In situ evolution of active phase on stainless steel mesh toward cost-effective bifunctional electrode for energy storage and conversion

Chem. Commun., 2019, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC09553A, Communication

Kang Xiao, Taiquan Xiao, Yirong Zhang, Jingxin Xie, Meizhi Cao, Nan Li, Ting Ouyang, Zhao-Qing Liu
Developing low-cost, efficient and stable electrode materials are the major challenges of energy storage and conversion. Here, we report a facile, cost-effective and scaled-up self-sacrificing strategy for transforming commercial stainless...
The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry

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Saved by pseudo-renewable energy?

Climate alarmists must prove expensive, weather-dependent energy is green and sustainable Paul Driessen, The IPCC says it's still possible to limit planetary warming to an additional 0.5 degrees C (0.9 F) "above pre-industrial levels" – but only if global CO2 emissions are halved by 2030 and zeroed out by 2050. So climate alarmists intend to…

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ILO: Think of Humans, When Creating Jobs for Robots

Guest essay by Eric Worrall Will the AI crisis replace the faltering Climate Crisis? Keep humans in good jobs in the robot era, ILO commission urges Tom Miles JANUARY 23, 2019 GENEVA (Reuters) – Governments must ensure the global economy keeps providing decent jobs – and not just for robots, a global commission set up…

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OCASIO-CORTEZ JUST LATEST IN 100 YEARS OF WARNINGS EARTH ‘DOOMED’

http://bit.ly/2sRLCih Congressional newcomer Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., recently made the wild claim that unless global warming is addressed, the world has only 12 years left. "And I think the part of it that is generational is that millennials and people, in Gen Z, and all these folks that come after us are looking up and we're [...]

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Chicago’s record for coldest temperature ever could fall as polar vortex has city ‘in the crosshairs’

https://trib.in/2FQNAYB Tony BriscoeContact ReporterChicago Tribune One of the coldest air masses in years will envelop the Midwest and the Northeast this week bringing potentially life-threatening low temperatures to the Chicago area that will feel even harsher in tandem with strong winds. In Chicago, the coldest temperatures of the year will arrive midweek. After seeing a [...]

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Irish Greens try to inspire mass Yellow Vest protests

Greens et al want to add €12 or $20 AUD to the cost of filling a car in order to stop jellyfish plagues, sharks and droughts in Ireland in 2100. Hello, Yellow Vests….

Ireland's main political parties show no sign of agreement over 2030 climate change targets

Stephen O'Brien, The Times, UK.

TDs and senators are split over plans for a fourfold increase in carbon tax …

Fine Gael and Green Party members of the Oireachtas climate action committee want a report next month to recommend a carbon tax of at least €80 a ton over the next decade, which would add €12 to the cost of filling a car with diesel or petrol and €7.20 to a bag of coal.

Sinn Fein is opposing increases in carbon tax until there is better public transport, grant aid for retrofitting houses, and lower costs for electric vehicles. Fianna Fail is also against recommending a carbon tax rise in the climate action report.

The Greens want the tax to be doubled to €40 next year, with annual increases of €5 over the next decade until it reaches €90.

 As usual, the theft is [...]

Rating: 10.0/10 (2 votes cast)

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The impact of environmental pollution on the quality of mother's milk

Abstract

Breastfeeding is a gold standard of neonate nutrition because human milk contains a lot of essential compounds crucial for proper development of a child. However, milk is also a biofluid which can contain environmental pollution, which can have effects on immune system and consequently on the various body organs. Polychlorinated biphenyls are organic pollutants which have been detected in human milk. They have lipophilic properties, so they can penetrate to fatty milk and ultimately to neonate digestive track. Another problem of interest is the presence in milk of heavy metals—arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury—as these compounds can lead to disorders in production of cytokines, which are important immunomodulators. The toxicants cause stimulation or suppression of this compounds. This can lead to health problems in children as allergy, disorders in the endocrine system, end even neurodevelopment delay and disorder. Consequently, correlations between pollutants and bioactive components in milk should be investigated. This article provides an overview of environmental pollutants found in human milk as well as of the consequences of cytokine disorder correlated with presence of heavy metals.

Graphical abstract

ᅟ

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Arnold Schwarzenegger: “we all have to work together to fight this problem of this unbelievable pollution”

Guest essay by Eric Worrall Global warming just isn't scary enough. Arnold Schwarzenegger: Why Trump is 'wrong' on climate change By Rob Hodgetts and Christina Macfarlane, CNN Updated 1946 GMT (0346 HKT) January 26, 2019 Kitzbuhel, Austria (CNN)"The Terminator" Arnold Schwarzenegger says US President Donald Trump is making a "big mistake" on environmental policy. Making…

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Germany totally kills coal – will likely end up in the dark, without heat and light

From the LA times, a bold move, but unlikely they can pull it off. Germany to close all 84 of its coal-fired power plants, will rely primarily on renewable energy Germany, one of the world's biggest consumers of coal, will shut down all 84 of its coal-fired power plants over the next 19 years to…

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Tesla Powerpack Prices Rise By 16% Since 2017

By Paul Homewood

 

The power of the internet!

We often hear that the cost of battery storage keeps coming down in leaps and bounds, but the reality is different, at least as far as Tesla is concerned.

 

In June 2017, I ran a post on the economics of Tesla Powerwall batteries for domestic use.

