Essay by Eric Worrall
Why are we wasting resources on the imaginary climate crisis, when there are real threats to address?
The Melbourne meteor, if it was a meteor, wasn’t as big as the Chelyabinsk blast of 2013, but it was powerful enough to make people wonder what just happened, over a large area.
What can I say? It’s only a matter of time until one of these space objects seriously damages a city or worse.
Some scientists believe Tall el-Hammam, an important city state in the Bronze age, was wiped out by a Tunguska scale blast in the year 1650BCE. Tall el-Hammam was near the biblical city of Jericho.
And of course, we have the Tunguska blast of 1908 itself, estimated yield of 12 megatons, as proof dangerous space objects are still out there.
There are other mysterious devastations through history, some of which might have been meteoric. Some researchers claim the Manuika crater in New Zealand is evidence of a 15th century comet strike and regional mega-tsunami, though this claim is controversial.
There is a risk an unexpected meteor might be mistaken for a nuclear attack. The East Mediterranean Event of 2002 could have started a nuclear war, had it exploded further East over India or Pakistan. 2002 was a time of heightened tension in the region.
Space defence is an issue we could actually try to address. A better space watch would reduce the risk of unpleasant surprises. Even a little more warning could save lives, and there are technologies we could explore, such as Project Orion (if detected late), or NASA’s hypervelocity interceptor (if detected early), which might allow us to prevent substantial collisions with Earth.
But our politicians are too busy frittering uncounted trillions of dollars on climate unicorn projects to bother with real problems.
Meteors are a classic low probability high impact event. the odds of serious damage on any given year might be very low, but if we don’t do something to address the threat, it is inevitable that sooner or later something really bad will happen.
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Though I totally agree we should do more, the fact is that we have come a long way in identifying NEOs in the last 30 years. Until relatively recently amateur astronomers discovered far more planets than the professionals, but that has been changing.
comets not planets. Sure miss that edit function sometimes.
Not as mush as it missus mee
Yes, the NASA NEO catalog is big, and getting bigger. The Chelyabinsk meteor wasn’t in that catalog, and we didn’t see it coming. That’s because it approached us after passing perihelion – that is, it was between us and the Sun. Meteors are difficult enough to see when they’re front-illuminated. They’re impossible to see when backlit.
The Chelyabinsk meteor exploded at an altitude of about 70,000 feet, with a blast yield equivalent to a 500 kiloton bomb. With just a few degrees steeper entry, the blast would have been much lower, and what was widespread damage to structures would instead have been widespread destruction.
NASA believes, by the way, that they have found “almost all” NEOs. Their reasoning is that the rate at which new NEOs are being identified is diminishing. If you look at the data, you can appreciate how relative the term “almost all” is – which means that the remainder to be found is probably quite large.
My understanding is that they think the majority they have not found are 10 meters or less in size.
You know what they say about “almost” – Only counts for horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear weapons.
ah yes, pollution poisoning millions of people per year, trillions drained from the economy, climate change on decadal time scale are not a threat but the chance that a big meteor will hit a city sometime in the next several million years is. fossil fuel (is that spelled correctly or should be with two o’s?) logic at work.
Fossil fuels allow you to make stupid comments on the internet.
Fossil fuels also allow him to do research (which he didn’t do) prior to making stupid posts…
😉🤔
Pollution?
As in naive minds being
fed a constant stream of climate crisis bullshit?
Be happy you were able to complete your nonsense comment and haven’t been hit by a comet.
Ask the Chinese living in polluted cities if they want to turn back the clock. I have a friend who grew up in a Chinese peasant village. A life without fossil fuel only looks like fun when you watch it on TV.
Wow! Really? Sounds amazing! Don’t keep it to yourself, show us where so we can all see it.
Standing by……
CO₂ is not a pollutant. It’s actually the basis of life on this planet.
My research is about turning forward the clock to fusion energy–producing as much energy from a kilo of fuel as a thousand tons of fossil fuel. CO2 is essential to plant life–we happen to be animals and our health is based on a very high ratio of O2 to CO2, which is an animal waste product. Fusion would completely eliminate pollutants, which include many thousands of chemicals other than C02 produced by burning fossil fuels.
And animals don’t need plants ? Have you been at school the one or the other day ?
Where is the comet when it’s needed ? 😀
How many thousands of years do you want to wait for this miracle fusion power?
Animals evolved back when CO2 levels were over 5000ppm, often up to 7000ppm.
Going from 300ppm to maybe 800ppm will not bother any of them.
Chemicals are also produced in vast volumes- other than from burning fossil fuels. So you won’t be without SOME pollution once YOU’ve perfected fusion energy.
