Science & Technology News

[Gadagirl]

Originally Posted by Midnight Son

I use lots of fossil fuels, if I could switch to hydrogen power, I would do so in an instant.Solar just doesn't cut it around here in the winter.
Best wishes from the far North.

Have you what this guy did?


https://hydrogenhouseproject.org/index.html

https://youtu.be/jk08Mul_yfw

"The Joule Box is capable of complete off-grid water and energy production/storage that features tracking solar panels with GPS technology and battery back-up power storage. The Box can back-feed the electrical utility grid, earning you money when your own energy demand is low.

Perfect for emergency back up or year round operation. Easy to scale to your energy requirements. Compact and durable enough for complete mobile freedom. The Joule Box can power mobile homes, events, and be used as back up power for homes and businesses."

[Midnight Son]

Originally Posted by Gadagirl

Have you what this guy did?


https://hydrogenhouseproject.org/index.html

https://youtu.be/jk08Mul_yfw

"The Joule Box is capable of complete off-grid water and energy production/storage that features tracking solar panels with GPS technology and battery back-up power storage. The Box can back-feed the electrical utility grid, earning you money when your own energy demand is low.

Perfect for emergency back up or year round operation. Easy to scale to your energy requirements. Compact and durable enough for complete mobile freedom. The Joule Box can power mobile homes, events, and be used as back up power for homes and businesses."

I live @ 55.736135, -97.851587 (center of the community), while the winters have warmed considerably, in the last 20 years, it still only gets around 7.5 hrs of daylight at that time of the year.
We are lucky that we have an abundance of hydro electric power, but, and there is always a but. If you wish to do anything or go anywhere, gas, diesel or Jet A.

No public recharging stations for electric vehicles, the closest is in Winnipeg, however one friend has ordered a Tesla, so he will have a home charger. He will still have a ICE car for trips out.
Best wishes all.

[Gadagirl]

Could wind be and alternative to solar where you live?

[Midnight Son]

Originally Posted by Gadagirl

Could wind be and alternative to solar where you live?

As stated we have an abundance of hydro electric power, so cheap we use it for heat, some use propane, people who live remotely, heat with wood, only one in the area has a wind generator, but mostly rely on good old Honda of one size or other, for what power they do need.
Only a couple of the boaters, in the summer, use solar, more of a battery tender.
Anyway, enough of the thread drift, back to the scheduled program.
Best wishes.

[SailOar]

Airships for city hops could cut flying’s CO2 emissions by 90%

• Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) has developed a new environmentally friendly airship to compete for short-hop routes
• HAV claims that the journey by airship would take roughly the same time as aeroplane travel once getting to and from the airport was taken into account
• HAV also said the CO2 footprint per passenger on its airship would be about 4.5kg, compared with about 53kg via jet plane
• The company has already signed a deal to deliver an airship to luxury Swedish travel firm OceanSky Cruises, which has said it intends to use the craft to offer “experiential travel” over the North Pole

Airlander 10

• max days airborne - 5
• tonne max payload - 10
• nautical mile max range - 4,000
• feet max altitude - 20,000

Airlander 50

• tonne payload - 50
• passengers - 200
• kilometre range at max payload - 2,200

[Adelie]

Airships have some great advantages but 2 giant Achilles heels that will always limit them to a small number of niches.

The Achilles heels are:
A. susceptibility to weather, even moderate weather.
B. Reliance on helium for lift. Known helium reserves are limited.

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by Midnight Son

The world is changing, I don't like some of the changes, you don't like some of the changes.

These corporations have deliberately obfuscated reality for their benefit, Exxon for disingenuous manipulation of the media, with bogus reports and research.

Chevron with using the justice system, to go after a lawyer who successfully brought them to heel, for their transgressions against the locals in Central America.
So, NO, their quasi criminal actions should be roundly punished.


I use lots of fossil fuels, if I could switch to hydrogen power, I would do so in an instant.Solar just doesn't cut it around here in the winter.
Best wishes from the far North.

The whole problem with this is that the people who made the decisions that did the harm you object to won’t necessarily miss even one of their multi million dollar paychecks or stock options because their corporations got punished. The corporation isn’t a person that can be punished and feel remorse for wrongdoing. If it’s fined, just like any other cost increase, it will attempt to pass that on to its customers and if most of their competitors within that industry are also being similarly punished, they will probably make price increases stick. Maybe some investors will make a little less profit. Rarely will the CEO or VP that made the decision be personally affected in any great way. So what was accomplished by fining a company other than possibly raising costs for consumers like you and me who have to heat our homes with that companies product, maybe a temporary decrease in their stock price, a little more money for politicians to spend? My point is that while it might feel good to say that Chevron or Exxon got punished for wrongdoing, it’s likely that most within those companies barely even noticed. In order to really make a difference, the individuals who made the decisions need to be prosecuted and punished so their peers will take notice and avoid committing similar acts.

