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This is why they stopped talking about global warming and started talking about climate change. It’s so much easier to demonstrate that what we previously called “weather” is in fact something far more sinister.
Keep up! It’s climate change now. Whatever the weather, it’s bad, and we did it.
But it is still 273deg warmer than pre-Sun times !
Andy F
Great minds, seconds apart!
There would have been no problem had the huge sums spent on windmills and solar panels been used to maintain our coal fired power stations.
Of course there was also the refusal of Victoria and New South Wales to drill for more gas, and the sale of such gas as was available overseas.
The bit I found most entertaining was the call for a ‘capacity market’. The lady advocating it was careful not to say it’d fix the electricity shortage, but claimed it’d make it less severe. Since she maintained that coal powered generation should not be part of the market, I concluded that the idea was to pay the windmills and solar panels for their maximum possible generating capacity, regardless of whether the wind was blowing or the sun shining.
Needless to say, I feel that all the ‘net zero’ nonsense should be abandoned and good old coal should be king again.
I had signed an online petition to UK parliament to restart fracking. I got an email the other day to say “we’ve considered it, but no”. The logic seemed to be “we live in fear & trembling of little earthquakes as we have no idea where the fault lines are”. Of course we’ve lived with the equivalent of quakes for centuries due to the surface subsidence effects of coal mining in much of the UK.
” Of course we’ve lived with the equivalent of quakes for centuries due to the surface subsidence effects of coal mining in much of the UK.”
And are allowing exactly the same strength of micro-quakes to be triggered by geo-thermal wells being drilled currently. But obviously injecting fluids deep into the ground to extract energy in places like Cornwall is totally different from injecting fluids deep into the ground to extract energy in places like Lancashire. Why would anyone think they could possibly be comparable?
I get greater trembles in my home from the bus passing every thirty minutes.
Keep up! It’s climate change now.
Bloody dinosaurs, it’s “climate emergency” now.
It’s not as though we don’t have strong motion natural earthquakes in the UK. The Colchester earthquake in 1884 (M=4.6) caused considerable damage. The 1941 North Sea earthquake (M=6.1) was long before oil and gas exploitation. The 2007 Folkestone earthquake (M=4.3) was one of a number in that vicinity, and historic earthquakes there in 1389 and 1580 managed to damage Saltwood Castle.
Rother Valley MP Alexander Stafford, who has campaigned against the fracking site getting the go-ahead in his constituency, was pleased by the outcome.
“I am delighted that the Government has stood up for the people of Rother Valley on yet another critically important issue for our area,” said the Conservative MP.
“I have been lobbying tirelessly behind the scenes to have the Secretary of State step in, and I am pleased that my calls have been answered with decisive, positive action.
“No one is a bigger advocate for cleaner energy than me, but fracking is not, and has never been, the answer.
“It is not wanted here in Rother Valley, and this Conservative government has yet again listened to us and represented us robustly. I hope residents in Woodsetts rejoice in this momentous victory that we have achieved together.”
Another fine Conservative victory, lads.
But let’s, just for the sake of argument, implement a carbon Tax as recommended by Nic Stern, based on the outputs of dodgy computer models and ignore all the empirical evidence that thoroughly disproves the theory of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming.
Eight million Australians urged to turn off lights
Australia’s energy minister has urged households in New South Wales – a state that includes the country’s biggest city Sydney – to switch off their lights in the face of an energy crisis.
Chris Bowen says people should not use electricity for two hours every evening if they “have a choice”.
However, he added he was “confident” that blackouts could be avoided.
They’ve managed to create an energy crisis in a continent sized country that’s full of natural resources.
Eight million Australians urged to turn off lights
FFS that will do the square root of sod all. If I turned on every light in the house, it would come to about 200W. The moment someone trips over in the dark, breaks a bone and has to go to hospital, the energy used doesn’t wash against an entire town turning the lights off. Since the mass adoption of LEDs, lighting is such a minimal use of electricity that it isn’t even worth thinking about. “Get the BBQ out instead of using the electric oven” might make a difference — charcoal is “renewable” after all, so it must be good.
Turn the TV off instead of watching politicos talk crap would be another excellent way of saving electricity.
“They’ve managed to create an energy crisis in a continent sized country that’s full of natural resources”
US, Canada too!
It could be looked at as an interesting philosophical argument about omni-incompetence: would it be possible to imagine a society so perfect that communists couldn’t fuck it up.
