Climate models suck - It's the programming
in [Cobol]
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From: HeyBub on 19 Jan 2010 07:58 Charles Hottel wrote: > > An interview with Ray Kurzweil. See section heading "Global Warming > and GNR Technologies (copied below). The part most interesting to me > is about solar energy growing exponentially and doubling every two > years (has been for the last 20 years) so that only 8 more doublings > (16 years) before solar energy can meet 100% of our energy needs. > Heh! The point of impossible returns will be reached long before that last doubling. The amount of sunlight falling on the earth is, at a maximum, about 1070 Watts/meter^2. At the equator. At noon. With no clouds. The average, under optimum conditions, is 5,300 watt-hours per day. Assuming 70% conversion efficiency, and adjusting for latitude, cloudy days, night, etc., it would take a collector farm the size of the Los Angeles basin (1200 sq miles) to provide sufficient electricity for just California (~55 GW). Aside from the cost of constructing and maintaining such a system, the array would leave Los Angeles in the dark, or at least the shade. Which, when one thinks on it, may not be such a bad idea. The only way this process can be improved is to move the orbit of the earth closer to the sun. Conclusion: We cannot run this country - or the earth - on sunbeams.
From: HeyBub on 19 Jan 2010 08:00 Alistair wrote: > > And, seeing as the doomsday clock has been put back by one minute, we > have nothing that our grand-children should worry about. The Doomsday Clock was set back solely due to the election of Barak Obama. Remember, the clock business is run by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists which, in turn, is run by folks who have little to do with science and nothing to do with atomics.
From: Anonymous on 19 Jan 2010 09:03 In article <gLmdnT37kbeSMMjWnZ2dnUVZ_q-dnZ2d(a)earthlink.com>, HeyBub <heybub(a)NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote: >Alistair wrote: >> >> And, seeing as the doomsday clock has been put back by one minute, we >> have nothing that our grand-children should worry about. > >The Doomsday Clock was set back solely due to the election of Barak Obama. Which, had the 'undeniable truths' held by the people of the State of Texas, found on http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_texsec.asp , been adhered to: begin quoted text: We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable. That in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states. --end quoted text .... could never have happened. DD
From: Howard Brazee on 19 Jan 2010 10:45 On Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:44:39 -0400, Clark F Morris <cfmpublic(a)ns.sympatico.ca> wrote: >I'm more worried about the acidification of the oceans and its effects >on the food chain. I believe that we have to do a far better job of >reducing waste, various pollutants including methane and using mining >tailing instead of storing them. I also are worried about many environmental issues that I believe are much more serious than CO2. Over fishing is a huge issue. But roads, farms, and buildings have a huge impact on the environment. Irrigation probably does more to the climate than anything else we have done. But these require hard choices. -- "In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department." - James Madison
From: Howard Brazee on 19 Jan 2010 10:48
On Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:58:58 +1300, "Pete Dashwood" <dashwood(a)removethis.enternet.co.nz> wrote: >Sometimes there just isn't enough reliable information to make a decision. >It is then necessary to make ourselves comfortable on the fence until enough >data is accumulated to persuade us one way or the other. And even with these data, there are always more variables. The cost/benefit analysis in some of these proposed solutions can indicate that our effort is better off directed elsewhere. -- "In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department." - James Madison |