This is the what Tesla's website showed at the time:

 

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2017/06/16/tesla-powerwall-economics/

 

Now, lo and behold, we find that the cost has risen by £950, an increase of 16% in a year and a half:

 

https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/powerwall?redirect=no 

 

Specification wise, there seems to be no difference, and both are rated at 14 KWh.

 

Poor old Elon must be desperate to make some money!

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Misconceptions About Battery Storage

By Paul Homewood

 

 

There is a very common misconception that battery storage can solve the problems of intermittency arising from renewable energy sources.

For instance, there was this little exchange on the Telegraph article today about wind farms along the HS2 route to power the trains:

 

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/01/26/wind-farms-could-built-along-route-hs2-confidential-government/

 

What the public at large, represented by Mr Truth, don't seem to understand is just how limited the amount of energy that can be stored really is.

As we know, Elon Musk sold his 100MW battery storage system to South Australia a couple of years ago. 100MW sounds impressive, but as his own specifications made clear the maximum output was only 129 MWh. And for this tiny amount of storage, the Australians paid an estimated A$150m, about £80m.

Hornsdale Battery Storage – South Australia

The only way to increase this capacity is keep building more and more batteries.

 

To put storage into perspective, let's take a typical 5MW wind turbine, the sort we see plastered across the countryside.

Based on utilisation of 28%, one turbine would, on average, generate 1022 MWh/month.

Now, suppose that we had a month with relatively little wind, and output declined to 10% of capacity. This is not an unrealistic assumption, as we went a full week earlier this month with wind power down to that sort of level.

In this scenario, output during the month would fall to 365 MWh, leaving a shortfall of 657 MWh against the norm.

If this single wind turbine was to provide enough storage to make good this shortfall, how many Tesla batteries would be needed?

 

Tesla's South Australian storage system can provide, as we have seen, 129 MWh. So we would need five of these, at a cost of £400m.

Remember, this is to guarantee supply for just one tiny wind turbine.

The Australian scheme consists of around 600 Tesla Powerpacks, each rated at 210 KWh, and each about the size of a large fridge.

Our local 5MW wind turbine need some 3000 of these. Apart from filling up the countryside with millions of fridges, the cost of providing this sort of storage would kill wind projects stone dead, if they had to pay the cost themselves.

 

It may be that to need such large reserves of power would be a rare event, a reliable grid needs to cater for all contingencies.

 

Meanwhile, Claire Perry whittles on about smart grids and storage, and a gullible public falls for it.

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Sunday silliness: AOC is too dumb to even come up with her own disaster scenario

Last week we covered the announcement during an interview from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that the "…the world is gonna end in 12 years if we don't address climate change". Augusta Chronicle Cartoonist and friend of WUWT Rick McKee encapsulated that inanity in an editorial cartoon he placed on Facebook Saturday. Of course, there's just one small problem; this…

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Green Energy Blues: Falmouth City Cautionary Tale

 

A wind turbine loomed over the Craggy Ridge neighborhood in West Falmouth.
JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF

The story is by David Abel at Boston Globe January 24, 2019 'Green energy blues' in a town that sought to do something about climate change.  Excerpts in italics with my bolds.   H/T Greenie Watch

FALMOUTH — For nearly a decade, the giant blades have loomed over this seaside town, stirring hope and fear in the salty air.

To proponents, the twin wind turbines proved that residents could act on their ideals, producing their own clean energy and relying less on fossil fuels. To critics, they were mechanical monstrosities, blinking eyesores whirring at such a frequency that some neighbors said they became ill.

Nine years after the first was built beside Falmouth's waste treatment plant, both turbines now stand idle, no longer producing a kilowatt of electricity, totems of good intentions gone awry.

Facing fierce neighborhood opposition and multiple lawsuits, selectmen last week voted to remove the turbines, which had cost the town about $10 million to build, saddling residents with years of debt.

"All that's left now is that we have an albatross to live with," said Sam Peterson, the one dissenting vote on the five-person board.

Wind power offers communities a way to reduce their emissions, but the protracted resistance to the turbines offers lessons as communities throughout the region consider similarly controversial renewable energy projects.

It also reflects the challenges, often tacit, in the state's promises to make substantial reductions in its emissions. Those plans rely on importing hydropower from Canada and major offshore wind farms, and both approaches are being contested by powerful, well-organized interest groups and could be subject to legal challenges.

For Dave Moriarty, who spent much of the past decade fighting the Falmouth turbines, news that the town was finally giving up its efforts to keep them running was a welcome relief. He considers the turbines "overbearing, antiquated dinosaurs" and said they left the town with the "green energy blues."

The 56-year-old contractor, who lived close to the turbines after they were built, moved across town because they wrought too much stress, he said. He blames town officials for ignoring his and other neighbors' concerns.

"The town was warned," he said. "The damage can never be reversed for many of us wind turbine victims. Some of my friends have serious health issues now."

Neighbors complained that the churning of the turbines and the resulting flickering light and vibrations produced dizziness, nausea, depression, or anxiety — a set of symptoms that critics call "wind turbine syndrome."

In 2012, with both 1.65-megawatt turbines operating and the opposition becoming increasingly vocal, state environmental officials took the unprecedented action of recommending that one be shut down. They found that turbine, which was fewer than 1,500 feet from the nearest home, had repeatedly exceeded allowable noise levels.

