BBC Focus Magazine

[Shadowwolf]

...then why should the taxpayer foot the bill for an unsustainable industry?

The same reason the exchequer is involved in massive infrastructural construction and other unsustainable activities such as transport, because it is required for a working society and is too costly or insufficiently profitable to interest private operators. The bulk of Ireland's electricity generating industry and entire transmission grid lies in state hands for those reasons. Though this should probably result in the endeavour being take from private hands as tax money should probably not be used to generate profit for a select part of the population.

An alternative would be to cease all support for nuclear power generation and let those private concerns build the existing and far cheaper coal and other fossil fuel driven systems; probably still with subsidies and incentives. Would be mostly coal though as I've heard tell from our Green Party that there is five centuries of the stuff left available, no idea where they got that figure but that was the argument against nuclear power. But that's what we're trying to avoid, to get away from and thus that's not really a solution unless meeting demand is the sole factor of import.

Oh and another possible alternative is reliance on greater levels of power importation from Europe should they have it to spare. However, then you become reliant on others who won't be passing it on if they have none to spare or if you won't pay the price should it increase.

The renewable alternates existing cannot fill the demand that existing fossil and nuclear provide, so if fossil is to go, the only viable, existing system as it appears to me seems to be nuclear based. Now I don't know if your Greens have a point in all this but I'd wager that much like ours, their sole concern and motivation is in halting nuclear power because they are ideologically opposed to the very concept, the money merely being a convenient pretext; our lot actually suggested coal before nuclear so abhorrent is fission power.

[Shadowwolf]

NASA Finds 2011 Ninth-Warmest Year on Record

The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000.

More here.

[Finntroll]

My point regarding funding is one based on practical principles. I’m not against nuclear power so to speak but I am against funding the worst of all possible nuclear power generate without focusing on the future. Uranium is acceptable now as long as in 50 years from now there is serious development in other forms to nuclear, so we can move away from uranium to clear energy production. I don’t have much faith that governments are that bothered about this.

As for the funding aspect, in essence we are all paying twice for energy and transport. Our taxes are going to fund nuclear power and the rail industry, yet both of these are expensive. The private companies involved in these sectors are making huge profits year on year. Do you guys see my point? These companies are making such huge profits then why is the government subsiding it? I could understand if these private firms where turning over small profits but they aren’t. I sense this is where politics is playing more of a role than science.

[Shadowwolf]

That's probably why they should not be privatised, maybe involved through contracts for a set payment but not as participants for profit from the venture itself.

[Shadowwolf]

I don’t have much faith that governments are that bothered about this.

Alas the short term tends to be most important, unfortunately that may mean that they don't even pay much attention to the future potential for energy shortage and do little or nothing beyond being seen to do something.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Not volcanoes then??

Humble moss helped to cool Earth and spurred on life
2 February 2012
By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News

Primitive moss-like plants could have triggered the cooling of the Earth some 470 million years ago, say researchers.
A study published in Nature Geoscience may help explain why temperatures gradually began to fall, culminating in a series of "mini ice ages".
Until now it had been thought that the process of global cooling began 100 million years later, when larger plants and trees emerged.
The simple plants' interactions with rocks are believed to be the cause.
"The humble moss has created the climate which we enjoy today, from which the life we see all around us evolved," said Prof Tim Lenton of Exeter University, one of the lead researchers.
Carbon dioxide insulates the planet, rather like a duvet wrapped around it: the higher the concentration of CO2, the higher the average global temperature.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
The invasion of the land by plants was a pivotal time in our history. It brought about huge changes to our climate”
Atmospheric levels of the gas 480 million years ago are thought to have been 16 times higher than they are now, and average global temperatures are thought to have been 25C, around 10C higher than they are now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16814669

[M Paul Lloyd]

And about time too!!
Wind farm subsidy cut urged by MPs
5 February 2012 Last updated at 15:15

More than 100 Conservative MPs have written to the prime minister urging him to cut subsidies for wind turbines.
They also want planning rules changed to make it easier for local people to object to their construction.
The Tory MPs - joined by some backbenchers from other parties - questioned the amount of money going to the sector during "straitened times".
But the government said wind farms were a "cost-effective and valuable part of the UK's diverse energy mix".
The challenge to the coalition's policy presents an immediate problem for the new Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Davey. He was promoted to the job following the resignation of fellow Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne last Friday.

More here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16893018

[M Paul Lloyd]

And this will, I'm sure, throw the proverbial spanner into the works.
Sorry but the story is already over a week old.
Fossil fuels: On the way back?

Until recently, fossil fuels have widely been seen among scientists and environmental campaigners as a diminishing resource.
Science correspondent Tom Feilden reports on how the discovery of techniques to extract shale gas has rapidly changed the world of energy generation.

