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Thread: Hot topic

  1. #1
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    Default Hot topic

    Today listening to the Always Biased Corporation radio station on my way to the baker for Saturday lunch time rolls I heard a Professor from USA on the facts of global warming/climate change.
    His comments were centered around those who are making a fortune from it rather than the climate.
    He mentioned many names including a past PM of ours a one time merchant banker who has heavily invested in renewable energy.
    It was about how much they were making by telling the public how much they were doing, for them selves nots so much the community.

    Then on the net found a very interesting article.

    A group of investors including Elon Musk want to build a solar farm in the Sahara desert.
    On the face of it sounds good, open area where no one lives, plenty of sun and this farm could produce up to 20% of global energy needs.
    But it will not go ahead.
    Scientists have said it will do more harm to the environment from heat it produces.
    Solar panels are only 15% efficient , made mainly from copper, glass and the background.
    But this background is black and will create too much heat.

    Having 14 panels I decided to test this theory.
    So up on the roof with a thermometer.
    The air temp was 22.5 degrees, holding the thermometer about 300 mm from the panels the heat there was 24.3 degrees, so the scientists could well be correct.

    Then I saw in the paper how one of our billionaires here in Oz, a mining magnate is to invest in Hydrogen power as a replacement for conventional vehicle power source.

    The China, the worlds biggest user of Coal is restricting power to some businesses to ensure those living in the far north of the country have electric power to heat their homes.

    As to climate change, Snow in Saudi Arabia, Thames frozen in parts coldest winter since 63, coldest in China for over 60 years and record snow fall in parts of USA.
    Where is Greta when you need her?
    Happy daze John in Oz.

    Life is too short to blend in.

    John Strange R737787
    World Traveller

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  3. #2
    Keith at Tregenna's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hot topic

    Global heating produces extreme weather

    Think we all are aware now.

    Britain is not particularly known for intense heatwaves, vicious hurricanes or snowstorms. But, in a world that is getting warmer, climate change will mean the country experiences more and more extreme weather.

    K.

    .
    Last edited by Keith at Tregenna; 13th February 2021 at 05:14 AM.

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    Default Re: Hot topic

    I personally think that both camps concerning the climate change are full of BS and pushing personal carts to see who is going to win the debate. I can say with confidence that the looser will be the environment for sure. If we go down the path that the naysayers are going then it is certain that things will get worse even if they are right. If we follow the believers and they are proved to be wrong in years to come I tend to think that we would leave our future generations with a better world simply because we finally cleared our act of polluting the atmosphere. Just one unscientific observation here in Newcastle NSW. For years I have noticed that there where never many flies in Sydney and put that down to pollution and now the same has happened. Where once if the fly screen door was left open for a split second one would be spraying fly killer around and now one can will last for a couple of years. Also notice the absence of sparrows over the year. But I am sure that I will be lambasted over this by the naysayers. As for our summer well where the feck are you because here we are middle of Feb and temps at a very cold 20's. This little black duck is not looking forward to winter one bit.
    That's the way the mop flops.

    My thanks to Brian for this site.

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    Default Re: Hot topic

    Like said this Year the Sumer has been non existant as far as i am concerned! Still cold ,wet and bleedin awful here too in the Mountains, i love the cold Weather to a degree in the Winters, but do look forward to a nice mild Summer as we normally used to get here!
    Weather patterns most certainly are a changing all over, so for me well i say as always ,there is Climate change o the way for sure!

    Dont think i or quite a few others will be around to see just how bad it gets!
    I feel so sorry for the Children that have so many Years ahead, and what they may have to go through!

    As said and i hear this from my Daughter in Birmingham, its the coldest Winter for Yonks now, she has not remembered a Winter like it.

    Thanks for reading
    Cheers
    Senior Site Moderator-Member and Friend of this Website

    R697530

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    Lewis McColl's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hot topic

    Think there is no doubt that climate change is happening all around us. Look at the number of floods across the UK in the last few years for instance, or is that just a case of poor maintenance in not cleaning roadside drains? When was the last time you saw a council gulley cleaner lorry out and about. Or roadside ditches being cleared of debris. Was it a couple of years ago that Somerset levels were badly flooded and it was argued that if the rivers Parret , Axe & Brue were dredged and the embankments were built up by the silt that was being removed by dredging it would help the water along its way. To me it is a no brainer dredge the river and dump the silt on the bank there will be less chance of flooding. Not sure what happened about that , no doubt bean counters got involved and worked out it was cheaper for the council to let it flood . The insurance companies would pick up the tab but pass it onto policy holders in increased premiums next year. Never mind the misery and heartache having your home destroyed because a bean counter passed the buck. Look at the flooding nearly year on year that happens in Yorkshire has to be soul destroying, then there was Carlisle in Cumbria.

    But proof of Global warming is that fact the sea levels are increasing.

