Friday, July 26, 2013

Links

The real free market is making the fake carbon markets pointless « JoNova
In a nutshell, this new study adds numbers and detail to a home truth that the grown ups in the room know already. Basically humans want cheap energy. The free market, powered by human creativity and mass demand, will always find ways to circumvent national policies that try to force people to use more expensive energy.

In the absence of a global ruler (Copenhagen anyone?), the only way to reduce fossil fuel use is to invent or discover a better energy source. Any other national policy is simply pushing rocks uphill, like poor old Sisyphus. Manufacturing will always move to countries where cheap energy is still available.
David Shukman: Why has Global Warming Stalled? | Tallbloke's Talkshop
From the BBC, the concluding section of David Shukmans post following the briefing given by climate scientists in London a couple of days ago. Some long unanswered questions are going to have to be addressed soon. Like, if a negative phase of natural variation can overpower the radiative forcing of co2 for 20 years (1997-2017), why can’t it have added to it for 20 years (1977-1997)?:
As Dog Days Of Summer Grip Europe, German Windparks And Consumers Take A Massive Hit
Last Wednesday, for example, of the 31 gigawatts of installed wind capacity, only 1 gigawatt was being delivered – a measly 3%. This level of capacity utilization has been going on now for weeks.

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