But a panel of independent scientists and doctors convened by the state Department of Environmental Protection found little to no evidence the turbines posed a health risk to neighbors.

The town eventually stopped them from operating at night, and in 2015, a state appeals court judge ruled that the town lacked sufficient permits for one of the turbines and prohibited it from operating. Two years later, a Superior Court judge ruled that both turbines posed a nuisance to neighbors and ordered that they never operate again at their current location.

"The lessons others should learn from our experience is that residents should do their homework in advance of construction," Moriarty said. "They should ask questions and know what they're really getting into."

For Peterson, the only selectman who declined to vote in favor of removing the turbines, the decision ultimately reflects the power of those concerned about any large industrial project close to their homes.

While he said he felt empathy for those whose homes are closest to the turbines, he thinks they exaggerated their complaints. He visited their homes and never heard more than a minor hissing of the moving blades.

"We had the best of intentions, and they bullied those of us who tried to reason with them," said Peterson, a retired physics teacher who like many of his neighbors hoped to do his share in addressing climate change.

He also noted that the turbines were approved by repeated votes by more than 200 members of Falmouth's Town Meeting. But he acknowledged that town officials made mistakes, particularly in failing to comply with zoning requirements.

A woman walked along Westmoreland Drive in Falmouth, in the shadow of one of the city's wind turbines. JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF

In addition to the $10 million that the town's 30,000 residents spent on building the turbines, they now have to pay as much as $2 million more to remove them.

"It's a shame," said Susan Moran, chair of the town's board of selectmen, who initially supported the turbines but voted to take them down. "This is absolutely a financial blow to the town."

Moran and other town officials acknowledge those losses will take a toll. They're already considering cutting back on some services, such as curbside trash collection.

While the town received $5 million in state loans for the project — $1.5 million of which has been forgiven — residents are likely to have repay the rest. If the turbines had operated as planned, functioning 24 hours a day, they were projected to earn the town between an estimated $1 million and $2 million a year.

In an effort to recoup some of those costs, selectmen have instructed town officials to consider a variety of options for what to do with the turbines.

Those include possibly converting them into cellphone towers or selling them to another community that might operate them. If they were able to negotiate such a deal with another town, Falmouth might have the rest of their state loans forgiven, as the turbines would be generating renewable energy.

"We're looking at our options, but either way, there's certainly going to be a financial impact to Falmouth," said Julian Suso, to town manager.

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Wind farms could be built along HS2 route under confidential Government plans

By Paul Homewood

 

 

h/t Ian

 

This will put the cat among the pigeons!

 

 

Wind farms could be built along the route of HS2 in a major resurrection of onshore turbines in Britain, under confidential Government-commissioned plans.

An official strategy document seen by The Sunday Telegraph proposes powering the controversial rail line using lucrative onshore wind farms spanning the equivalent of 19,000 football fields.

For some stretches of the line the majority of electricity would come from solar or wind farms built "on or near" the track, according to the plans. The document indicates that the move would require more land being purchased by developers along the route of the line, and could tip the scheme over its £56 billion budget.

The plan is likely to spark fury among MPs and residents who already fear the line will blight landscape.

The strategy sets out prices that would be pre-agreed with energy firms, at rates experts claimed would lead to passengers or taxpayers effectively paying a new "hidden subsidy" for wind farms, after formal subsidies were ended four years ago following a revolt by Conservative MPs.

The disclosure comes amid growing calls for the project to be scaled back or scrapped. Earlier this month The Sunday Telegraph revealed that HS2 Ltd, the Government-owned firm behind the scheme, had raised the possibility of slashing the number of trains in order to keep control over its budget. 

John Constable, director of the Renewable Energy Foundation, which publishes data on wind farms, said: "The proposed arrangements would amount to a hidden subsidy that would have to be funded by passengers or taxpayers or both. They could easily make HS2 the world's most expensive railway."

The document, which was produced for HS2 Ltd by KPMG, sets out four options for powering the three phases of the Y-shaped line, which is due to run between London and Birmingham and then on to Manchester and Leeds.

The "preferred option" would see HS2 Ltd initially striking "power purchase agreements" (PPAs) with energy firms to provide electricity for the first two stages of the line using dedicated "assets", such as sections of solar farms as well as onshore and offshore wind farms, via the National Grid. 

For phase '2b', the stretches between Crewe to Manchester and the West Midlands and Leeds which are not due to open until 2033, the firm could then adopt a "private wire solution" under which it would make use of dedicated solar or onshore wind farms directly connected to the line.

"Private wire agreements offer an alternative to corporate PPAs in that companies can invest directly in a renewable electricity generation asset on or near their own site; or alternatively commission the construction of the asset by a third party", the document states. If HS2 decided to develop the wind farms itself "it is likely there would be additional capex [capital expenditure] requirements beyond the pre-agreed budget.

"We envisage that the electricity generated under the private wire solution would be made up of solar or onshore wind," the document says.

It recognises that onshore turbines could lead to "a degree of resistance at the local level as onshore wind turbines have been considered an 'eyesore' by communities." But because of the unreliability of the wind, "onshore wind cannot be the only technology employed to meet HS2's needs."

