Technology, Science and the Environment.

[Strokes]

1 minute ago, Buce said:

 

The main concern on the campervan forums is over the possibility of non-commercial diesels being banned altogether or at least taxed to death. 

Oh right, I see. Stick a courier logo on the side and register it as a commercial vehicle then

 

[ajthefox]

We really need to be investing more in renewable energy infrastructure before we start crowing about how good electric cars are. 

[leicsmac]

4 minutes ago, ajthefox said:

We really need to be investing more in renewable energy infrastructure before we start crowing about how good electric cars are. 

Agreed, but it would be nice to do both simultaneously.

[Strokes]

4 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Agreed, but it would be nice to do both simultaneously.

 

9 minutes ago, ajthefox said:

We really need to be investing more in renewable energy infrastructure before we start crowing about how good electric cars are. 

It might seem like slow progress but I’m sure I read that solar and wind was regularly producing more than coal now. 

[Strokes]

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, Strokes said:

 

It might seem like slow progress but I’m sure I read that solar and wind was regularly producing more than coal now. 

Yeah, and that is only going to get bigger. It isn't happening as fast as I'd like, but you can't have everything and it's going well enough.

[Strokes]

1 minute ago, leicsmac said:

Yeah, and that is only going to get bigger. It isn't happening as fast as I'd like, but you can't have everything and it's going well enough.

I do think it’s daft that with the technology advances in solar and ground source heating. That all new builds don’t have to have it as part of planning permission.

[leicsmac]

4 minutes ago, Strokes said:

I do think it’s daft that with the technology advances in solar and ground source heating. That all new builds don’t have to have it as part of planning permission.

Probably NIMBY influence tbh ("solar panels are an eyesore" and all that). It should be part of new builds, as you say.

[Strokes]

2 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Probably NIMBY influence tbh ("solar panels are an eyesore" and all that). It should be part of new builds, as you say.

That’s what I mean by technology advances though. You can barely tell they are there now, if done properly.

[leicsmac]

7 minutes ago, Strokes said:

That’s what I mean by technology advances though. You can barely tell they are there now, if done properly.

Absolutely, but you'll still get traditionalists who will bitch about it.

[ajthefox]

1 hour ago, Strokes said:

I do think it’s daft that with the technology advances in solar and ground source heating. That all new builds don’t have to have it as part of planning permission.

 

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

Probably NIMBY influence tbh ("solar panels are an eyesore" and all that). It should be part of new builds, as you say.

 

1 hour ago, Strokes said:

That’s what I mean by technology advances though. You can barely tell they are there now, if done properly.

The most frustrating thing for me is that we are still relatively speaking a minnow in the field of renewables when really we should be well up there. 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/costa-rica-renewable-energy-electricity-production-2016-climate-change-fossil-fuels-global-warming-a7505341.html

 

The figures are a few years out of date but I don't think our relative position has changed all that much.

 

The nimby effect is definitely partly responsible. My parents have moaned to me about the turbines between Groby (where they live) and Anstey and although I challenge the effect those 'eyesores' have on them, their opinions don't seem to change. I actually think there is something very elegant about wind turbines, but that is rather besides the point.

 

There have been significant advances in the technology behind solar but as someone who works in the construction industry I'm actually not in favour of any sort of imposing solar as a condition for planning - it's counterproductive to force the issue without considering how appropriate or efficient it's going to be. The other issue is as with any other business, is that it incentivises shitheads who don't actually care and just want to make a quick buck - I have seen countless solar panels on roofs they really shouldn't be on. It might save some money but solar panels aren't actually that efficient at turning sunlight into energy and they soon get worse when you move away from the optimum pitch and vary too far towards East or West, and of course that obviously means your payback is worse too. I'm not a fan of those solar tiles, they're just more complicated, less efficient, more expensive and more likely to go wrong/get damaged. We really just need fields of the stuff, it's more efficient than every house having it's own small supply. Oh, and more use of combined solar-thermal where possible.

 

 

Edited 20 February 2018 by ajthefox

[leicsmac]

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-43125242

 

Sigh.

 

Imagine, if you will, a species so stupid that they let a potentially deadly disease return rather than be almost entirely eradicated because...reasons?

[the fox]

4 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-43125242

 

Sigh.

 

Imagine, if you will, a species so stupid that they let a potentially deadly disease return rather than be almost entirely eradicated because...reasons?

aka "studying a deadly disease so we can make a new biological weapon"

 

or that's just the paranoid in me talking

 

[leicsmac]

1 minute ago, the fox said:

aka "studying a deadly disease so we can make a new biological weapon"

 

or that's just the paranoid in me talking

 

I have no doubt all the information available on measles for use as a BW is gleaned already, as well as there being more capable candidates out there.

 

All of this is down to human stupidity, not malice, IMO.

[leicsmac]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/amateur-astronomer-tries-out-new-camera-catches-supernova-at-its-start/

 

Man should buy himself a lottery ticket, too!

[Alf Bentley]

Interesting, indeed worrying article about the possible significance of exceptionally high temperatures in the Arctic recently: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/27/arctic-warming-scientists-alarmed-by-crazy-temperature-rises

 

"An alarming heatwave in the sunless winter Arctic is causing blizzards in Europe and forcing scientists to reconsider even their most pessimistic forecasts of climate change. Although it could yet prove to be a freak event, the primary concern is that global warming is eroding the polar vortex, the powerful winds that once insulated the frozen north".