[Midnight Son]

Originally Posted by jtsailjt

The whole problem with this is that the people who made the decisions that did the harm you object to won’t necessarily miss even one of their multi million dollar paychecks or stock options because their corporations got punished. The corporation isn’t a person that can be punished and feel remorse for wrongdoing. If it’s fined, just like any other cost increase, it will attempt to pass that on to its customers and if most of their competitors within that industry are also being similarly punished, they will probably make price increases stick. Maybe some investors will make a little less profit. Rarely will the CEO or VP that made the decision be personally affected in any great way. So what was accomplished by fining a company other than possibly raising costs for consumers like you and me who have to heat our homes with that companies product, maybe a temporary decrease in their stock price, a little more money for politicians to spend? My point is that while it might feel good to say that Chevron or Exxon got punished for wrongdoing, it’s likely that most within those companies barely even noticed. In order to really make a difference, the individuals who made the decisions need to be prosecuted and punished so their peers will take notice and avoid committing similar acts.

The other corporations, see which way the wind is blowing, you will see more corporate tacking shortly.

Yes it would be nice, to go after those responsible, but I don't think it's possible. White collar crime is rarely punished.

If someone proves me wrong by taking them to court, more the better.

[Reefmagnet]

Originally Posted by SailOar

Airships for city hops could cut flying’s CO2 emissions by 90%

• Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) has developed a new environmentally friendly airship to compete for short-hop routes
• HAV claims that the journey by airship would take roughly the same time as aeroplane travel once getting to and from the airport was taken into account
• HAV also said the CO2 footprint per passenger on its airship would be about 4.5kg, compared with about 53kg via jet plane
• The company has already signed a deal to deliver an airship to luxury Swedish travel firm OceanSky Cruises, which has said it intends to use the craft to offer “experiential travel” over the North Pole

Airlander 10

• max days airborne - 5
• tonne max payload - 10
• nautical mile max range - 4,000
• feet max altitude - 20,000

Airlander 50

• tonne payload - 50
• passengers - 200
• kilometre range at max payload - 2,200

The 1930's just called. They said that idea sucks.

[Midnight Son]

Originally Posted by Reefmagnet

The 1930's just called. They said that idea sucks.

Yes, all load charters have to understand they are not joking, when a storm is coming, they will cruise up to ~500 miles to get away from severe weather, right NOW. Or regular stops will have to build LARGE hangers.

Best wishes all.

[SailOar]

Satellites May Have Underestimated Global Warming in the Lower Atmosphere Over the Last 40 Years

The team studied four different properties of tropical climate change. Each property is a ratio between trends in two “complementary” variables. Complementary variables — like tropical temperature and moisture — are expected to show correlated behavior. This correlated behavior is governed by basic, well-understood physical processes.[...]

If climate model expectations of these relationships between tropical temperature and moisture are realistic, the findings reflect either a systematic low bias in satellite tropospheric temperature trends or an overestimate of the observed atmospheric moistening signal.[...]

Using Climate Model Simulations to Constrain Observations | Journal of Climate

Abstract
We compare atmospheric temperature changes in satellite data and in model ensembles performed under phases 5 and 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5 and CMIP6). In the lower stratosphere, multi-decadal stratospheric cooling during the period of strong ozone depletion is smaller in newer CMIP6 simulations than in CMIP5 or satellite data. In the troposphere, however, despite forcing and climate sensitivity differences between the two CMIP ensembles, their ensemble-average global warming over 1979-2019 is very similar. We also examine four properties of tropical behavior governed by basic physical processes. The first three are ratios between trends inwater vapor (WV) and trends in sea surface temperature (SST), lower tropospheric temperature (TLT), and mid- to upper tropospheric temperature (TMT). The fourth property is the ratio between TMT and SST trends. All four ratios are tightly constrained in CMIP simulations but diverge markedly in observations. Model trend ratios between WV and temperature are closest to observed ratios when the latter are calculated with data sets exhibiting larger tropical warming of the ocean surface and troposphere. For the TMT/SST ratio, model-data consistency depends on the combination of observations used to estimate TMT and SST trends. If model expectations of these four covariance relationships are realistic, our findings reflect either a systematic low bias in satellite tropospheric temperature trends or an overestimate of the observed atmospheric moistening signal. It is currently difficult to determine which interpretation is more credible. Nevertheless, our analysis reveals anomalous covariance behavior in several observational data sets and illustrates the diagnostic power of simultaneously considering multiple complementary variables.