    Earth’s global sea levels are rising – and are doing so at an accelerating rate. Waters in the ocean are expanding as they absorb massive amounts of heat trapped by greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere. Glaciers and ice sheets are adding hundreds of gigatons of meltwater into the oceans each year. The land surface along the coasts is also creeping up and down, affecting relative sea level rise. People are feeling the impacts, as seemingly small increments of sea level rise become big problems along coastlines worldwide.

    If any nation on the planet are good at handling rising sea levels and flooding the Dutch have to be the worlds masters at it. They also have an added built in defence if the dyke breaks. Have you ever met a Dutch midget? they are nearly all big tall buggers

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    Default Re: Hot topic

    The rivers you mention could not be dredged under an EU environmental rule as the dredging spoils were considered to be contaminated.
    Since then I believe dredging has taken place and the banks raised by the spoils from dredging.
    Vic
    Last edited by vic mcclymont; 13th February 2021 at 11:58 AM.

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    Lewis McColl's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hot topic

    Sorry Vic, but not sure if the EU environmental rule could be applied as international law under the London convention applies.

    A long winded article and one would need to be a Philadelphia lawyer to make sense of it. Maybe I am reading it wrong. Looks to me as if Lord Kingsland told the EU to get stuffed.

    http://european-dredging.eu/pdf/EULawOnDredging.pdf

    CASE STUDY
    That the lofty definition of “waste” in EU
    legislation can lead to lengthy and rather
    useless debates may be illustrated by a
    recent case involving the Port of London
    Authority (PLA) and the English
    Environment Agency (EA).
    The PLA intends to carry out dredging in
    the River Thames Prince’s Channel in view
    of increasing the navigational depth and it
    plans to use the dredged sand to improve
    a nearby construction site. EA has taken
    the view that the material resulting from
    dredging is waste according to the Waste
    Framework Directive and should therefore
    meet stringent requirements when it is
    disposed of on land. The EA does not wish
    to recognise the fact that clean sand can
    be used beneficially as construction
    material. The case was submitted to Lord
    Kingsland for a legal ruling.
    The Right Honourable Lord, rather than
    stating something like “don’t be silly”, or
    “let’s use common sense”, or even “what’s
    in a name?”, had to review the case law
    produced by the European Court on these
    and similar matters and based thereon
    produced a long argument which
    concludes that:
    1. “the dredged substance [from the
    Prince’s Channel] is [not waste, but] a
    product, or at least a by-product;
    2. if, nevertheless [the interpretation of
    the Waste Framework Directive would
    conclude that] it is initially waste, then
    it is fully recovered when it becomes
    physically identifiable as a product (….)
    once it is in the hopper of the dredger”.
    The reader will notice that in the legal sense
    it makes significant difference at which step
    in the waste hierarchy one finds oneself.
    Lord Kingsland draws the conclusion that,
    once dredged material is targeted for re-use,
    recycle or recovery, it is no longer waste, or it
    has never been waste in the first place.
    These conclusions are in fact based on a very
    strict reading of the definition (“Waste is any
    substance or object which the producer or
    the person in possession of it discards or
    intends to discard”.). The interpretation thus
    hinges on the meaning attributed to
    “discard”. Lord Kingsland, after a lengthy
    review of the jurisprudence, concludes that,
    as long as the holder of the material intends
    to re-use or recycle, it never becomes waste
    on the way; if the material is intended to be
    recovered there is some leeway for interpretation. Lord Kingsland is of the opinion
    that it still does not become waste, but even
    if it is considered to become waste, the part
    that is recovered turns into a “product” or
    a “by-product” and is no longer waste.
    Only material that the holder explicitly
    intends to discard, or is forced to discard, is
    thus “waste” under the definition. A long
    argument is probably not necessary to
    conclude that this kind of reasoning is so
    subtle and sophisticated that the dredging
    contractor no longer feels at ease. Nor for
    that matter does the European Dredging
    Associat

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    Default Re: Hot topic

    well the flood thing is nothing new .....ask noah .......in fact there is a guy who served his apprenice ship with the ark and noah .....not mentioning any names ....but he is probably having his kip at this minute in perf .....no names no packdrill......cappy

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    Default Re: Hot topic

    The very last 2 weeks I did work in the uk was for Westminster dredging , this was in 1991 and it was doing a survey for the sand condition around the approaches to the Dover straits and the Thames estuary and parts of the southern North Sea as to the possibility of using the bottom sand as a commercial proposition.that was now 30 years ago , so any arguments should have been solved long long ago. Another view into the the pomposity and negativity of slow and not too bright governments . JS
    R575129

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    Default Re: Hot topic

    I tried on many occasions to get Local Council to consider dredging, but they always cited EU rules saying it wasn't allowed, I have asked them what they are going to do now we are out of the EU, doesn't affect me personally as I live nearly 300' feet above sea level, but have friends affected. I have used the Dutch comparisons to ministers, but I think they don't know where Holland is.

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