Last night an HS2 Ltd spokesman said: "We are taking a strategic long term approach for assessing how we will source electricity for HS2 operations. We commissioned an initial study of the range of potential electricity supply options, including generating renewable power from dedicated plants.

"By starting this process early we can use the time available to develop the right solution that both secures the supply of electricity to Britain's new high speed rail network and helps reduce the railway's carbon footprint."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/01/26/wind-farms-could-built-along-route-hs2-confidential-government/

 

HS2 is already hugely unpopular amongst communities living near to the line.

But I cannot think of anything that will annoy them more than miles of wind turbines lining the route.

As for the economics, John Constable is right that direct purchase arrangements will simply push wind subsidies onto passengers, for most of  whom HS2 is already set to be unaffordable.

It is suggested that the Stage 2 could obtain electricity direct from wind farm operators should save the railway money, as it would cut out payments to the middle man for grid costs, which ironically include renewable subsidies.

However, whatever saving accrues to HS2 would simply mean that other electricity users had to pay more than their share.

Given budget constraints, I see no possibility the government will pay for the turbines themselves. But given their mindless obsession with renewables, anything is possible.

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Inverse Hockey-Stick: climate related death risk for an individuals down 99% since 1920

Bjørn Lomborg writes on Facebook about some new and surprising data that turn climate alarmist claims upside down. Fewer and fewer people die from climate-related natural disasters. This is clearly opposite of what you normally hear, but that is because we're often just being told of one disaster after another – telling us how *many* events…

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Global Warming Myth Debunked: Humans Have Minimal Impact on Atmosphere

By Jay Lehr and Tom Harris

Global warming activists argue carbon-dioxide emissions are destroying the planet, but the climate impacts of carbon dioxide are minimal, at worst. Activists would also have you believe fossil-fuel emissions have driven carbon-dioxide concentrations to their highest levels in history. The Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency went so far as to classify carbon dioxide as a toxic pollutant, and it established a radical goal of closing all of America's coal-fired power plants.

Claims of unprecedented carbon-dioxide levels ignore most of Earth's 4.6-billion-year history. Relative to Earth's entire record, carbon-dioxide levels are at historically low levels; they only appear high when compared to the dangerously low levels of carbon dioxide that occurred in Earth's very recent history. The geologic record reveals carbon dioxide has almost always been in Earths' atmosphere in much greater concentrations than it is today. For example, 600 million years ago, when history's greatest birth of new animal species occurred, atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations exceeded 6,500 parts per million (ppm) - an amount that's 17 times greater than it is today.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is currently only 410 parts per million. That means only 0.04 percent of our atmosphere is carbon dioxide (compared to 0.03 percent one century ago). Only one molecule in 2,500 is carbon dioxide. Such levels certainly do not pose a health risk, as carbon-dioxide levels in our naval submarines, which stay submerged for months at a time, contain an average carbon-dioxide concentration of 5,000 ppm.

The geologic record is important because it reveals relationships between carbon-dioxide levels, climate, and life on Earth. Over billions of years, the geologic record shows there is no long-term correlation between atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels and Earth's climate. There are periods in Earth's history when carbon dioxide concentrations were many times higher than they are today, yet temperatures were identical to, or even colder than, modern times. The claim that fossil-fuel emissions control atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations is also invalid, as atmospheric concentrations have gone up and down in the geological record, even without human influence.

The absurdity of climate alarmism claims gets even stranger when you consider there are 7.5 billion people on our planet who, together, exhale 2.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, which is almost 10 percent of total fossil-fuel emissions every year. However, we are but a single species. Combined, people and all domesticated animals contribute 10 billion tons.

Further, 9 percent of carbon-dioxide emissions from all living things arise not from animals, but from anaerobic bacteria and fungi. These organisms metabolize dead plant and animal matter in soil via decay processes that recycle carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. The grand total produced by all living things is estimated to be 440 billion tons per year, or 13 times the amount of carbon dioxide currently being produced by fossil-fuel emissions. Fossil-fuel emissions are less than 10 percent of biological emissions. Are you laughing yet?

Every apocalyptic pronouncement you hear or read is nothing short of insanity. Their primary goal is not to save plants, humans, or animals, but rather to use climate "dangers" as a justification for centralizing power in the hands of a select few.

Note: Portions of this article have been excerpted with permission of the publisher and author of the 2018 book, "The Mythology of Global Warming" by Bruce Bunker, Ph.D. (Publisher: Moonshine Cove). For more information on this topic, the authors strongly recommend this book, which provides some of the very best information about the climate change debate.

Jay Lehr, Ph.D. (jlehr@heartland.org) is science director of The Heartland Institute. Tom Harris is executive director of the International Climate Science Coalition.

A co-founder of Greenpeace and a PhD Ecologist Patrick Moore told the US senate, "It is a powerful convergence of interests among a very large number of elites, including politicians who want to make it seem as though they're saving the world, environmentalists who want to raise money and get control over very large issues like our entire energy policy, media, for sensationalism, Universities and professors for grants. You can't hardly get a science grant these days without saying it has something to do with climate change.

It is a kind of nasty combination of extreme political ideology and a religious cult all rolled into one, and it's taken over way too much of our thought process and way too much of our priorities." See his talk on his journey to honest credible science.

