Climate change - the POLITICAL debate. Vol 3

[chris watton]

Yeah, but Gordon brown wasted 'our' money, not his own.

[LongQ]

mybrainhurts said:

Mr GrimNasty said:

"Bill Gates: Renewable Energy Can’t Do The Job"

http://www.thegwpf.com/bill-gates-renewable-energy...

"Gates says he’ll personally put his money where his mouth is. He’s apparently invested $1bn of his own cash in low-carbon energy R&D already, and “over the next five years, there’s a good chance that will double,” he said."

Is that a record for wasting money on pointless things? If you ignore Gordon Brown, of course...

Bill has the GGP (Gross Gates Product) of a half decent sized country in some parts of the world.

His income, the source of his largesse, is based, ultimately, on what he has managed to extract from the productivity of the world's population (Microsoft being a somewhat extensive global player in a market dominated by dominance).

One might think of that as the equivalent of taxation in many ways. Perhaps the sort of taxation that we might enjoy if the UN had direct taxation interests.

He can then take this money and use it for whatever causes he wishes, calling it charity.

Whether this visible charity is effective use of the resource may take a while to become evident. Likewise whether the targets of the investment are the best targets in the long run. Charities rare seem to come along and announce that they have completed the task they set out to undertake and no longer need funding. Given a supply of funds there will always be a deserving cause in prospect.

When nominally democratic governments follow the same path the voting public has, in theory, some opportunities to object to the policies and vote them out of power or at least try to bring them to heal. It's a little less obvious how to do that with extremely wealthy individuals. (Or dictatorships but that's a different subject.)

Still, what's a billion dollars here or there?

[Ali G]

Linked to from the article posted above....

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/25/bill_gates...

Traveling-wave reactor sounds an interesting form of fission, but no fusion on the agenda (payback too long).

[mybrainhurts]

LongQ said:

mybrainhurts said:

Mr GrimNasty said:

"Bill Gates: Renewable Energy Can’t Do The Job"

http://www.thegwpf.com/bill-gates-renewable-energy...

"Gates says he’ll personally put his money where his mouth is. He’s apparently invested $1bn of his own cash in low-carbon energy R&D already, and “over the next five years, there’s a good chance that will double,” he said."

Is that a record for wasting money on pointless things? If you ignore Gordon Brown, of course...

Bill has the GGP (Gross Gates Product) of a half decent sized country in some parts of the world.

His income, the source of his largesse, is based, ultimately, on what he has managed to extract from the productivity of the world's population (Microsoft being a somewhat extensive global player in a market dominated by dominance).

One might think of that as the equivalent of taxation in many ways. Perhaps the sort of taxation that we might enjoy if the UN had direct taxation interests.

He can then take this money and use it for whatever causes he wishes, calling it charity.

Whether this visible charity is effective use of the resource may take a while to become evident. Likewise whether the targets of the investment are the best targets in the long run. Charities rare seem to come along and announce that they have completed the task they set out to undertake and no longer need funding. Given a supply of funds there will always be a deserving cause in prospect.

When nominally democratic governments follow the same path the voting public has, in theory, some opportunities to object to the policies and vote them out of power or at least try to bring them to heal. It's a little less obvious how to do that with extremely wealthy individuals. (Or dictatorships but that's a different subject.)

Still, what's a billion dollars here or there?

Errr...

A waste of money?..

[mybrainhurts]

http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2015/7/1/th...

Heathrow expansion...Zac Goldsmith threatens to resign. Good...

While Lord Gummy Deben talks bks again.

What's he got his fingers into? I forget.

[hidetheelephants]

Ali G said:

Linked to from the article posted above....

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/25/bill_gates...

Traveling-wave reactor sounds an interesting form of fission, but no fusion on the agenda (payback too long).

Shame he put his money into what is basically fast reactor tech; they work but the unit and capital costs are horrific even by nuclear standards. Given he frequently cites the need to provide reliable power in countries with crap or non-existent grids which need distributed power you'd think he'd be putting money into small modular reactors and SMR means thermal spectrum.

[wc98]

so much for the bloody heatwave . drove from the east coast of scotland to dumfries and galloway in early yesterday afternoon and the indicated temp on the dash varied between 19 and 20 degrees . to be fair living in scotland,that could be classed as a heatwave looking at the last twenty or so summers.

[QuantumTokoloshi]

hidetheelephants said:

Ali G said:

Linked to from the article posted above....

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/25/bill_gates...

Traveling-wave reactor sounds an interesting form of fission, but no fusion on the agenda (payback too long).

Shame he put his money into what is basically fast reactor tech; they work but the unit and capital costs are horrific even by nuclear standards. Given he frequently cites the need to provide reliable power in countries with crap or non-existent grids which need distributed power you'd think he'd be putting money into small modular reactors and SMR means thermal spectrum.

Pebble bed reactors looks interesting for a modular solution, using both uranium or thorium as fuel.

