pesky infrareds.
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