Climate change reports

[Pwalo]

What's all this talk of global warming? That's like, so... 90's, Man.

It's now called Globular Yawning.

Yep wake me up when they decide that temperature is driven by the sun's activty and we can all relax because there's sweet FA we can do about it.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.................

[Big Dave]

I sincerely hope that I am looking at many more than a single set of data, otherwise I'd be no better than Mann, Bradley, and Hughes who concocted the hockey stick theory.

Will have a surf later.
My 'concern' and looking at my grandkid is not the who or why - but what is - or might - be happening.

Natural or not I'd prefer the little tacker untoasted.

Precursor to a polarity shift - we're 20,000 overdue.
Chicken little out.

[Big Dave]

Wait till ya gotta da ganda bambino bruddah - you start to look further along the road.

[vifferman]

Wait till ya gotta da ganda bambino bruddah - you start to look further along the road.

Say... wha...?
You're in UnZud now - spouik Kouiwuoi (as you West Islanders are wont to say).

My is that I'm sick of all the media hooplah and crapola being spouted about Globular Yawning. Not only is it unbalanced, ill-researched and alarmist, human activity has such a pathetically small possible effect on climate change as to be negligible and discountable. There's WAY too much of jumping on the latest populist bandwagon, rather than properly researching the alramist propaganda they're trotting out whenever there's a slow news day. Plus I realised long ago (and this is why I haven't worked in science for the last 25 years or so) that scientific process is deeply flawed, and that scientists can't follow true scientific process without being swayed by political and monetary concerns.

Yes, it's good to have concern for the environment we live in, and not pollute it / exploit it / trash it, but 6 years of drinking beer ... ah... studying Earth Sciences learned me Some Stuff. Like, we don't really even begin to understand natural mechanisms of climate change, and that prehistoric and historic fluctuations have been much, MUCH huger than any "they" are now trying to attribute to cows farting and car emissions.

Blah blah blah... look - you've done it now. Got me all hot under the collar (that must've melted a few baby polar bears and drowned a few Inuit). You shoulda just left me at .

[Big Dave]

catalyst |ˈkatl-ist| noun a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change. • figurative a person or thing that precipitates an event : the governor's speech acted as a catalyst for debate. ORIGIN early 20th cent.: from catalysis , on the pattern of analyst.

[Finn]

If it dries up I'm digging a well at Finns place - plenty of water inside his walls I'm told..

Considering I'm on a cliff with water below, you'd probably be most successful. It would be a bit salty though.

[Krusti]

Now on the news today some Insurance companies are saying that they may not insure coastal holiday homes.

Next they will be saying they won't cover us for storm damage.

[Mr Merde]

Now on the news today some Insurance companies are saying that they may not insure coastal holiday homes.

Next they will be saying they won't cover us for storm damage.

Acts of dog or war are not covered by insurance already.

Insurance companies have a legal requirement to rip everyone off. You pay your money and get SFA in return as they will always find a way out.

[Bass]

Strange. The population centres at risk (Brisbane/Gold Coast, Sydney) are near the coast yet they still refuse to build some decent desalination plants that would solve the problem.

I am led to believe that this is a fallacy. Desalination plants take a fair bit of electricity to run.
Where the electrical supply has a significant thermal generation base, then the cooling systems of the generation plants use more water than the desalination plants that they run, can produce - ie net reduction in available water

[Bass]

I am undecided about the climatic effects of human activities. However, it is true that as temperatures rise, CO2 is also forced out of solution in the oceans and so there is POTENTIAL for a runaway effect.
The bit that I wonder about though, is that our major contributor to CO2 production is the burning of fossil fuels. Now as I understand it, fossil fuels originated from vegetation which in turn originated from atmosheric CO2 via photosynthesis. Therefore, when we burn fossil fuels, are we not just sticking the CO2 back where it came from in the first place?

[Swoop]

I am led to believe that this is a fallacy. Desalination plants take a fair bit of electricity to run.
Where the electrical supply has a significant thermal generation base, then the cooling systems of the generation plants use more water than the desalination plants that they run, can produce - ie net reduction in available water

Seems to work perfectly well on ships of all sizes.
You suck in two sources of water. One to be purified, the other to do the cooling work.

[Bass]

Seems to work perfectly well on ships of all sizes.
You suck in two sources of water. One to be purified, the other to do the cooling work.

Except that most thermal power stations don't use salt water cooling

[Jantar]

I am led to believe that this is a fallacy. Desalination plants take a fair bit of electricity to run.
Where the electrical supply has a significant thermal generation base, then the cooling systems of the generation plants use more water than the desalination plants that they run, can produce - ie net reduction in available water

Not true. Modern desalination plants are part of the power station. The water that is being deslainated is also the primary coolant for the power station.
The secondary, demineralised coolant is recycled through heat exchangers and is reused over and over.

[Ixion]

I am led to believe that this is a fallacy. Desalination plants take a fair bit of electricity to run.
Where the electrical supply has a significant thermal generation base, then the cooling systems of the generation plants use more water than the desalination plants that they run, can produce - ie net reduction in available water

But the coolant water is still available for other purposes (eg irrigation) after it has done its coolant stuff. It just gets warmer, and then cools down again. So you could run water through a electricity plant (or a hydro) , then use the cooled down water for irrigation/industry/anything else (with perhaps further treatment). And use the electricity to desalinate seawater to produce more fresh water

[Jantar]

Except that most thermal power stations don't use salt water cooling

Ones designed as desalination plants do, and almost all thermal power stations located on the coast do as well. Have a close look at New Plymouth Power station next time you are in that area.