[LongQ]

wc98 said:

so much for the bloody heatwave . drove from the east coast of scotland to dumfries and galloway in early yesterday afternoon and the indicated temp on the dash varied between 19 and 20 degrees . to be fair living in scotland,that could be classed as a heatwave looking at the last twenty or so summers.

32C here yesterday until it started to cool in the very late evening as a breeze picked up.

20C today with quite a strong breeze.

Projecting this rate of Climate change we should be in an Ice Age by Saturday.

[chris watton]

One hot day - that is all, one! Today, we have rain and cool breezes.

I was only very young, but I remember the Summer of '76 very well, seemed to go on forever!

One day and it's headline news, pathetic!

[turbobloke]

chris watton said:

One hot day - that is all, one! Today, we have rain and cool breezes.

I was only very young, but I remember the Summer of '76 very well, seemed to go on forever!

One day and it's headline news, pathetic!

Also, with the Heathrow Hype in mind (and according to reports) the BBC running on climageddon overdrive due to one Tmax on one day - it's odd that nobody is pointing out that a new sensor location was introduced for Heathrow in 2012.

Apparently the previous July record was in 2006. I don't have a record of the old location but here's the new one, with the modern sensor array near tarmac and jetwash.

[turbobloke]

Where could they have got the idea from...

Climate Audit said:

I think that it is time to recognize that calling CRUTEM an index of Land temperature is a misnomer as, in addition to Ocean and Land, there is a third important surface in major temperature indices: airport tarmac. In appreciation for Phil Jones’ efforts at measuring airport temperatures around the world, perhaps it would be appropriate that his series be rebranded CRUTAR.

[richie99]

chris watton said:

One hot day - that is all, one! Today, we have rain and cool breezes.

I was only very young, but I remember the Summer of '76 very well, seemed to go on forever!

One day and it's headline news, pathetic!

I was doing my O levels in 76. I think it did go on forever. It was a nightmare in the examination hallat school. Consequently I am a particularly unreceptive target for the climate wang crap about hottest day, week, month, year, since records began....excluding 76 of course, and the MWP, and any other period which was actually hotter.

[Mr GrimNasty]

The fact that Heathrow managed to fractionally exceed the record from very close by in 2006 says it all - the Heathrow weather station is ridiculously flawed, if it is the one in the photo I've seen (Tallblokes work was it?). The surrounding built up area was a good 4 to 5C cooler, and if it were green countryside still, it would have been 8 to 10C cooler.

Ground based temperature sets must be massively affected by urban micro climatic effects, which is then wrongly extrapolated into global warming?

(edit, written before I saw posts above!)

[Otispunkmeyer]

mybrainhurts said:

Mr GrimNasty said:

"Bill Gates: Renewable Energy Can’t Do The Job"

http://www.thegwpf.com/bill-gates-renewable-energy...

"Gates says he’ll personally put his money where his mouth is. He’s apparently invested $1bn of his own cash in low-carbon energy R&D already, and “over the next five years, there’s a good chance that will double,” he said."

Is that a record for wasting money on pointless things? If you ignore Gordon Brown, of course...

He's a bit slow off the mark though. The Google guys already showed a renewables only future to be an absurdity and they presumably gave it the very best assumptions they could muster. Still I like cut of his jib as regards nuclear. That is the right track to follow.

[Ali G]

I remember this day - it was HOT!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3138865.stm

Hmmmm....

https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/gravese...



I was cooling off in Broadstairs - external car thermometer indicated 39c ish (obviously not at all accurate) but entire area was scorchio.



It didn't last long...

[Ali G]

Otispunkmeyer said:

mybrainhurts said:

Mr GrimNasty said:

"Bill Gates: Renewable Energy Can’t Do The Job"

http://www.thegwpf.com/bill-gates-renewable-energy...

"Gates says he’ll personally put his money where his mouth is. He’s apparently invested $1bn of his own cash in low-carbon energy R&D already, and “over the next five years, there’s a good chance that will double,” he said."

Is that a record for wasting money on pointless things? If you ignore Gordon Brown, of course...

He's a bit slow off the mark though. The Google guys already showed a renewables only future to be an absurdity and they presumably gave it the very best assumptions they could muster. Still I like cut of his jib as regards nuclear. That is the right track to follow.

Even The Right 'Orful Brian Cox admits renewables are bunk.

[Silver Smudger]

Ali G said:

I remember this day - it was HOT!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3138865.stm

Hmmmm....

https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/gravese...

And what happens to that weather station when they build London Paramount theme park ?

[Mr GrimNasty]

Checkout Jul and August 1911 Met office summaries, just as hot and far more 'extreme'.

The Met seems to have a selective memory. Not so easy to sort out all the archived printed material though!

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/archive/monthly-weathe...

[nelly1]

Mr GrimNasty said:

Checkout Jul and August 1911 Met office summaries, just as hot and far more 'extreme'.

The Met seems to have a selective memory. Not so easy to sort out all the archived printed material though!

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/archive/monthly-weathe...

July...



August...



Funny to listen to radio presenters yesterday asking how people were coping with the 'unprecedented' heat...