 

"The north pole gets no sunlight until March, but an influx of warm air has pushed temperatures in Siberia up by as much as 35C above historical averages this month. Greenland has already experienced 61 hours above freezing in 2018 - more than three times as many hours as in any previous year. Seasoned observers have described what is happening as “crazy,” “weird,” and “simply shocking”. This is an anomaly among anomalies. It is far enough outside the historical range that it is worrying – it is a suggestion that there are further surprises in store as we continue to poke the angry beast that is our climate,” said Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University".

 

 

[Buce]

2 minutes ago, Alf Bentley said:

Interesting, indeed worrying article about the possible significance of exceptionally high temperatures in the Arctic recently: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/27/arctic-warming-scientists-alarmed-by-crazy-temperature-rises

 

"An alarming heatwave in the sunless winter Arctic is causing blizzards in Europe and forcing scientists to reconsider even their most pessimistic forecasts of climate change. Although it could yet prove to be a freak event, the primary concern is that global warming is eroding the polar vortex, the powerful winds that once insulated the frozen north".

 

"The north pole gets no sunlight until March, but an influx of warm air has pushed temperatures in Siberia up by as much as 35C above historical averages this month. Greenland has already experienced 61 hours above freezing in 2018 - more than three times as many hours as in any previous year. Seasoned observers have described what is happening as “crazy,” “weird,” and “simply shocking”. This is an anomaly among anomalies. It is far enough outside the historical range that it is worrying – it is a suggestion that there are further surprises in store as we continue to poke the angry beast that is our climate,” said Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University".

 

 

 

What is truly worrying is we have the leader of the so-called free world making asinine remarks like, "we could do with some of that global warming".

 

Like with most of the world's problems, the ones with the power to change things have a vested interest in not doing so.

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, Buce said:

 

What is truly worrying is we have the leader of the so-called free world making asinine remarks like, "we could do with some of that global warming".

 

Like with most of the world's problems, the ones with the power to change things have a vested interest in not doing so.

This sounds very familiar.

 

It's just sad that the desire of those with power to maintain the status quo in this case will end up affecting everyone, not just them. 

 

Still, what can you do other than keep trying to keep the ignorance and malice at bay as best you can?

[lifted*fox]

i find it so sad that the entire world isn't prepared to work together to make renewable energy it's main focus until we're all completely sustainable. 

 

everyone is so selfish. we could have eradicated use of fossil fuels or at least be very close to it if everyone pushed enough.

 

we don't seem to have a long term plan and people are happy to watch our world die as long as they're rich in the here and now.

 

greed is holding us back as a species and it'll kill us all eventually. 

[leicsmac]

15 minutes ago, lifted*fox said:

i find it so sad that the entire world isn't prepared to work together to make renewable energy it's main focus until we're all completely sustainable. 

 

everyone is so selfish. we could have eradicated use of fossil fuels or at least be very close to it if everyone pushed enough.

 

we don't seem to have a long term plan and people are happy to watch our world die as long as they're rich in the here and now.

 

greed is holding us back as a species and it'll kill us all eventually. 

Hey, this sounds familiar too.

 

Sadly, the fight is against hundreds of thousands of years of inbuilt evolutionary instinct, and that's difficult to overcome. The stakes, however, as you say, are rather high.

[Guest]

Following on from the last couple of posts, I think this article sums it up:

 

http://www.alphr.com/space/1008646/space-war-us-air-force?_mout=1&utm_campaign=alphr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

 

Instead of looking to fight for the planet and look for peace, the U.S. wants to regain first place by increasing their attack budget.

 

Edit: whilst I'm here and to save on the number of posts a couple of other stories:

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/engineers-build-thermal-resonator-device-making-electricity-out-of-thin-air

I'm surprised that this hasn't existed for a while, how often have you moved from one room facing the sun to another away from the sun and noticed a massive difference in temperature - well at last that can be harvested to give power.

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/spacex-competitor-big-plans-launch-reusable-rocket-cheaper-united-launch-alliance

Budget space rockets should re-invigorate the space race and make it commercial.

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/egyptian-archaeologists-discovered-ancient-cemetery-mummies-minya-thoth

For those of us that love Egypt and Egyptology

Edited 28 February 2018 by Guest

[leicsmac]

 

Painfully accurate.

[Buce]

 

Cosmic Dawn: astronomers detect signals from the first stars:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/28/cosmic-dawn-astronomers-detect-signals-from-first-stars-in-the-universe

[Buce]

 

Nuclear fusion 'on the grid in15 years'.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/09/nuclear-fusion-on-brink-of-being-realised-say-mit-scientists

[leicsmac]

6 hours ago, Buce said:

 

Nuclear fusion 'on the grid in15 years'.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/09/nuclear-fusion-on-brink-of-being-realised-say-mit-scientists

Though claims like this have been made before, this looks promising. Fusion is so much more advanced and more efficient than what we have now, getting it on-stream may well end up becoming a necessity rather than anything else if global energy demand keeps rising the way it does.