Another global warming scare movie

Another global warming scare film is touring US film festivals: 

Family upheaval and environmental destruction mirror each other in the film Future Weather, a drama about three generations of women, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is now screening at other film festivals.
Set in a rural Midwestern community, the film tells the story of 13-year-old Lauduree, a young science student played by Perla Haney-Jardine.


Despite encouragement from her teacher, played by Lili Taylor, and a growing friendship with a classmate, Lauduree’s anxiety about the Earth’s prospects for survival and her own, only grow.

“What do you think the future’s going to look like, tropical paradise?” she yells in one scene.

“You think it’s going to be nice and warm? Hell, there’s not going to be any food! Welcome to my future.”

A New Yorker magazine story about global warming inspired the script, said writer-director Jenny Deller. Environmental issues, she said, “are about home. There was really an intuitive connection between this issue and this kid’s situation being abandoned. Her world was very shaken up. It was the equivalent of having an earthquake or some sort of natural disaster.”

Deller worked on the film for six years, raising funds through family and friends, and with grants for science-themed popular entertainment.


Six wasted years working on a film which, based on the description in the Voice of America article, unintentionally describes what happens to a teenager who has been brainwashed by a warmist science teacher!

The EU as a slow motion Titanic

The EU Observer blog has published an excellent post written by the Brussels based journalist Gareth Harding:

Under pressure to take bold steps to avert an economic meltdown the European Union is in danger of sleepwalking into a political union that might save the euro in the short-term but could lead to the EU’s collapse in the long-term.


German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already come out in favour of political union – as have the foreign ministers of 10 EU states. The presidents of the European commission, council and central bank have also called for much tighter EU control over national taxes, budgets and economic policies. Even British premier David Cameron believes in an ever closer union of eurozone states – although safe in the knowledge that the UK will never take part in it.


To a certain extent, calls for a political union are both logical and predictable. Logical because monetary union without a real economic union was always a non-starter. And predictable because when faced with a crisis, the default position of most EU leaders is always ‘more Europe.’


The fundamental problem is there is little desire for political union from the peoples of Europe and moves towards EU control over taxes, budgets and other core state competences could split the union asunder.


In a Pew Research Center poll published last month, only one-third of respondents in the eight countries surveyed believed European economic integration had strengthened their country’s economy. And in another study carried out by YouGov-Cambridge in March, 68% of Germans, 70% of French and 89% said that tax rates and national budgets should be controlled by national governments, not by the EU.

--
At the end of the recent G20 summit in Mexico U.S. President Barack Obama confidently predicted: “Europe is moving towards further integration rather than break-up.” In fact, it is precisely further integration on the scale envisioned by Merkel and co. that will lead to the break-up of the union.
From the Austro-Hungarian empire to the Soviet Union, history is littered with examples of artificial political constructs that have come unglued because of overstretch. The dilemma for the EU is that without more integration the euro will fail and with it the 27-member club risks splintering.
The obvious solution would be to admit the euro was an ill-conceived project that has no popular legitimacy, has created division not unity and brought penury not prosperity to many. A looser club of sovereign nations – as the EU has been for most of its history – would disappoint the dwindling band of EU federalists but at least preserve some of the big benefits the Union has brought over the last 65 years.
Of course, European leaders would never agree to this because scrapping the euro would entail too much loss of face. The EU also doesn’t possess a reverse gear. And so, like a cruise ship heading towards an iceberg, it braces itself for a collision with the captain shouting ‘full steam ahead.’


Harding is of course right. The European Union is a slow motion Titanic. But who knows, maybe the wreck could be converted to a more sensible "EU light" ship?

Waiting for the "modern world´s first 100 per cent fuel free sailing cargo ship"

The World Maritime News tells us that "Development is underway to design the modern world’s first 100 per cent fossil fuel free sailing cargo ships":

With rising fossil fuel prices and the global challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, this project is set to change the shipping industry by providing efficient and affordable low-carbon shipping. The project combines proven technology, using the state of the art dyna-rig sail propulsion system with an off the shelf Rolls-Royce engine powered by waste derived liquid biomethane (liquid gas).

The ships are being developed by B9 Shipping, part of the B9 Energy group of companies, which has started work on a full-scale demonstration vessel validating the engineering and economic assumptions of the initial vessel design.

The fundamental testing programme is being conducted at the University of Southampton’s Wolfson Unit for Marine Technology and Industrial Aerodynamics (WUMTIA), which has provided innovative marine technology and industrial aerodynamics expertise for over 40 years to a world-wide customer base.

Diane Gilpin, Director of B9 Shipping, says: “The shipping sector is a highly complex, interconnected system and our task has been to develop relationships with key players across the industry. Having worked previously with WUMTIA, I believe this collaboration will enable a robust, commercially and technically viable solution to be ready for scale once the engineering is proven.”

Wouldn´t it be nice to return to the age of great commercial tall ships? Why not, but before all sail enthusiasts are carried away by the promises, they should understand that the essential piece of information here is: "once the engineering is proven". So far none of the new "revolutionary" cargo sail ship technologies have been even remotely successful, and it is doubtful whether this one will be, either. 

And looking at the picture, one might be entitled to ask, where the inventors of the new "fossil fuel free sailing cargo ship" are planning to put the containers, which are the backbone of modern cargo shipping?

Vestas withdraws from UK wind turbine factory project

The loss making Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has decided not the proceed with its "flagship" Sheerness project:

Vestas, a Danish company, said it would no longer proceed with its flagship Sheerness project amid concerns about political support for wind power in Britain.