When I visited a Taco Bell restaurant in the past, it didn’t take long to be reminded of the facts to which you speak.
How do you make plastics with fusion? How do you lubricate stuff with fusion? How do you make electricity cables with fusion? How do you make construction materials with fusion?
Provide the world tomorrow with enough fusion power to run the world and mankind will still be reliant on fossil fuels to progress.
The problem with nutters like you is that you don’t do any research other than to confirm your own simplistic bias.
Mankind’s future will rest, as it has in the past, with a well balanced energy mix.
Maybe it’s time you stopped watching the Jetsons reruns.
Your research is equivalent to fairytale la-la-land. !
Daydream believer. !!
Your magical thinking is so cute. Trouble is, fusion will never be commercially viable. (A far more difficult problem than mere technical feasibility).
It’s the energy source of the future. Always has been, always will be.
My thought on fusion and similar projects is a “10, 100, 1,000” rule™.
Get 10 operating and connected to the grid.
Have 100 under construction with full financing in the bank.
Have 1,000 permitted by location with financing committed.
CO2 is essential to plant life–we happen to be animals and our health is based on a very high ratio of O2 to CO2, which is an animal waste product.
Rocks -> CO2 -> plants -> 02 -> animals -> CO2 etc. etc.
Dumb. A true threat not all that long term (next glacial age) is CO2 starvation. Since volcanism has been winding down geologically, each glacial period is going to have ever lower CO2 levels and getting below 150 ppm (where it was last glacial period) is threatening life on the planet.
turning forward the clock to fusion energy
Let us know when it actually works. Until then, it’s fantasy.
“Well, … bless your heart!”
(said with southern drawl)
Love it !
While there is pollution, there has always been pollution.
Check the historical records for what life was like in any of the larger cities a few hundred to a few thousand years ago.
It was the wealth created using fossil fuels that allowed that pollution to be cleaned up.
I agree that the trillions of dollars being wasted on so called renewable energy is a complete waste and that the only people who benefit from it are the politicians and those who own them.
Will a big meteor hit someday? Obviously. Unless we do something to stop it. If we wait until we have spotted that asteroid, it will be too late.
The only fool is the one who refuses to use a power source that is good for people and good for the planet.
Yet there you are, ABSOLUTELY DEPENDANT on those fossil fuels for basically everything in your tiny insignificant existence.
On a millennia scale, the climate has changed rather a lot and often. The Earth and its inhabitants have survived quite nicely. You’re absorbing pure warmunist bullshit. Can you not think for yourself?
Awesome video. I didn’t see any dinosaurs in the scene so presume it is more recent.
There are a lot of ifs. Meteor impact depends on size, composition (stony explode, iron melt), and angle of incidence. Shallow and they skip off back into space after some fireworks. Tunguska was medium size stony steep.
A hunt for big ones on potential steep trajectories might be worthwhile IF we had a workable deflection system readied. All else is a waste of time and money.
Better to harden grid infrastructure against the next ‘space weather’ Carrington event, which has a much higher probability with known consequences. Real big blown transformers take a year to replace. In a city, that is a real long time without power.
A few days warning could still save lives, even if there was nothing we could do to intercept an inbound meteor. But I agree intercept capability is also a priority.
As for hardening against another Carrington, my plan is to put all the electronics I care about including a generator, a few solar panels and my vehicle computer if I can disconnect it, and an inverter for the solar panels, seal them into plastic bags and sink them to the bottom of my swimming pool. I’m not sure there is a lot else which can be done to consumer grade electronics. Possibly more over voltage protection could be added to grids?
Simple Faraday cages work for consumer. Wrap everything consumer in conductive aluminum foil. Leave a ‘pigtail’ and wire that to a good ground (usually a simple copper water pipe). Done. Car electronics usually not a problem—the steel/aluminum body is a good enough Faraday cage—so long as you also ground it. Rubber tires are NOT a ground.
Lots of experience with grounding lightning strikes on my Wisconsin dairy farm metal roofed 2 barns. Once had a bad ground (too Dry, not deep enough) that blew apart the 1/2 inch copper braid wire from metal roof to ground on the secondary barn. Fortunately, the external ground wire blew near the ground below the barn’s first floor rock wall level, not above. No problem, but took a whole lot of wire spicing to fix, not to mention the replacement deeper ground.
Grids are MUCH more complicated. Simple grounds do not work.
I had fun early last year when lightning hit a tree 3m from the back veranda.
The surge to out basically every electron device in the house, except fridge and TV. (could have used a new TV 🙁 )
Scorch marks on the wall where the modem cable disintegrated. Modem literally blew apart.