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by Midnight Son

The other corporations, see which way the wind is blowing, you will see more corporate tacking shortly.

Yes it would be nice, to go after those responsible, but I don't think it's possible. White collar crime is rarely punished.

If someone proves me wrong by taking them to court, more the better.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc...a-45455984.amp

Is this the case you were referring to? It seems that nobody got punished in a meaningful way. Texaco paid a relatively small price to the host country for some pretty nasty spills after making billons there and that arrangement was accepted at The Hague. Do you really think this case changed any other oil companies behavior? It seems to me the wind is still blowing pretty strongly in favor of whoever has the money to hire the best lawyers. If those responsible aren’t successfully prosecuted and punished, where’s the incentive for those who run them to tack in a different direction? It seems to me that this case is just another classic case of oil company lawyers getting their client off without even a slap on the wrist, just the cost of a rather large legal department. Business as usual.

[GordMay]

At last count, there were close to 1,700 climate change law suit cases, targeting governments, and companies, according to the climatecasechart.com database. *
Climate Change Litigation Databases
This website provides two databases of climate change litigation, one for U.S. climate change litigation and one for non-U.S. cases.
The U.S. Climate Change Litigation database is a joint project of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School and Arnold & Porter. It tracks developments in litigation and administrative proceedings related to climate change. The U.S. chart is updated on a monthly basis, and currently includes 1374 cases* with links to 7430 case documents.
The Non-U.S. Climate Litigation Chart was created in 2011 and is updated regularly. It currently includes 427 cases, with links to 684 case documents.
➥ Climate Change Litigation Databases - Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

* ie: “Milieudefensie et al. v. Royal Dutch Shell plc.” ~ Netherlands > the Hague Court of Appeals
At issue: Whether a private company violated a duty of care and human rights obligations by failing to take adequate action to curb contributions to climate change.
On May 26, 2021, the Hague District Court held Shell in violation of the standard of care under Dutch law and ordered the company to reduce its emissions by 45% by 2030, relative to 2019, across all activities including both its own emissions and end-use emissions. The Court wrote that it "orders [Royal Dutch Shell (“RDS”)], both directly and via the companies and legal entities it commonly includes in its consolidated annual accounts and with which it jointly forms the Shell group, to limit or cause to be limited the aggregate annual volume of all CO2 emissions into the atmosphere (Scope 1, 2 and 3) due to the business operations and sold energy-carrying products of the Shell group to such an extent that this volume will have reduced by at least net 45% at end 2030, relative to 2019 levels." In other words, the Court ordered Shell to reduce emissions by a net 45% across both emissions from its own operations and emissions from the use of the oil it produces. The Court made its decision provisionally enforceable, meaning Shell will be required to meet its reduction obligations even as the case is appealed.
More ➥ Milieudefensie et al. v. Royal Dutch Shell plc. - Climate Change Litigation

[GordMay]

“First Atlantic satellite tracks of ‘lost years’ green turtles support the importance of the Sargasso Sea as a sea turtle nursery” ~ by Katherine L. Mansfield, Jeanette Wyneken, & Jiangang Luo
After green sea turtles hatch from the eggs, buried in the warm sands of Atlantic U.S. beaches, they head into the ocean waters, where their whereabouts have remained unknown to scientists [‘the lost years’], until the turtles reach adulthood.
It turns out, baby green sea turtles don't just drift aimlessly on an Atlantic Ocean current; they're bound for the warm algae oasis of the Sargasso Sea.
The Sargasso Sea, is a body of water in the North Atlantic ocean that, unlike all other seas, does not have a land border, and is instead contained within several ocean currents. Mansfield says the turtles likely choose this unique destination for its namesake, the Sargassum algae, which provides them with "a warm, safe and food-filled habitat."
More ➥ https://royalsocietypublishing.org/d...rspb.2021.0057

[GordMay]

PCR tests are not prone to false positives, despite what people say on Facebook, experts say
Myth persists because it fits into conspiracy theory that 'entire pandemic is a hoax'
More ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/pcr-t...lity-1.6034273