The company’s withdrawal will be an embarrassment for the Government, which had cited the Sheerness factory as evidence of new green jobs being created in the UK. Ed Davey, the Energy Secretary, last week described wind power as a “strategic industry of national importance” on which Britain’s “clean energy future depends”.

The company last year promised to build the factory if the Government gave it “long term political certainty” and there was “stability in the market”. It would have been one of the largest offshore wind turbine factories of its kind in Europe. But Vestas yesterday said it had not received enough orders and hinted the industry had not had sufficient political support from the Government. “We are following the political situation very closely,” a Vestas spokesman added. “The right political decisions are needed in order to support the market for offshore wind energy in the UK.”

Ministers are preparing to cut subsidies for onshore wind farms by up to 25 per cent, and there are concerns that generous handouts for offshore wind farms could follow suit.

The decision to pull out of the factory is the second time Vestas has opted out of the UK market in recent years. It closed down a plant making onshore turbines on the Isle of Wight in 2009, with the loss of 400 jobs.

The decision of Vestas to withdraw from the Sheerness project clearly shows that wind power is not a viable source of energy without huge government subsidies. Vestas reported on May 2 a first-quarter net loss of 162 million euros ($205 million), almost double its deficit a year earlier and close to triple the estimated low in a Bloomberg survey of eight analysts. 

A summary of Rio+20 + a reminder about COP 18/MOP 8

The bright lights of Doha are waiting for the COP 18/MOP 8 delegates

AP summarizes the UN Rio+20 sustainability conference, attended by 100 heads of state and over 50,000 participants from 193 countries:

"In the end, this conference was a conference to decide to have more conferences."

The never-ending Environmental Circus must go on ...

PS

A reminder to Rio+20 delegates who want to build on the "success" in Rio:

Have you remembered to make your hotel reservations for the COP 18/MOP 8 in Qatar, November 26 - December 7? We hear that suites at Doha´s five star hotels are 
already almost fully booked ... 


There is a whole new world to experience in Qatar according to the COP 18/MOP 8 organizers: 


Visitors can search for bargains along the alleys and stalls of Souq Waquif, wander spellbound among one of the world’s most extensive collections of Islamic art in the I.M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art or take the family for a stroll along the scenic Corniche or beaches and shops of Katara. For the more adventurous, a short drive yields everything from abandoned forts, archeological sites and old cities along the northwestern coast to singing sand dunes and desert adventures in the south. And that’s just the start. Qatar's natural heritage goes far beyond the desert and camels many expect to find. 


Qatar’s trademark hospitality makes it easy to relax, but we invite you to explore this amazing gem of the Arabian Gulf during your time in the region.


And car rental is a bargain in Qatar: For a liter of unleaded gasoline you pay only 0.23 USD!

Jerry Brown celebrates new electric car which is neither clean nor green

The loss making electric car maker Tesla has been rolling out its first "mass-market sedan" in California. The base model, which sells for $49,900 after a federal tax credit, can go 160 miles on one charge: 

A crowd estimated to be in the thousands, including Tesla employees, their relatives, and a host of local politicians, cheered for the lineup of speakers that included California Gov. Jerry Brown. They roared when the first cars left the building.

“This is another example of California on the move,” Brown told the crowd. “This is a great car. You’re a bunch of great workers.”

Exactly why Brown and the others were roaring is difficult to understand:

Hybrid and electric cars are neither clean nor green according to a new environmental book, Green Illusions (June 2012, University of Nebraska Press), written by University of California - Berkeley visiting scholar Ozzie Zehner. Green Illusions exposes numerous hidden side effects of new hybrid and electric cars, such as the Tesla, Leaf, Fisker Karma, and Prius. The analysis considers mining impacts, toxins, energy use, suburban sprawl and carbon footprints of production. From an environmental perspective, Zehner argues that hybrids and electric cars are no better than gasoline vehicles, a conclusion backed by a National Academy of Sciences report.

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Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/11/4553011/electric-cars-merely-a-green-illusion.html#storylink=cpy

Read the entire article here

PS


Electric cars are definitively not to the future neither in the US, nor elsewhere. However, natural gas - of which there is an abundance in the US thanks to the shale gas revolution - is another matter, according to a newly published Brookings Institution discussion paper, written by MIT professor Christopher R. Knittel:



Technological advances in horizontal drilling deep underground have led to large-scale discoveries of natural gas reserves that are now economical to access. This, along with increases in oil prices, has fundamentally changed the relative price of oil and natural gas in the United States. As of December 2011, oil was trading at a 500 percent premium over natural gas. This ratio has increased over the past few months. The discovery of large, economically accessible natural gas reserves has the potential to aid in a number of policy goals related to energy. Natural gas can replace oil in transportation through a number of channels. However, the field between natural gas as a transportation fuel and petroleum-based fuels is not level. Given this uneven playing field, left to its own devices, the market is unlikely to lead to an efficient mix of petroleum- and natural gas-based fuels. This paper presents a pair of policy proposals designed to increase the nation’s energy security, decrease the susceptibility of the U.S. economy to recessions caused by oil-price shocks, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. First, I propose improving the 
natural gas fueling infrastructure in homes, at local distribution companies, and along long-haul trucking routes. Second, I offer steps to promote the use of natural gas vehicles and fuels.

Google Trends: The decline of global warming and Al Gore

Global warming and Al Gore - down they go. Take a look at the Google Trends graph based on the wordwide search traffic for "global warming" and "Al Gore". Both peaked in 2006, but after that the decline has been more or less steady ....

(Gore is the red line)