Wind Power Down To 0.1%

The futility and inherent danger of our wind powered future laid bare.

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

At 5pm yesterday, electricity generation from wind farms dropped to a paltry 72 MW, just 0.1% of total demand of 52.1 GW.

The 24-hour period up to 10.30 pm was little better, averaging just 0.3%

http://www.bmreports.com/bsp/bsp_home.htm

Fortunately there is still enough gas and coal- fired capacity to fill the gap, but, as the Center for Policy Studies reported last year, this reserve capacity is becoming increasingly tight.

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/uks-fast-looming-power-crisis/

With coal power station closures already announced for this year, dispatchable capacity will drop to 61.6 GW. However, this reflects then nameplate capacity, which needs to be derated to allow for the likely operational effectiveness.

Assuming a figure of 85% for this, we will be down to 52.3 GW.

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/uks-fast-looming-power-crisis/

Under the Capacity Market Auction, the government has 49 GW of derated capacity contracted for 2018, the first year of the scheme, and 51 GW the year after…

View original post 176 more words

Dr. Robert Carter, scientist, climate skeptic, pioneer, friend – R.I.P

“A great climate warrior”

RIP

Watts Up With That?

I was shocked and saddened to read this, I’m passing it on without comment because I can’t write about this at this moment.

Dr. Robert M. Carter (1941-2016)

Joe Bast writes:

It is with deep regret that I report the passing of a friend, colleague, and great scholar, Dr. Robert M. Carter. Bob died peacefully in a hospital surrounded by family and friends following a heart attack a few days ago. He was 74 years old.

Funeral arrangements are being made and it will most likely take place on Monday next week in Townsville, Australia.

This is almost unspeakably sad. Bob was the very embodiment of the “happy warrior” in the global warming debate. He was a scholar’s scholar, with impeccable credentials (including a Ph.D. from Cambridge), careful attention to detail, and a deep understanding of and commitment to the scientific method. He endured the slings and arrows of…

View original post 259 more words

The old ‘website revision’ excuse for not updating polar bear status changes

polarbearscience

Apparently, the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) thinks that it’s OK to mislead the public on the conservation status of polar bears for half a year because its website is being revamped. This conservation organization is of the opinion that people landing on their websitewhile searching for official polar bear status information don’t need to know right away that a new IUCN Red List document was published in November 2015. We know this because the message below appeared on the PBSG homepage 14 January 2016 (text in bold was there previously: the new message is in CAPS), screencap of entire page at 16 Jan 2016 pdf here:

It appears that the PBSG feels that the public can wait to be told about 2015 Red List decision until the PBSG are ready for them to be told, which could be anywhere from March to the end of June…

View original post 697 more words

The World Is Awash With Food

Yet another reason not to read the Guardian.

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/31/climate-change-food-supply-un

Climate change has already cut into the global food supply and is fuelling wars and natural disasters, but governments are unprepared to protect those most at risk, according to a report from the UN’s climate science panel.

Piles of unwanted grain on farms near Doug Schmitz’s storage bins in southern Minnesota are a stark reminder of just how bearish the outlook is for U.S.crop prices.

After record yields during the harvest a few months ago, growers in the area still have 80 percent of their corn crop left to sell and 70 percent of soybeans, said Schmitz, who operates four grain elevators and markets to processors and exporters. Normally, half the supply would be unloaded by now, he said. While Schmitz Grain Inc. is under contract to collect 2 million bushels from local farmers, the outlook is so dim that most of that inventory hasn’t been…

View original post 215 more words

artificial raspberry-pi pancreas

This post will be lost in the avalanche of grief for the passing of the incredible David Bowie, but some good health news involving a nifty bit of technology is worth acknowledging.
  
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/artificial-raspberry-pi-pancreas/

Lessons from the longest study on happiness

I am not one for promoting homilies about how to live your life better but Kate highlights something that we all know yet time and time again fail to follow. I don’t know why this and it doesn’t matter that few people will read this on my blog. Its a personal reminder if nothing else with the act of writing it down a personal challenge for the New Year. Thank you Kate.

What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness

Robert Waldinger, TEDx Beacon Street, filmed November 2015

Researchers at Harvard, after studying participants for 75 years, have discovered conclusively that it is not money, or fame or even achievement that create a sense of happiness or physical health. This multi-generational research team found instead that (i) the Quality of our close relationships with one another and (ii) our degree of social connectivity were the best determinants of our overall happiness, physical health, mental function and longevity. This seems also to align with the research into isolation being a risk factor for dementia.

Personally, I feel it is a tad biased, as the study until late into it, was only on men; it definitely would be interesting to have seen the results for the same study on women.

After watching this talk, which you can view below, but the clearest message or lessons learned from the 75-year-old, ongoing…

View original post 419 more words

Wanstead weather: 2015 review

9th warmest on record, given length of records, not quite the imminent armageddon being touted by the BBC every night.

Wanstead Meteo

This year finished as the ninth warmest year on record – some 0.5C cooler than 2014.

Every month of 2015, apart from September, November and December, was roughly average – the means being within +/-0.7 every month, bringing the mean temperature to 11.9C, 0.7C above the 1981-2010 average.

Rainfall was less remarkable with the year being dryer than average. The total of 553mm puts it as the 162nd wettest since 1797.

It was also a very slightly duller than average year with 1,433 hours of sunshine recorded. That’s 97 per cent of average, the 77th dullest since 1881 – the least amount of sunshine for 11 years.

To view full stats follow this link:http://1drv.ms/1kiTuzv

View original post

The EU Water Framework Directive & The Role Played By Green NGO’s

Paul Homewood looks under the bonnet of EU legislation and highlights the undemocratic and excessive influence of green NGOs. Nothing in the over-hyped Cameron EU “deal” will have the slightest impact on this situation.

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

The EU Water Framework Directive: part 1. European policy‐making and the changing topography of lobbying

The European Water Framework Directive 2000 has been the source of much controversy, regarding its impact on river dredging. It was notable as being one of the first ones to be created through the co-decision process, in which the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament have joint influence over the final text.

However, as the above paper reveals, it also marked a step change in the way that environmental lobby groups were allowed to influence policy.

The introduction sets the scene:

The paper goes on to reveal that:

View original post 1,365 more words

WUWT Year in review for 2015

“About 2,500,000 people visit MoMA in New York every year. This blog was viewed about 42,000,000 times in 2015. If it were an exhibit at MoMA, it would take about 17 years for that many people to see it.”

Not bad for an independent unpaid blogger on climate change. Well done Anthony Watts!

Watts Up With That?

The WordPress.com stats team prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog. I’ve supplemented it at the end with some additional info.

Here’s an excerpt:

About 2,500,000 people visit MoMA in New York every year. This blog was viewed about 42,000,000 times in 2015. If it were an exhibit at MoMA, it would take about 17 years for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

2015 turned out to be slightly lower than 2014 in terms of total viewers and views, but it is still the second most busy year since the blog started in November 2006.

December of 2015 was our best month, owing to coverage of COP21, AGU15, and our new presentation at AGU on the surfacestations project:

WUWT remains the #1 climate related blog in the world, and our detractors would be thrilled to get even a fraction of the reach…

View original post 65 more words