Actually, it’s no argument at all!
As in the UK: We live on an island built out of coal and surrounded by fish, and we manage to be short of energy and have to import food.
“I concluded that the idea was to pay the windmills and solar panels for their maximum possible generating capacity, regardless of whether the wind was blowing or the sun shining.”
I think we do that already. Including paying for them to stay turned off when there is too much wind.
“we live in fear & trembling of little earthquakes ”
Of course. We live in fear and trembling of an influenza-like illness. Fear and trembling is de riguer.
Tractor Gent
I got the same weasel email too.
Notably it did not put any figures to the prospect of earth tremors. The biggest tremor coincident with fracking is about 1.2 so barely discernible. Meanwhile construction sites are allowed higher shakes and routinely produce tremors ten times bigger. As for quarrying…
Can we switch off all the lights in Rother Valley, please.
If your power grid is “under strain” because the weather hasn’t exceeded 15 degrees (59 degrees in non-wog) in a few weeks, then perhaps the real story is that your power grid is shit.
Evidently Australia and New Zealand are in a race to see which nation achieves third world shithole status first.
Steve,
“Another fine Conservative victory, lads.”
My local Conservative MP was writing about how we shouldn’t throw out the ECHR today because they’ve blocked the elected government doing something that was entirely legal (law passed allowing it, no conflict with other laws of the land). Majority support in polling, overwhelmingly so amongst Conservative voters.
But there’s also a lot of Labour voters who want it done. The sort of moderate voters that could probably be nudged into voting Conservative. But no, he’s going to support something that only really has support with the union/blue-haired activist lot who would never vote Conservative.
Thankfully, Reform seem to be on the march, and if someone else won’t stand for them in South Swindon, I’ll do it. The Conservative Party need a reboot, and that’s not going to happen until they get a thorough kicking at an election. And either the Thatcherites can go on a rampage against the wets and restore that party to greatness or Reform will take their place.
“The bit I found most entertaining was the call for a ‘capacity market’”
Which has been temporarily suspended, in a desperate attempt to keep the lights on:
https://joannenova.com.au/2022/06/blackout-risk-in-five-states-continues-wholesale-energy-market-suspended-australians-told-to-use-less-electricity/
What, no mention of the cold currently affecting S. America, or the cold spring that delayed planting in N. America?
Pat, do get with the programme – cold temperatures (Antarctica last year, North America, South America, Northern Europe, Greenland and Australia this year) go against the narrative of ‘man made global warming’ and will therefore disappear down the memory hole faster than Ghislaine Maxwells testimony or Volodomir Zelensky’s political career (some would say life expectancy) due to him now being superfluous to the aims of the US government.
Watched some vacuous morons on the BBC ‘Politics Live’ programme discussing how to cope with the extreme temperatures we are about to experience in the UK. The type we get half a dozen times a year if we’re lucky, but are normal for a large part of the rest of the planet. “What can we do, infrastructure wise?” was the question. It isn’t now you need to be concerned about, it’s winter when people can’t afford to put the heating on…..
It isn’t now you need to be concerned about, it’s winter when people can’t afford to put the heating on…..
It’s likely that there won’t be any electricity to turn on this winter.
‘And are allowing exactly the same strength of micro-quakes to be triggered by geo-thermal wells being drilled currently.’
Yeah Jim. I’ve seen arguments for capturing CO2 in a fluid, drilling the wells and pumping it underground to combine with the basalt or whatever. They were wailing that the vital ‘carbon capture and storage’ option was being cruelly ignored.
Well, some good news, Virgin is going to start flying bogans directly from the Gold Coast to Bali which means that they don’t have to come into Brisbane. We were once offered a week’s free accommodation in the Gold Coast but decided that we’d rather not waste leave visiting such a hideous destination so passed up the offer.
Winter has been harsh in Mackay this year, we’ve had to close the bedroom windows at night, not something we do most winters.
BoM4 – you’d like to think so, but I’m still surprised and annoyed at the public’s bovine obeisance to health fascism so idk. Wouldn’t be surprised if they put brownout profile filters on their social media instead of something useful.
Chris – the time to stock up on food is now.
PJF questioned my 3 months food supply plan recently, observing that if we run out of food for 3 months there’ll probably be armed groups confiscating food. Likely true, but the point of having plenty of necessities on hand is you’re less at the mercy of supply chain issues. So, I don’t think we’ll run out of food in general, but some items may become randomly scarce, as they did during lockdowns, and having your own stock shields you from inconvenience, queues, and wifely aggravation.
