Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for July 7, 2009

No Solar: A Note from Viv Forbes

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AUSTRALIAN electricity consumers can look forward to soaring charges for electricity and blackouts if state and federal politicians continue to undermine the power grid by mandating and subsidising solar power generation.

Solar power can never produce continuous, predictable, low cost power. It must always be supported by expensive power storage systems or by reliable power sources such as coal, gas, hydro or nuclear.

No matter how many millions of taxpayer money is poured into “research”, it can never solve the two fatal flaws of solar power.

[Read more…] about No Solar: A Note from Viv Forbes

Defining the Scientific Sceptics (Part 7)

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Ridd blogTHE scientific sceptic* is defined by rational inquiry and is prepared to consider the possibility, probability or certainty of different propositions. Furthermore, the scientific sceptic investigates with a disposition to be persuaded.

The following example, from physicist Peter Ridd, considers the ability to predict (the probability that a prediction will be correct) as a guide to whether we should be sceptical of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) as a theory – or not:

“THE big difference between our understanding of gravity and the atmosphere is that we can use gravity to produce brilliant predictions of the future, i.e. positions of projectiles, satellites, planets, tides etc. We can predict the position of Jupiter or the earth with remarkable accuracy 50 years (or 5000 years) into the future.

“Obviously the same cannot be said of the weather, or the climate, partly because of its intrinsic non-linear nature and partly because so many of the processes are not understood. Newtonian gravity also has only one unconstrained parameter, G, and we know that to 5 or 6 significant figures. Of the effectively hundreds of unconstrained parameters in Greenhouse theory, many would not even be known to the second significant figure.”

There is nothing in this comment from Professor Ridd suggesting AGW theory has been proven wrong, but rather, perhaps, that there is reason to be sceptical of the theory? [Read more…] about Defining the Scientific Sceptics (Part 7)

Not Real Climate

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 RealClimate

“REALCLIMATE is a commentary site (blog) on climatology by a group of climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. It aims to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. The discussion is intended to be restricted to scientific topics and to avoid political or economic implications of the science. The web hosting for RealClimate is provided by Environmental Media Services, a non-profit public relations firm, though they exercise no control over the content.”   Wikpedia

“At Real Climate, quite a few of the comments that they post continue to incorrectly interpret the observed behavior of the global average upper ocean heat content changes and sea level rise over the last 5 years.”  Roger Pielke Senior