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Bishop Hill Feb 28, 2015 BBC Climate: other While trawling through my archives last night I came across a dead link, which I was fortunately able to resurrect through the Internet Archive. Well worth a look.
Bishop Hill Feb 27, 2015 Climate: Parliament FOI Greens Another few hours and another FOI request. This time it's the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who are targeting correspondence of the hard-left senators who have been at the forefront of harassing sceptic scientists:
To EPA’s National Freedom of Information Officer,
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), please consider this request pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552 et seq.
Bishop Hill Feb 27, 2015 Climate: Sceptics Foreign Not much to go on in the English language as yet, but I gather that a French sceptics group, l'Association Francophone des Climato-optimistes (AFCO) has been launched. Headed by Christian Gerondeau it aims to "struggle against the unjustified pessimism that reigns with regard to the planet's climate future".
Their website is here for the French speakers among you.
Bishop Hill Feb 27, 2015 Climate: Parliament FOI This was probably predictable:
Washington, D.C. -- Today, the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal), in conjunction with the Free Market Environmental Law Clinic (FMELC) and the Caesar Rodney Institute (CRI), filed a Delaware Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) with the University of Delaware related to Dr. John Byrne, Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy and Distinguished Professor of Energy and Climate Policy.
Bishop Hill Feb 27, 2015 Climate: WG2 Today is International Polar Bear Day 2015 and, according to a new GWPF briefing paper, this should be the occasion for considerable quantities of champagne being consumed. This is because polar bears are doing just fine:
On almost every measure, things are looking good for polar bears. Scientists are finding that they are well distributed throughout their range and adapting well to changes in sea ice. Health indicators are good and they are benefiting from abundant prey. It really is time for the doom and gloom about polar bears to stop.
Of course in green circles this success story is brushed under the carpet and what should be a day of celebration becomes a day for morbid calls for action on climate change and, no doubt, the remodelling of the capitalist economy.
But at the end of the day, I think people are going to notice that the bears seem to be doing rather well, and that this represents another failed prediction of the scientivist community.
Bishop Hill Feb 26, 2015 Energy: gas Russia threatened yesterday to disrupt gas supplies to Europe within days, opening a new front in the showdown over Ukraine. President Putin demanded immediate advance payments from Kiev to keep the gas taps on in the depths of winter. Cutting off gas would be likely to hit transit flows to Europe. His ultimatum came on the day that the EU announced ambitious plans for an “energy union” to end Russia’s energy stranglehold over the continent.
The Times, today (£)
Lancashire county councillors have rejected plans for fracking company Cuadrilla to carry out seismic and pressure monitoring at a county site.
Planning officers, the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency recommended approval.
But the development control committee turned down the application which had received more than 300 objections.
The BBC, today
Bishop Hill Feb 26, 2015 Biofuels The government, in its infinite foolishness, has spent a million quid or thereabouts to get researchers to develop a process for converting draff and pot ale, by-products of the distillery business, into butanol for use as a biofuel. The people involved are now seeking another considerably larger wad of cash from the taxpayer to scale the process up.
Bishop Hill Feb 26, 2015 Energy: wind Ethics By far the biggest beneficiary of the contracts awarded without competition last year was Danish energy giant DONG Energy, which owns three of the five offshore wind farms and stands to reap £7.8bn in subsidies.
Benj Sykes, head of its UK wind business, said he did not know whether his company’s projects could have been built more cheaply but he insisted the subsidy price was not “in any way giving us any sort of return that is not justified”.
The scale of the corruption that the government has brought upon us is sometimes rather startling. Read the whole thing.
Josh Feb 25, 2015 Climate: Curry Climate: RP Jnr Josh Bishop Hill Feb 25, 2015 Energy: gas Greens I think it was Bryony Worthington who once asked a bunch of environmentalists what they would happen if a fairy could wave a magic wand and do away with the warming effects of carbon dioxide. Would they be happy for mankind to continue to burn fossil fuels?
The answer of course was "no".
Interesting then to read the news that Roman Abramovich has made a major investment in a company that claims to be able to fracture rocks without any fluids at all.
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has invested $15 million in Houston-based Propell Technologies Group, Inc. (OTC:PROP) and its new fracking technology from wholly owned subsidiary Novas Energy. Significantly, this new enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology enables ‘clean’ hydraulic micro/nano fracturing of oil reservoirs—that is, without water, without polluting chemicals and without earthquakes.
According to Propell, the Plasma Pulse patented downhole tool creates a controlled plasma arc within a vertical well, generating a tremendous amount of heat for a fraction of a second. The subsequent high-speed hydraulic impulse wave emitted is strong enough to remove any clogged sedimentation from the perforation zone without damaging steel. The series of impulse waves/vibrations also penetrate deep into the reservoir causing nano fractures in the matrix which increase reservoir permeability for up to a year per treatment.
It sounds like the shale gas industry's very own magic wand. You can almost sense the dismay among the green fraternity.
Bishop Hill Feb 25, 2015 Climate: Sceptics Roger Pielke Jr, along with a handful of other academics is the subject of an "investigation" by a Democratic congressman from Arizona. There has been a great deal of outrage and disgust expressed, on both sides of the debate, and it's certainly nice to see the two sides pulling together for once, although Michael Mann has chosen to keep up his ugly utterances instead.
Roger has discussed what is going on here. I was struck by this bit:
The incessant attacks and smears are effective, no doubt, I have already shifted all of my academic work away from climate issues. I am simply not initiating any new research or papers on the topic and I have ring-fenced my slowly diminishing blogging on the subject.
Roger has always struck me as one of the most robust participants in the climate debate. When someone as thick-skinned as he is is forced out then it really does tell you something about the trustworthiness of what climatologists and the IPCC tell us.
The word is "nugatory", I think.
Bishop Hill Feb 25, 2015 Energy: grid Greens When I discussed Scotland's energy supply on Radio Scotland a few weeks back, I shared the airwaves with a Green Party spokesman. I pressed him (I forget his name) on how energy was to be generated on cold still nights, and was told that we needed research into energy storage technologies.
That's fair enough, although the obvious corollary is that we are stuck with fossil fuels in the meantime.
It's interesting therefore to see the green movement declaring today that we just don't need any fossil fuel generation at all. This comes in response to the Conservatives' warnings that we risk the lights going out.
SCOTLAND must build new power stations if it wants to keep the lights on beyond 2025, opposition leaders will warn today.
A massive new gas-powered plant could be built at Longannet which looks poised to shut down within the next decade, according to the Conservatives.
But environmental bodies have dismissed the claims, insisting that Scotland can continue to power itself from green sources like wind and hydro.
Clearly the greens know that the lights will go out if the wind fails to blow on a winter's night unless we have conventional generation capacity on hand. It's interesting to ponder then why they persist in telling journalists that we can allow all these power stations to close. And why the journalists don't call them out on it.
Bishop Hill Feb 24, 2015 Diary dates Another date for your diaries...
Prof. Murry Salby presents
Control of Atmospheric CO2
His new research applies observed changes of climate and atmospheric tracers to resolve the budget of atmospheric carbon dioxide. It reveals the mechanisms behind the evolution of CO2, including its increase during the 20th century. Thereby, the analysis determines the respective roles of human and natural sources of CO2, with an upper bound on the contribution from fossil fuel emission.
Bishop Hill Feb 24, 2015 Climate: IPCC News is breaking that Rajendra Pachauri has resigned as head of the IPCC.
The head of the United Nations climate change panel (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri, has stepped down amid sexual harassment allegations.
A spokesman for Mr Pachauri informed the IPCC that he resigned from his position with immediate effect.