You probably/hopefully won’t ever “need” 3 months of stuff on hand, but it definitely can’t hurt to put at least a few weeks worth aside. We’re seeing all the warning signs from WHEN MONEY DIES. Can’t see that leading to hyperinflation and a return of the pencil toothbrush just yet, but it’s gonna be shite, that’s for sure.
Addolff mentioned President Zelensky. Ukraine has pretty much disappeared from the MSM now, which tells you all you need to know about their imminent victory over Russia. Very bad news for Ukraine, but also for us as there’s no apparent route to lasting peace and an end to the sanctions that are worsening inflation and gutting Western Europe’s ability to compete in global markets. As we’ve seen, British, EU and Australian governments are determined to ensure we can’t find our way back to cheap fossil fuels. Whether WEF conspiracies are real or not, the plan is to engineer a collapse in the standard of living.
The Shit might not be a temporary blip, it could well be the new normal.
Chris, my question to the net zero morons: You want 39 million fossil fueled vehicles off the road to be replaced by electric. You want 25 million households who currently use fossil fuels for heating to be replaced by electric. You want our electricity generation from fossil fuels to be replaced by not fossil fuel. So where the fuck is the electricity going to come from?
“So where the fuck is the electricity going to come from?”
Answer: it isn’t going to come from anywhere, because the whole plan is to make people poorer. You won’t be able to afford an electric car, so you won’t be plugging it in. And the heating you will be able to afford will be a fraction of what you can now (in terms of units of energy) so the demand for that will be lower too.
By the omission of where all the electric would come from for a Net Zero conversion they are letting the cat out of the bag.
“So where the fuck is the electricity going to come from?”
To which the correct answer is nukes and hydro (if you’ve got 1000m mountains which England hasn’t).From the iea Hydropower generation increased 124 TWh (+3%) in 2020, reaching 4 418 TWh and remaining the largest renewable source of electricity, generating more than all other renewable technologies combined. and from the British hydro association Hydropower currently produces around 20% of the world’s electricity and 90% of the world’s renewable power. Recent resource studies have indicated that there is a practical potential for a further 2GW of capacity in the UK.
Ha ha ha 2GW! Though that does show that most of the UK’s hydro potential has long been utilised.
As for grids, ours is getting shittier by the day. Recently I’ve had leaflets by post from consultants asking for comments on two different solar farm schemes within a couple of miles of me before they put in planning applications. They both appear to have a plate capacity of around 20MW but the likely averaged output is around 11% of that! Which is what happens when you put it at 52 Deg N.
The other big issue is that all these penny-ante schemes disappear off the grid instantly when the voltage or frequency, especially rate of change of frequency, deviates outside of narrowly defined limits. In August 2019 there was a significant UK grid wobble from a lightning strike and nearly 1GW of these little systems went offline as well as a big ‘proper’ windfarm due to a design fault. There is probably a lot more than a GW of small systems now, and a lot of the grid inertia that helps stabilise df/dt is gone too now those big coal-fired large rotating masses are no longer there.
Tractor Gent, South Australia went black a number of years ago for precisely that reason – lightning strikes tripped out a bunch of wind farms and there just wasn’t enough synchronous capacity to maintain frequency. Total grid shutdown. They now have massive banks of diesel generators to cover for that. They’ve been running a lot in the last few weeks.
In eastern Australia, winter is usually a low demand time for electricity. Summer is mostly worse from increased residential and commercial A/C. We’re struggling now, heaven knows what the situation will be in October.
Also, what Boganboy said.
Recently I’ve had leaflets by post from consultants asking for comments on two different solar farm schemes within a couple of miles of me before they put in planning applications. They both appear to have a plate capacity of around 20MW but the likely averaged output is around 11% of that! Which is what happens when you put it at 52 Deg N.
As I’ve regularly pointed out, PV installations at temperate latitudes will struggle* to produce as much energy over their useful life as was consumed during their manufacture (mostly in China, mostly coal-powered), so don’t even do much to reduce global CO2.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421516301379
* and that assumes optimal siting in terms of tilt and direction, usually true for ‘farms’ but rarely the case for domestic (rooftop) installations.
The real problem is that the market operator capped wholesale electricity at $300/MWh, at a time when gas powered generators doing the peaking load are looking at $500/MWh cost just to break even. Price controls lead to shortages, breaking news.