By Jay Lehr and Tom Harris

Global warming activists argue carbon-dioxide emissions are destroying the planet, but the climate impacts of carbon dioxide are minimal, at worst. Activists would also have you believe fossil-fuel emissions have driven carbon-dioxide concentrations to their highest levels in history. The Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency went so far as to classify carbon dioxide as a toxic pollutant, and it established a radical goal of closing all of America's coal-fired power plants.

Claims of unprecedented carbon-dioxide levels ignore most of Earth's 4.6-billion-year history. Relative to Earth's entire record, carbon-dioxide levels are at historically low levels; they only appear high when compared to the dangerously low levels of carbon dioxide that occurred in Earth's very recent history. The geologic record reveals carbon dioxide has almost always been in Earths' atmosphere in much greater concentrations than it is today. For example, 600 million years ago, when history's greatest birth of new animal species occurred, atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations exceeded 6,500 parts per million (ppm) - an amount that's 17 times greater than it is today.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is currently only 410 parts per million. That means only 0.04 percent of our atmosphere is carbon dioxide (compared to 0.03 percent one century ago). Only one molecule in 2,500 is carbon dioxide. Such levels certainly do not pose a health risk, as carbon-dioxide levels in our naval submarines, which stay submerged for months at a time, contain an average carbon-dioxide concentration of 5,000 ppm.

The geologic record is important because it reveals relationships between carbon-dioxide levels, climate, and life on Earth. Over billions of years, the geologic record shows there is no long-term correlation between atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels and Earth's climate. There are periods in Earth's history when carbon dioxide concentrations were many times higher than they are today, yet temperatures were identical to, or even colder than, modern times. The claim that fossil-fuel emissions control atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations is also invalid, as atmospheric concentrations have gone up and down in the geological record, even without human influence.

The absurdity of climate alarmism claims gets even stranger when you consider there are 7.5 billion people on our planet who, together, exhale 2.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, which is almost 10 percent of total fossil-fuel emissions every year. However, we are but a single species. Combined, people and all domesticated animals contribute 10 billion tons.

Further, 9 percent of carbon-dioxide emissions from all living things arise not from animals, but from anaerobic bacteria and fungi. These organisms metabolize dead plant and animal matter in soil via decay processes that recycle carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. The grand total produced by all living things is estimated to be 440 billion tons per year, or 13 times the amount of carbon dioxide currently being produced by fossil-fuel emissions. Fossil-fuel emissions are less than 10 percent of biological emissions. Are you laughing yet?

Every apocalyptic pronouncement you hear or read is nothing short of insanity. Their primary goal is not to save plants, humans, or animals, but rather to use climate "dangers" as a justification for centralizing power in the hands of a select few.

Note: Portions of this article have been excerpted with permission of the publisher and author of the 2018 book, "The Mythology of Global Warming" by Bruce Bunker, Ph.D. (Publisher: Moonshine Cove). For more information on this topic, the authors strongly recommend this book, which provides some of the very best information about the climate change debate.

Jay Lehr, Ph.D. (jlehr@heartland.org) is science director of The Heartland Institute. Tom Harris is executive director of the International Climate Science Coalition.

A co-founder of Greenpeace and a PhD Ecologist Patrick Moore told the US senate, "It is a powerful convergence of interests among a very large number of elites, including politicians who want to make it seem as though they're saving the world, environmentalists who want to raise money and get control over very large issues like our entire energy policy, media, for sensationalism, Universities and professors for grants. You can't hardly get a science grant these days without saying it has something to do with climate change.

It is a kind of nasty combination of extreme political ideology and a religious cult all rolled into one, and it's taken over way too much of our thought process and way too much of our priorities." See his talk on his journey to honest credible science.

from Climate Change Skeptic Blogs via hj on Inoreader http://www.icecap.us/

German Scientists To More Closely Investigate Cloud Formation, A Vital Component In Climate

Leipzig, 20 December 2018

Researchers from Leipzig cooperate with scientists from Punta Arenas (Chile) to learn more about the relationship between air pollution, clouds and precipitation.

Leipzig/Punta Arenas. How do airborne particles, so-called aerosols, affect the formation and life cycle of clouds and precipitation? In order to come one step closer to solving this question, atmospheric scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) and the Leipzig Institute for Meteorology (LIM) at Leipzig University will observe the atmosphere at one of the cleanest places in the world for at least a year. The choice fell on Punta Arenas because the city is located on a comparable geographical latitude as Germany and will thus enable comparisons between the northern and southern hemispheres. The measurement campaign is part of the International Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP), which aims to improve weather and climate forecasts for the polar regions through intensive measurements.

"The experiment will allow us to explain more precisely the observed regional differences in the efficiency of ice formation in clouds and to describe the role of aerosols in more detail," says Dr. Patric Seifert, scientist at TROPOS and initiator of DACAPO-PESO. "The synergies of the versatile remote sensing instruments and the development of new evaluation algorithms based on them will provide more precise insights into the clouds. One objective will be, to clarify whether the ice crystals in the virtually aerosol-free atmosphere of Punta Arenas grow more frequently through riming in liquid water layers than through aggregation as compared to the northern hemisphere," explains Junior Prof. Heike Kalesse from Leipzig University.

