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And yet NASA just yesterday said that due to the low activity of our sun having sunspots, we're headed for a mini ice age. Humans are not the cause of any climate change. Please don't be so arrogant. We're small potatoes in comparison to the universe. Our weather is due to outside forces way beyond any human control. Kindly remember, at one time the arctic regions were growing trees and Detroit was under tons of ice. Animals adapt and so do humans. Things change, so sit back and enjoy the ride.....or you could just get off planet earth.
Do you know the difference between weather and climate?
Here it is, the middle of July, and Beartooth Pass is closed due to blowing and drifting snow, icy road.
Climate change at its finest! Snow and freezing temperatures above 6500 feet all along the Rocky Mountains!
The difference between weather and climate is a measure of time. Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere "behaves" over relatively long periods of time.
When we talk about climate change, we talk about changes in long-term averages of daily weather.
Just a little observation...I'm in Germany right now (Rostock) and the coal plant across the harbor hasn't stopped running for the week I've been here....
As long as no new Nukes, Coal, and eventually Gas are built, they will be replaced with Renewable over time.
Can't keep the old stuff running forever, yunno.
That's impossible, without storage of renewable energy somehow. How are you going to do it? Batteries??
I'm all for renewable energy but until there is some way to store it on a grand scale, we're still going to need backup power (if not fossil power stations, then nukes).
And yet NASA just yesterday said that due to the low activity of our sun having sunspots, we're headed for a mini ice age. Humans are not the cause of any climate change. Please don't be so arrogant. We're small potatoes in comparison to the universe. Our weather is due to outside forces way beyond any human control. Kindly remember, at one time the arctic regions were growing trees and Detroit was under tons of ice. Animals adapt and so do humans. Things change, so sit back and enjoy the ride.....or you could just get off planet earth.
Your reporting is a little inaccurate. NASA said we are indeed going through a phase, as we do about every 11 years, but it's possible severity is being interpreted by another author and NOT a NASA scientist.
[url=http://www.themercury.com.au/news/the-sun-has-gone-blank-twice-this-month-this-is-what-it-means/news-story/234fa9d9b9a7918ac7beb7703b91cc57]Category: | The Mercury[/url]
Professor Valentina Zharkova is not a NASA scientist and, not surprisingly, she is ONE OF THE 3% OF SCIENTISTS WORLD WIDE THAT IS A CLIMATE CHANGE SKEPTIC. How reliable can her research be if she's not considering scientifically validated research findings from the other 97% into her own research? This is standard practice when you conduct an experiment and study and publish in academic journals, otherwise you open yourself to unrelenting attack from other scientists.. hence the notion of "peer reviewed" journals.
We are small potatoes in comparison to the universe.. no doubt about it! But we're not talking about the universe, we're just talking about our planet.
Would you not agree that humans caused the hole and healing of the ozone layer? If your answer is "yes" (don't see how it can be "no") then you'll have to concede that over the last 150 years humans could have added enough carbon into the atmosphere to alter global atmospheric composition. As far as the planet is concerned it's really not a big deal.. it's just a problem for organisms that only do well under certain atmospheric conditions.
Weather is definitely outside our control... weather is simply the day-to-day physical forces of energy transfer, right? But how energy transfers is dependent on chemical composition (think about using a metal spoon vs a wooden spoon while cooking). Over time (we're talking about many generations... 150 years) an altered atmospheric AND oceanic (remember the ocean is beginning to absorb carbon too.. it results in acidification) chemical composition will eventual lead to changes in energy transfer (read: weather). If organisms such as ourselves weren't affected by it, these facts probably wouldn't be so darn controversial.
Finally the changes that you cite (trees in the poles) are AMAZING and it really makes one appreciate how short-lived our entires species is, much less our individual lives. It's worth noting that it took millions and millions of years and plate techtonics (give a nod to Pangea!) for that to have happened, not just climate change. The landmasses themselves have moved, not just that the climate changed. Also just because climate can change naturally doesn't exclude that it can happen anthropogenically either.
I think it's a fair assessment. Completely conclusive? No. But worth serious, serious consideration and concern? Absolutely!
Utility energy storage is called a Pumped Storage Unit. During energy surplus water is pumped to an upper reservoir by a centrifugal pump. During energy shortage the water runs through the pump, which is operated as a hydraulic turbine, which turns a generator creating electric power.
The physics of the system allow pumps to be turbines and motors to be generators with about the same efficiency no matter which way the energy is flowing. All that is required for a pumped storage system is enough land for the upper and lower reservoirs, enough elevation difference between the reservoirs (some 1,000 ft. at Blenheim Gilboa or 80 ft. at Niagara Falls) and enough water to make up for evaporative losses in the reservoirs.
These systems work at far higher efficiencies than chemical batteries and are a well known technology.
Utility energy storage is called a Pumped Storage Unit. During energy surplus water is pumped to an upper reservoir by a centrifugal pump. During energy shortage the water runs through the pump, which is operated as a hydraulic turbine, which turns a generator creating electric power.
The physics of the system allow pumps to be turbines and motors to be generators with about the same efficiency no matter which way the energy is flowing. All that is required for a pumped storage system is enough land for the upper and lower reservoirs, enough elevation difference between the reservoirs (some 1,000 ft. at Blenheim Gilboa or 80 ft. at Niagara Falls) and enough water to make up for evaporative losses in the reservoirs.
These systems work at far higher efficiencies than chemical batteries and are a well known technology.
I've heard that those systems work well and are economical. But according to a physicist in San Diego, we'd need an ungodly number of pumped storage facilities to go 100% wind and solar (assuming we'd need 7 days of storage for the whole USA.)
Pure scientists tend to extrapolate to the limits in order to understand the physics of a given situation. To provide 7 days electrical energy storage for the entire US grid is just about as absurd as powering that grid entirely with wind, or any other single, energy source. I propose a grid powered by a mix of solar, wind, tidal energy collectors with the base power provided by new generation mixed fuel fission reactors operating within a fuel breeding and recovery system that can create more nuclear fuel than it uses. With the reactors providing the base power requirements the alternates can be tapped for the peak loads by storing the energy they collect in pumped storage facilities. The stored energy along with a relatively few single or combined cycle natural gas fueled turbine generators can provide for some of the peak loads as well as emergency power for parts of the grid.
I hope this sort of system can be built on a global basis in the near future. It would provide mankind with a virtually unlimited energy economy. That would be preferable to endless wars over energy resources are currently fighting. The greatest obstacle to this future is the residual fear of nuclear power that has frightened the baby boom (well named) generation combined with the political strength of the fossil fuel industry fearing a loss of market for their coal. I fear we will be stuck with war and pollution for a couple of more generations because of these factors.
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