Energy Matters Global and Domestic

[CitroJim]

On a related tangent, I remember a documentary about 'global dimming'. All the pollution we've chucked up into the atmosphere is actually helping to filter out (and reflect back out into space) some of the sun's energy and helps to keep the global temperature down a gnats. If we cleaned up the atmosphere, then the temperature could go up.

As Bart Simpson was reputed to have said... You're dammed if you do and dammed if you don't...

Proves the old adage... For every action there's a reaction...

[NewcastleFalcon]

I guess even hydro electricity may have some downsides, but still plenty of water flowing over Niagara long after Tesla and Westinghouse tapped it for its energy back in 1895.

https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/why-ni ... gara-falls

Of the mix of energy products on offer in the 21st century, give me less oil and natural gas and coal, and more wind solar, tidal and hydro, geothermal, ground source and air source heat pumps, and a big yes in our collective back yard for uk industries to develop on the back of the change.

Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

I predict that in the future the UK will return to coal when all the rest become less useful.

There is reckoned to be enough coal under the UK to supply all our energy needs for 300 years.

I think they will find ways of using coal in a cleaner way, digging it out without the need to send miners underground and dealing with the CO2 disposal.

But not in my lifetime.

[mickthemaverick]

]

Of the mix of energy products on offer in the 21st century, give me less oil and natural gas and coal, and more wind solar, tidal and hydro, geothermal, ground source and air source heat pumps, and a big yes in our collective back yard for uk industries to develop on the back of the change.

Regards Neil

Not sure about ground source as that would still be depleting the planet's potential energy. We don't have an idea of the 'downwind effect' of turbines but I think the effort should be on energy which comes into our ecosystem, eg solar or stellar or maybe radiation we havn't identified yet. At least that way we have a chance of living without depleting our own resources and the more efficient we can become at recycling that energy the healthier future our planet will have.

[myglaren]

State With No Electricity Orders Everyone To Drive Cars That Run On Electricity

SACRAMENTO, CA—Gavin Newsom, governor of the state with the highest people-to-electricity ratio in the nation, banned gasoline cars yesterday via executive order. The order takes effect in 2035, meaning by that time, everyone in the state with no electricity will only be able to plug in their cars to the power grid that does not work.

"Everyone, plug-in those cars!" Newsom said proudly in a room lit only by candlelight, since, you know, the whole electricity thing. "Other states run on backward, outdated fossil fuels. We are the state of the future, so we will run solely on electricity. Which, you know, we're working on. We could have power by 2035. You never know."

There was an awkward silence.

"SCIENCE!" Newsom said, regaining his momentum and drawing applause from the reporters gathered.

By the year 2035, the move is expected to completely eliminate all gasoline car carbon emissions, smog, and California residents.

[CitroJim]

I predict that in the future the UK will return to coal when all the rest become less useful.

There is reckoned to be enough coal under the UK to supply all our energy needs for 300 years.

Maggie may have done us a favour in 1984 then She effectively preserved the remaining stocks of coal for use long into the future but I guess she did not see that at the time Or did what she did for that reason...

[NewcastleFalcon]

From a resonably respected source Tony Seba and associates

100% Solar, Wind, and Batteries is Just the Beginning

"It is both physically possible and economically affordable to meet 100% of electricity demand with the combination of solar, wind, and batteries (SWB) by 2030 across the entire continental United States as well as the overwhelming majority of other populated regions of the world."

It is happening, even the prospect of "over supply".

Us humans do seem to be programmed into a frenzy of consumption. Discover a wonderful abundance of something
whether that be coal/oil/whales/herrings/cheap electricity and we will find ways of consuming more, (although admittedly, its some time since I ate my last herring, but at one time in the herring industry's heyday at Great Yarmouth you could walk across the river on the Herring boats bringing home their bounty) .

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

It is happening, even the prospect of "over supply".

Us humans do seem to be programmed into a frenzy of consumption. Discover a wonderful abundance of something
whether that be coal/oil/whales/herrings/cheap electricity and we will find ways of consuming more, (although admittedly, its some time since I ate my last herring, but at one time in the herring industry's heyday at Great Yarmouth you could walk across the river on the Herring boats bringing home their bounty) .

I vividly recall this in Whitby. Mainly Dutch seine-netters.

[Gibbo2286]

Well according to the environmentalists the main problem with the planet is gross overpopulation with humans.

But when mother nature does something about it (covid etc) we all do our best to fight her off.

[Hell Razor5543]

But it appears that Mother Nature has chosen her weaponry well. COVID19 appears to be 'forgettable' where the human immune system is concerned, in that our resistance rapidly drops over the course of a few months. This could mean that everybody will need to be vaccinated every six months or so.

[bobins]

Us humans do seem to be programmed into a frenzy of consumption. Discover a wonderful abundance of something
whether that be coal/oil/whales/herrings/cheap electricity and we will find ways of consuming more,

Regards Neil

The Jevons Paradox.....

In economics, the Jevons paradox occurs when technological progress or government policy increases the efficiency with which a resource is used (reducing the amount necessary for any one use), but the rate of consumption of that resource rises due to increasing demand. The Jevons paradox is perhaps the most widely known paradox in environmental economics. However, governments and environmentalists generally assume that efficiency gains will lower resource consumption, ignoring the possibility of the paradox arising.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

[bobins]

But it appears that Mother Nature has chosen her weaponry well. COVID19 appears to be 'forgettable' where the human immune system is concerned, in that our resistance rapidly drops over the course of a few months.

......and that'll be the Gaia Theory in action

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis

[bobins]

Well according to the environmentalists the main problem with the planet is gross overpopulation with humans.

A lot depends on which direction you come at the issue from. If you want the human race to continue for as long as possible as comfortably as possible, then yes, a slowing down of the population rate increase will greatly help in that respect. However, if you want the planet to flourish, then the quicker the human population expands to an unsustainable size and then conks out, the better.
The planet was happily ticking along for aeons before humans arrived, and will happily tick along once we've all shuffled off.

[NewcastleFalcon]

One to research

What is Hornsea 1

REgards Neil

[Hell Razor5543]

Worlds' largest offshore windfarm, about 100 miles off the coast off the Yorkshire coast;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornsea_Wind_Farm