The measuring station in Punta Arenas was set up in November and December 2018 by three scientists from TROPOS and UMAG. Patric Seifert returned to Leipzig shortly before Christmas and is satisfied with the progress made so far: "All instruments are working reliably and the first interesting observations have already been made. Pure liquid water clouds were observed at temperatures of around -20°C, which is extremely rare during comparable measurements in Germany. This could be an indication for few ice germs in the southern hemisphere."

The formation of clouds and precipitation essentially depends on three parameters: Humidity, temperature, as well as the availability and type of aerosol particles that serve as nuclei for cloud drops and ice crystals. Even though it is widely accepted that water vapour and temperature dominate cloud processes, scientists still debate about the actual influence of aerosol particles on the weather. It is known that every cloud droplet and every ice crystal that forms at temperatures higher than -40°C requires the availability of a drop or ice nuclei.

In Germany and other regions in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere, most precipitation (in the free troposphere) occurs between two and twelve kilometres above the ground. These air layers are characterised by aerosol particles from man-made air pollution, desert dust and forest fires. In the mid-latitudes of the southern hemisphere, these particles are largely absent because there are more oceans and much less industry, deserts and forests. If the amount of aerosol particles available in the atmosphere changes, the amount of cloud droplets and ice crystals formed also changes. It can thus be explained that liquid water clouds over regions of Europe or Southeast Asia that are heavily contaminated with aerosols consist of considerably more droplets. In contrast, liquid water clouds in less polluted regions such as over the oceans or polar regions consist of fewer and often larger droplets.

A similar influence of aerosol particles on the formation of ice crystals has already been observed by TROPOS scientists in clouds above Leipzig: Clouds formed under the influence of Sahara dust form ice more frequently and at higher temperatures than clouds formed in clean air. The life cycle of a cloud thus takes a different course because the formation of the tiny ice crystals and cloud droplets are the beginning of numerous processes that accompany the development of the cloud and ultimately lead to the formation of precipitation.

The knowledge about the connections between aerosol particles and clouds comes mainly from measurements in the more polluted northern hemisphere. However, relatively little is known in detail about how these processes take place under the much cleaner conditions of the southern hemisphere. Therefore, the idea for the field experiment DACAPO-PESO (Dynamics, Aerosol, Cloud and Precipitation Observations in the Pristine Environment of the Southern Ocean) was born at TROPOS, which should provide a reference data set in the Southern midlatitudes.

In order to be able to compare the situation in the northern hemisphere with that in the southern hemisphere, the choice was therefore made for a location that lies approximately at the same latitude as Germany and therefore has similar temperature and climate conditions. With the exception of South America, the southern hemisphere is covered by oceans in these latitudes and long-term measurements at sea are not practicable to this extent. Therefore, the choice fell on Chile, where the researchers from Leipzig (52°N) found a cooperation partner with Magellan University in Punta Arenas (53°S).

South America is currently in the focus of international atmospheric research: Almost 3000 km to the north, a large-scale measurement campaign by various universities and institutions from the USA is currently undergoing in Argentina and southern Brazil: RELAMPAGO-CATI investigates the formation of thunderstorms to improve the prediction of hail and tornadoes.

In recent years, the available techniques for the continuous observation of aerosols and clouds have progressed extremely. Lidar and radar equipment such as the Leipzig Aerosol and Cloud Remote Observations System (LACROS) can be used to record the structure of cloud and aerosol layers as well as precipitation from the ground with high resolutions in the range of seconds and meters. In the DACAPO-PESO measurement campaign, a total of three lidar systems are used to record aerosol properties. In addition, three differently configured Doppler radar systems observe the structure of clouds and precipitation. The radars and a so-called Doppler lidar also provide information on the vertical movement of the air, which is so important for cloud formation. These vertical movements lead to cooling. This increases the relative humidity in the air and cloud formation can occur.  Rain sensors record the size and type of precipitation arriving on the ground, a microwave radiometer determines the amount of water vapour and liquid water present in the atmosphere, and radiation measuring instruments document the influence of aerosols and clouds on the energy arriving on the Earth's surface. Most of the instruments are part of the LACROS station of the TROPOS, which is during DACAPO-PESO extended by a new Doppler radar of LIM and a lidar of the UMAG.

All measurements together provide a detailed picture of the weather in the clean atmosphere over Punta Arenas. The long time series of measurements of at least one year will provide a comprehensive data set. This will serve the scientists as a reference for the comparison with the weather conditions in the highly aerosol-burden temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere. .

Since TROPOS was founded in the 1990s, researchers at the institute have been working on the question of how aerosols and clouds interact. They discovered, for example, that ice forms in clouds in the northern hemisphere at much higher temperatures than in clouds in the southern hemisphere. This was the result of lidar-assisted investigations at TROPOS, UMAG in Chile, Stellenbosch University in South Africa and during transatlantic cross-sections of the research vessel Polarstern, which were already collected in 2008-2010. In Central Europe, around 70 percent of clouds already form ice at temperatures around -18 degrees Celsius. In southern Chile and South Africa, on the other hand, only 20 and 35 percent respectively form ice at the same temperature. The reason for such a contrast is most probably the larger number and greater diversity of aerosol particles floating in the air in the northern hemisphere.

The two project coordinators Seifert and Kalesse are confident that DACAPO-PESO will significantly increase the level of knowledge on the interaction between aerosols, clouds, and precipitation, especially due to the good personnel support. Thanks to approved projects of the DFG, the ESF and own funds of TROPOS and UMAG, the DACAPO-PESO team already comprises 4 experienced researchers and 4 PhD students. The data set will provide an unprecedented wealth of information on aerosols and clouds in the mid-latitudes of South America.