More here.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/ne ... 685024.stm

[Shadowwolf]

I do believe this is the Fracking technique?

There have been concerns raised over greenhouse gas emissions, chemical contaminants and even small earthquakes.

[Shadowwolf]

For some reason there are proposals to place wind farms in hurricane regions that could result in significant destruction of the turbines.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21468-hurricanes-deliver-fatal-blows-to-wind-turbines.html

[Lateralman]

The blades should have been designed to fold backwards. Like a flower in a strong wind.

[Lateralman]

Finding a way of folding the blades back when there is a forecast of strong winds will work out a lot darn cheaper than having to replace the whole ruddy thing after a severe storm. Honestly, I cannot believe that these ‘intelligent’ people are so stupid. Why do they think the sailcloth is adjustable on ancient Dutch windmills?

[M Paul Lloyd]

Folding blades would make the things even less efficient and putting them in areas know to suffer extreme weather conditions is simply stupid, and something else they seem to have overlooked is the fact that they are also prone to lightning strike damage, one of the two installed off the coast at Blyth lost a blade because of it not long after it was installed.

They really are a very bad idea no matter how they are redesigned.

[M Paul Lloyd]

At the risk of sounding like a complete spoilsport I really don't think that our goverment has the faintest idea how difficult this is going to be and just chucking money at it will not solve the problem of CO2 emmissions.
New UK attempt to capture carbon
By David Shukman Science editor, BBC News

A renewed attempt to develop ways of making power stations greener is set to be unveiled by the government.
For the second time in five years, £1bn will be offered for schemes to trap and bury carbon dioxide.
An earlier competition collapsed after all nine entrants pulled out, most citing cost as the main problem.
The last to withdraw was a project run by Scottish Power at its Longannet station in Fife, and the prize money was not awarded
Known as "carbon capture and storage" (CCS), the idea is to prevent CO2 escaping into the atmosphere.
A major part of the government's low-carbon strategy, CCS has been plagued by delays and uncertainty.

More here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17586596

[M Paul Lloyd]

To be honest this rather reverses what I previously thought.
CO2 'drove end to last ice age'
By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

A new, detailed record of past climate change provides compelling evidence that the last ice age was ended by a rise in temperature driven by an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide.
The finding is based on a very broad range of data, including even the shells of ancient tiny ocean animals.
A paper describing the research appears in this week's edition of Nature.
The team behind the study says its work further strengthens ideas about global warming.

More here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17611404

[Lateralman]

Well, that is great news Mr Lloyd; another of my carbon capture machines heads off to the scrap heap.

[M Paul Lloyd]

This story makes me so angry.
Nasa scientist Dr James Hansen says no to coal-fired power

A world climate change expert has said the UK should not build any more coal-fired power stations.
Nasa scientist Dr James Hansen was speaking to BBC Scotland ahead of being awarded the prestigious Edinburgh Medal at the city's Science Festival.
Plans have been put forward for coal-fired facilities at Grangemouth and Hunterston in Ayrshire.
Dr Hansen said a mixture of new-build nuclear and renewables was the best combination to prevent climate change.

Yes nuclear is the best way forward but in the meantime what does Dr James Hansen think we are going to use to fill the yawning energy gap that will occur whilst these nuclear plants get built? He seems oblivious to the fact that our current power stations are all reaching the end of their working lives and we have nothing to replace them with.
More here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-e ... e-17669368

[Shadowwolf]

Seems there are some future climate temperature predictions at least for North America, looks like it might be warmer.

For the first time, researchers have been able to combine different climate models using spatial statistics -- to project future seasonal temperature changes in regions across North America.

They performed advanced statistical analysis on two different North American regional climate models and were able to estimate projections of temperature changes for the years 2041 to 2070, as well as the certainty of those projections

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120515131634.htm

[M Paul Lloyd]

Warmer certainly, on a yearly average, but in the depths of a few more of the 'once in a lifetime' freezing winters they predict might also go hand in hand with this rise in temperatures, well I'm left with this awful image of some dreadful tragedies unfolding for the more vulnerable sections of society.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Arctic melt releasing ancient methane

By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News
Scientists have identified thousands of sites in the Arctic where methane that has been stored for many millennia is bubbling into the atmosphere.
The methane has been trapped by ice, but is able to escape as the ice melts.
Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers say this ancient gas could have a significant impact on climate change.
Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after CO2 and levels are rising after a few years of stability.
There are many sources of the gas around the world, some natural and some man-made, such as landfill waste disposal sites and farm animals.
Tracking methane to these various sources is not easy.
But the researchers on the new Arctic project, led by Katey Walter Anthony from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks (UAF), were able to identify long-stored gas by the ratio of different isotopes of carbon in the methane molecules.

More here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18120093