“The energy transition turns out to be a giant ponzi scheme and the net result is rising emissions and a strategically stupid gift of industrial, economic and military power to Beijing.
Brilliant.”
Thinking of PM Morrison’s bizarrely untimely decision to join Australia to the net zero millstone, I am reminded of the repeated tendency for Australia to join an international intellectual fashion just as its stupidity has been realised by those who adapted it first.
Thank-you for such a balanced article. The emissions of plant food emperor has never had any clothes and anyone not seeing the second greatest transfer of wealth in history behind the covid crisis is not paying attention. #nofarmsnofood
An engine is cooled by transferring energy from water to air. The air rises and it's density falls and it cools via decompression and radiation ridding itself of the energy that it took from the water before it reaches an elevation of 10 km, a distance that be walked in an hour and twenty minutes. The atmosphere is not a sink for energy. Never was and never will be.
Looking at the diagrams with interest, is it possible one is an editorial error (repeated), rather than article displaying contrasting diagrams? See two x "Figure 3.1" appear on version I am looking at. I am guessing, the one showing what gov'ts "currently do" might be the culprit?
An engine is cooled by transferring energy from water to air. The warmed air is displaced upwards. As it rises its density falls away. That rising air cools via decompression and radiation. It loses the energy it gained from the cars radiator before it reaches an elevation of 10 km, a distance that be walked in an hour and twenty minutes. At that elevation 90% of the bulk of the atmosphere is beneath. The atmosphere is not a sink for energy. Never was and never will be. It very efficiently vents energy.
The land does not absorb energy to depth and by and large it loses that energy overnight.
The ocean is a sink for energy. It is where the air tends to descend in high pressure cells that are variably extensive and largely cloud free because the air is compressed as it descends, becomes warmer and its relative humidity falls away. The prime source of ascending air to feed the mid latitude high pressure cells over the oceans can be found in the near polar regions in winter where the partial pressure of ozone increases and especially so as the sun sinks to the horizon or disappears below it so that the quotient of ozone busting UV radiation is diminished. Ozone busting oxides of nitrogen descend from the mesosphere greatly influenced by waxing and waning solar phenomena. It’s the so called ‘polar cyclones’ associated with the presence of ozone at the elevation of the upper troposphere ad the jet stream that drive the high latitude ascent that feeds into the mid latitude descent driving change in cloud cover. In this manner the Earths energy budget is altered. The influences of man and the energy absorbing and warming influence of carbon dioxide and water vapour are insignificant and minor players, if players they be at all, in the grand scheme of things.
Australia just needs to leverage its natural advantages. It should be expanding the development of natural gas which is abundant in states including NSW and offshore Victoria despite their self-inflicted shortages. We should use this as a bridge fuel over the next 10 to 15 years to build out a domestic nuclear industry to take advantage of our vast uranium reserves. This will be our zero emissions baseload replacing coal. Renewables, we have plenty of sun (sometimes) backed by natural gas peakers will then handle the variable demand. It’s pretty simple.
Simple in concept maybe, but ruinously difficult politically (as it is everywhere). Still, IF - if! - the politicians could stop lying to themselves and to us and embrace a bi- partisan multi-generational plan, Australia could actually pull this off. It has abundant energy sources, lots of space, lots of coal and gas to bridge the transition, and could have a mine-to-waste reprocessing total nuclear cycle: to achieve a net zero economy. Think they will be that sensible? No, me neither.
An exceptional article Chris. This should be on everyone’s reading list. Especially those who are elected to lead our nation.
Top piece. I particularly liked:
“The energy transition turns out to be a giant ponzi scheme and the net result is rising emissions and a strategically stupid gift of industrial, economic and military power to Beijing.
Brilliant.”
Thinking of PM Morrison’s bizarrely untimely decision to join Australia to the net zero millstone, I am reminded of the repeated tendency for Australia to join an international intellectual fashion just as its stupidity has been realised by those who adapted it first.
Thank-you for such a balanced article. The emissions of plant food emperor has never had any clothes and anyone not seeing the second greatest transfer of wealth in history behind the covid crisis is not paying attention. #nofarmsnofood
An engine is cooled by transferring energy from water to air. The air rises and it's density falls and it cools via decompression and radiation ridding itself of the energy that it took from the water before it reaches an elevation of 10 km, a distance that be walked in an hour and twenty minutes. The atmosphere is not a sink for energy. Never was and never will be.
Dear Chris
Looking at the diagrams with interest, is it possible one is an editorial error (repeated), rather than article displaying contrasting diagrams? See two x "Figure 3.1" appear on version I am looking at. I am guessing, the one showing what gov'ts "currently do" might be the culprit?
Sincerely
Peter
An engine is cooled by transferring energy from water to air. The warmed air is displaced upwards. As it rises its density falls away. That rising air cools via decompression and radiation. It loses the energy it gained from the cars radiator before it reaches an elevation of 10 km, a distance that be walked in an hour and twenty minutes. At that elevation 90% of the bulk of the atmosphere is beneath. The atmosphere is not a sink for energy. Never was and never will be. It very efficiently vents energy.
The land does not absorb energy to depth and by and large it loses that energy overnight.
The ocean is a sink for energy. It is where the air tends to descend in high pressure cells that are variably extensive and largely cloud free because the air is compressed as it descends, becomes warmer and its relative humidity falls away. The prime source of ascending air to feed the mid latitude high pressure cells over the oceans can be found in the near polar regions in winter where the partial pressure of ozone increases and especially so as the sun sinks to the horizon or disappears below it so that the quotient of ozone busting UV radiation is diminished. Ozone busting oxides of nitrogen descend from the mesosphere greatly influenced by waxing and waning solar phenomena. It’s the so called ‘polar cyclones’ associated with the presence of ozone at the elevation of the upper troposphere ad the jet stream that drive the high latitude ascent that feeds into the mid latitude descent driving change in cloud cover. In this manner the Earths energy budget is altered. The influences of man and the energy absorbing and warming influence of carbon dioxide and water vapour are insignificant and minor players, if players they be at all, in the grand scheme of things.
The West’s narcissism of small differences has directly led to the geopolitical tensions of the world today …..
Australia just needs to leverage its natural advantages. It should be expanding the development of natural gas which is abundant in states including NSW and offshore Victoria despite their self-inflicted shortages. We should use this as a bridge fuel over the next 10 to 15 years to build out a domestic nuclear industry to take advantage of our vast uranium reserves. This will be our zero emissions baseload replacing coal. Renewables, we have plenty of sun (sometimes) backed by natural gas peakers will then handle the variable demand. It’s pretty simple.
https://open.substack.com/pub/doomberg/p/the-exception-that-proves-the-rule-7fb?r=2016sf&utm_medium=ios
Simple in concept maybe, but ruinously difficult politically (as it is everywhere). Still, IF - if! - the politicians could stop lying to themselves and to us and embrace a bi- partisan multi-generational plan, Australia could actually pull this off. It has abundant energy sources, lots of space, lots of coal and gas to bridge the transition, and could have a mine-to-waste reprocessing total nuclear cycle: to achieve a net zero economy. Think they will be that sensible? No, me neither.
Cannot understand why we have to reduce our emissions!
We do not have a problem with air pollution in Australia.
As a country we are/have been wealthy but with this net zero addiction we will be broke in no time at all.
We have been transferring our wealth to China in exchange for crap from Temu!
If only we could go back to the not too distant past when engineers, chemists and physicists designed energy systems and not politicians.
https://open.substack.com/pub/doomberg/p/the-exception-that-proves-the-rule-7fb?r=2016sf&utm_medium=ios