Publication:

Foth, A., Kanitz, T., Engelmann, R., Baars, H., Radenz, M., Seifert, P., Barja, B., Kalesse, H., and Ansmann, A.: Vertical aerosol distribution in the Southern hemispheric Midlatitudes as observed with lidar at Punta Arenas, Chile (53.2° S and 70.9° W) during ALPACA, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2018-1124 , in review, 2018.

The study was funded by the BMBF (HD(CP)2 ; FKZ: 01LK1504C and 01LK1502N), the European Union (ACTRIS grant no. 262254; EUCAARI grant no. 036 833-2), the Leibniz Association (OCEANET) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (PROM, DFG-KA 4162/2-1).

More info:

Dr Patric Seifert
Working group for ground based remote sensing at the
Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS)
Tel. +49-341-2717-7080
https://www.tropos.de/en/institute/about-us/employees/patric-seifert/

and
Junior Prof Heike Kalesse
Working group "Remote Sensing and the Arctic System" at the
Leipzig Institute for Meteorology (LIM) of the Leipzig University
Tel.: +49-341-97-36650
https://home.uni-leipzig.de/kalesse/index.php?lang=en&content=

or
Tilo Arnhold
Public Relations, TROPOS
Tel. +49-341-2717-7189
https://www.tropos.de/en/current-issues/press-releases/

and
Susann Huster
Media Editorial Office, Leipzig University
Tel. +49-341-97-35022
https://www.uni-leipzig.de/universitaet/struktur/verwaltung-und-stabsstellen/stabsstelle-universitaetskommunikation/

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Germans at loggerheads over Autobahn speed limits

It's claimed that 'new speed limits would lower Germany's carbon dioxide emission level by less than 0.5 percent', reports DW.com. Limits already apply in some places, but climate propaganda has turned 'emissions' into a political issue.

A majority of Germans approve of imposing a maximum speed limit on the country's Autobahns, a survey published at the weekend indicated.

Fifty-two percent of those polled agreed that speeds of between 120 and 140 kilometers per hour (kph) (75 to 87 miles per hour) would be appropriate to help tackle climate change, according to the Emnid Institute survey, published by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. Forty-six percent opposed such limits.

The view by albeit a narrow majority of Germans contrasts with the view of Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer who remains opposed to any speed limits, saying they are "against all common sense."

Rejecting safety concerns, Scheuer, a conservative from the southern state of Bavaria — the home of carmakers Daimler and Audi, insisted that: "German Autobahns are the safest road in the world."

Freedom more important

"The principle of freedom has proven itself," Scheuer told the newspaper. "Whoever wants to drive at 120 (kilometers per hour) can drive at 120. Whoever wants to drive faster is allowed to do that too."

The term "Freie Fahr für Bürger" (Unrestricted driving for citizens) has been a catchphrase since the 1970s that has allowed Germans to traverse much of the country's freeway network at any speed.

Around 30 percent of German highways, some 7,640 kilometers (4,747 miles), already have speed limits, according to Scheuer.

The concept is, of course, strongly endorsed by the nation's powerful auto lobby, who have a reputation for building some of the world's most powerful cars.

Most German manufacturers, however, do limit the top speeds of most of their cars to 250 kph.

Continued here.

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Summary Against Modern Thought: God’s In Charge, And You’re Not

Previous post.

It will come as no surprise that if God is God, then He's in charge.

THAT GOD GOVERNS THINGS BY HIS PROVIDENCE

1 From the points that have been set forth we have adequately established that God is the end of all things. The next possible conclusion from this is that He governs, or rules, the whole of things by His providence.

2 Whenever certain things are ordered to a definite end they all come under the control of the one to whom the end primarily belongs. This is evident in an army: all divisions of an army and their functions are ordered to the commander's good as an ultimate end, and this is victory. And for this reason it is the function of the commander to govern the whole army.

Likewise, an art which is concerned with the end commands and makes the laws for an art I concerned with means to the end. Thus, the art of civil government commands that of the military; the military commands the equestrian; and the art of navigation commands that of shipbuilding. So, since all things are ordered to divine goodness as an end, as we showed, it follows that God, to Whom this goodness primarily belongs, as something substantially possessed and known and loved, must be the governor of all things.

3 Again, whoever makes a thing for the sake of an end may use the thing for that end. Now, we showed above that all things possessing being in any way whatever are God's products, and also that God makes all things for an end which is Himself. Therefore, He uses all things by directing them to their end. Now, this is to govern. So, God is the governor of all things through His providence.

Notes "[W]hoever makes a thing for the sake of an end may use the thing for that end." Unless under coercion.

4 Besides, we have shown that God is the first unmoved mover. The first mover does not move fewer things, but more, than the secondary movers, for the latter do not move other things without the first. Now, all things that are moved are so moved because of the end, as we showed above. So, God moves all things to their ends, and He does so through His understanding, for we have shown above that He does not act through a necessity of His nature, but through understanding and will.

Now, to rule or govern by providence is simply to move things toward an end through understanding. Therefore, God by His providence governs and rules all things that are moved toward their end, whether they be moved corporeally, or spiritually as one who desires is moved by an object of desire.