All the mains electricity supply fuses had to be replace.
Many houses in the neighbourhood were also affected by the surge..
Most consumer electronics already has shielding. It’s there by law to keep the devices from radiating EM energy while they are operating. Shielding that keeps EM in, will also keep EM out.
There’s already lots of over voltage protection built into the grid. It was put there for protection from lightning.
Didn’t work very well in my case 🙁
Unfortunately, the grid can withstand a lot more energy than your household appliances can.
Some have been advocating for a SMOD for years. I keep seeing bumper stickers.
SMOD == Sweet Meteor of Death.
A disturbing number of people have romantic ideas that the end of civilisation would give them a chance at something better. They’re all wrong. Not only is there the very real risk they wouldn’t personally survive the devastation, there are plenty of studies which show people who accumulate power and wealth are just good at accumulating power and wealth. Drop such people in a study group along with normal people, and by the end of the session the very same people who do well in today’s world end up with all the goodies in the study session.
I know some of them are counting on not surviving. They need compitant therapy.
The air force uses the space above my little hideaway as a play ground, and rather frequently those jet jockeys just can help themselves and boom the house shakes and the windows rattle. As a combat vet, I can’t help but tighten up whenever a big noise happens, and those sonic booms qualify. Can;t say what happened down under, but can really identify with those poor souls.
We get the fly-boys from Williamstown doing a flyover occasionally…..
Noisy, but good fun ! 🙂
I second the caution over “romantic notions” of a “simpler time “ I’ ve lived it ( for a only a few years thank god) people(idiots) should be very careful what they wish for.
Seriously? We have to explain orbital mechanics to the f^cking college educated morons now? Really?
Most credentialed graduates never got past algebra.
If they ever even arrived at it. Remember, they are now teaching that 2 + 2 is approximately 4.
Why are we wasting resources on the imaginary climate crisis, when there are real threats to address?
You mean like when democracy is very upsetting?
Public servants offered five days of paid leave if they are psychologically distressed by Australia voting against the Voice (msn.com)
Perhaps others here could list similar priorities?
Something else, isn’t it. Public servants will take whatever they can so long as they’re not paying for it.
That’s hilarious. Given our public servant heavy capital city voted for the Voice, I’m betting there are a lot of distressed public servants.
That’s the progressive/knowledge class to you Eric-
After defeat, the Yes commentariat identify their true enemy: the Australian people (msn.com)
and welcome to the deplorable/ignorant class by corollary
“there are a lot of distressed public servants.”
Oh dear.. what a pity ! 🙂
It was only for indigenous workers
We all would have ticked that box if the Voice passed.
The larger ones will be spotted well before they come close
The car sized ones will burn up
NASA:
“Size and Frequency
Every day, Earth is bombarded with more than 100 tons of dust and sand-sized particles.
About once a year, an automobile-sized asteroid hits Earth’s atmosphere, creates an impressive fireball, and burns up before reaching the surface.
Every 2,000 years or so, a meteoroid the size of a football field hits Earth and causes significant damage to the area.
https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/asteroid-fast-facts/
In the past these events were routinely blamed on God smiting wickedness.
Since we now know these events are random, why was God never found to smite goodness?
If someone learned how to forecast meteorite hits someone else would be selling tickets.
Another Tesla ‘leaving for a better place’?
or/ A shonky transformer atop a pole going bang
or/ A “you were only supposed to blow the bl**dy doors off‘ moment
or/ Kids playing with fireworks
or/ Somebody put Aluminium foil in their microwave oven
or/ A large bird or bit of tree ‘met’ a power line
or/ An insulator fail on a power line
or/ Scotty flexing the engines on NCC 1701
or/ A climate scientist’s head upon realising what shyte it all is
or/ Aliens hitting the afterburner as they leave, having realised Earth is now actually a burnt out shell & desert and there’s nothing here for them
The level of paranoia apparent on this planet right now can not have a happy ending – we really are going to scare ourselves to death.
All for no good reason, no good science or any good anything.
Image from here
Original image
Whatever is the fear generator of the moment, Don’t spend my tax dollars on it.
Throwing taxpayer billions at an imaginary problem, a hoax, is a sure fire way for corruption to develop and go undetected – no one gets to see exactly where all those billions go – for the elites, it’s like being a kid in a sweet shop, with no one watching – fill your pockets, keep the hoax rolling, an invisibility blanket grand
Trying to deal with real life issues, like micro plastics, would require that money be spent on actual visible solutions, not as much possibility for funnelling funds
But space rocks don’t build or support Party power and money flows.