5 Moreover, that natural bodies are moved and made to operate for an end, even though they do not know their end, was proved by the fact that what happens to them is always, or often, for the best; and, if their workings resulted from art, they would not be done differently.

But it is impossible for things that do not know their end to work for that end, and to reach that end in an orderly way, unless they are moved by someone possessing knowledge of the end, as in the case of the arrow directed to the target by the archer. So, the whole working of nature must be ordered by some sort of knowledge. And this, in fact, must lead back to God, either mediately or immediately, since every lower art and type of knowledge must get its principles from a higher one, as we also see in the speculative and operative sciences. Therefore, God governs the world by His providence.

6 Furthermore, things that are different in their natures do not come together into one order unless they are gathered into a unit by one ordering agent. But in the whole of reality things are distinct and possessed of contrary natures; yet all come together in one order, and while some things make use of the actions of others, some are also helped or commanded by others. Therefore, there must be one orderer and governor of the whole of things.

7 Moreover, it is not possible to give an explanation, based on natural necessity, for the apparent motions of celestial bodies, since some of them have more motions than others, and altogether incompatible ones. So, there must be an ordering of their motions by some providence, and, consequently, of the motions and workings of all lower things that are controlled by their motions.

8 Besides, the nearer a thing is to its cause, the more does it participate in its influence. Hence, if some perfection is more perfectly participated by a group of things the more they approach a certain object, then this is an indication that this object is the cause of the perfection which is participated in various degrees. For instance, if certain things become hotter as they come nearer to fire, this is an indication that fire is the cause of heat.

Now, things are found to be more perfectly ordered the nearer they are to God. For, in the lower types of bodies, which are very far away from God in the dissimilarity of their natures, there is sometimes found to be a falling away from the regular course of nature, as in the case of monstrosities and other chance events; but this never happens in the case of the celestial bodies, though they are somewhat mutable, and it does not occur among separate intellectual substances. Therefore, it is plain that God is the cause of the whole order of things. So, He is the governor of the whole universe of reality through His providence.

Notes This: "an indication that fire is the cause of heat", which of course is not a proof, unless that indication is joined to induction, which the proof becomes complete. By "chance" he means unpredictable.

9 Furthermore, as we proved above, God brings all things into being, not from the necessity of His nature, but by understanding and will. Now, there can be no other ultimate end for His understanding and will than His goodness, that is, to communicate it to things, as is clear from what has been established. But things participate in the divine goodness to the extent that they are good, by way of likeness.

Now, that which is the greatest good in caused things is the good of the order of the universe; for it is most perfect, as the Philosopher says. With this, divine Scripture is also in agreement, for it is said in Genesis (1:31): "God saw all the things He had made, and they were very good," while He simply said of the individual works, that "they were good." So, the good of the order of things caused by God is what is chiefly willed and caused by God. Now, to govern things is nothing but to impose order on them. Therefore, God Himself governs all things by His understanding and will.

10 Moreover, any agent intending an end is more concerned about what is nearer to the ultimate end, because this nearer thing is also an end for other things. Now, the ultimate end of the divine will is His goodness, and the nearest thing to this latter, among created things, is the good of the order of the whole universe, since every particular good of this or that thing is ordered to it as to an end (just as the less perfect is ordered to what is more perfect); and so, each part is found to be for the sake of its whole. Thus, among created things, what God cares for most is the order of the universe. Therefore, He is its governor.

11 Again, every created thing attains its ultimate perfection through its proper operation, for the ultimate end and the perfection of a thing must be either its operation or the term or product of its operation. Of course, the form, by virtue of which the thing exists, is its first perfection, as is evident from Book II of On the Soul [1: 412a 28].

But the order of caused things, according to the distinction of their natures and levels, proceeds from divine Wisdom, as we showed in Book Two. So also does the order of their operations, whereby caused things draw nearer to their ultimate end. Now, to order the actions of certain things toward their end is to govern them. Therefore, God provides governance and regulation for things by the providence of His wisdom.

Notes Modernity, fully embracing nominalism, which is the religion of man, does not believe things have a proper order, except for the supremacy of man's will.

12 Hence it is that Sacred Scripture proclaims God as Lord and King, according to the text of the Psalm (99:2): "The Lord, He is God"; and again: "God is the King of all the earth" (Ps. 46:8); for it is the function of the king and lord to rule and govern those subject to their command. And so, Sacred Scripture attributes the course of things to divine decree: "Who commands the sun, and it rises not, and shuts up the stars, as it were under a seal" (Job 9:7); and also in the Psalm (10:6): "He has made a decree and it shall not pass away."

13 Now, by this conclusion the error of the ancient philosophers of nature is refuted, for they said that all things come about as a result of material necessity, the consequence of which would be that all things happen by chance and not from the order of providence.

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Sowell: the catchwords “climate change deniers” reveals nothing but a political crusade

Fact-Free Politics: From Climate Change to Trickle Down by Thomas Sowell January 17, 2019 Empty catchwords reveal a mind that's unwilling to analyze and debate. In this era when there has been more information available to more people than at any time in the past, it is also true that there has been more misinformation from…

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W.O.O.D. 26 January 2019

W.O.O.D. - Weekly Occasional Open Discussion for 22 January 2019 Continue reading →

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