The Rainbow Warrior is on her way to the UK to give coal the boot »
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Fossil fool's day frolics
Posted by jossc on 31 March 2008.
Roll up, roll up! The climate circus is in town. Confronted with melting ice caps, unprecedented species extinction, droughts and extreme weather, climate change threatens our very survival. The fools at the head of the fossil fuel empire continue to plunder the earth, with the governments as willing court jesters at their side.
They would have us believe that we can escape
climate change with techno-fixes, market mechanisms and offset schemes
- all technocratic acrobatics that distract us from the truth: the only
real solution to climate change is to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Actions will be happening all over the world. Here in the UK there'll be a protest against new coal-fired power stations. From 8am London World Development Movement groups are co-ordinating a protest outside the Department for Enterprise Business and Regulatory Reform (or Dberr) to laugh at the minister for business, John Hutton. Hutton is currently set to make a right fool of the government's climate policy if he signs off on EON's new Kingsnorth power station.
Next up is a protest in Parliament Square - where from 11am WDM will be building a coal-fired power staiton, complete with 12ft cooling towers, while people dressed in jesters hats and Gordon Brown masks will 'burn' a mock Climate Change Bill. Lobbying starts at 2pm.
It's necessary because, despite introducing the Climate Change Bill, the government is still considering
whether to build a new coal power station in Kingsnorth. If this plant is
allowed to be built, seven more will follow and we can wave goodbye to any hope
that the UK will be a world leader on climate change.
WDM's asking as many people as possible join them for the action and even better to make a meeting with your MP for that day. You can ask for a meeting with your MP through the Parliamentary Switchboard on 020 7219 3000 or find them here.
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fossil fool???
I certainly won't be going along to that ridiculous event. The fact of the matter is that england power needs will not be met unless drastic action is taken. If you don't accept the need for more power through coal then your choice is either nuclear or a shrinking economy through use of renewables.
Yes renewables have their place, but sorry not alone. To put this in perspective an old coal fire power station typically had a capacity of 400Mw. The new supercritical burning coal technology means that much more power capacity can come from less coal. Britain is full of old coal power stations that could be replaced by ones with over 6 times the power capacity. The most impressive wind turbines have a capacity of 2.5Mw with some new super turbines being developed to achieve 8Mw capacity, but this is still a way off and is dependant on the wind blowing.
Whilst i applaud the use of new technologies i am a realist, we need a sustained power source comprising of a number of different methods that will ensure the lights and heating come on when the temperature drops, the sun goes in and the wind stops blowing. Most methods have a place and a use.
The theory of man made global warming has led to the need for coal technologies to try and capture carbon which incidently no-one knows how to do. However, there is one pretty clear estimate coming through, a less efficient power plant.
Nuclear's not the answer
Bit confused as to why you've got so much faith in nuclear coming to the rescue. Nuclear currently supplies just under 20% of our electricity requirements (that's just 4% of our total energy needs at present), and by 2020 or so just one nuclear plant will remain in operation (Sizewell B in Suffolk). Even if we embarked on nuclear replacements for those plants that are shutting down over the next few years, they would only be contributing a small percentage of our power use. And to consider returning to coal economy (without any practical carbon capture capabilities) which was a root cause of the problem in the first place beggars belief - the phrase "when you're in a hole, stop digging". You can find out more about why we think nuclear is not the answer here.
Our best option at this point is to conserve energy (we are still incredibly profligate with both heat and electricity), use the energy we do use far more efficiently (using combined heat and power plants that are 85% efficient, unlike centralised power staitons which have only a 35% operating efficiency level), and generate as much power as possible from renewable sources - wind, solar, tidal and wave.
Nuclear coming to the rescue?
sorry but you are misguided and really need to understand how power is produced and the needs of the country.
Localised power does have its place but can you tell me how these Combined heat and power units are going to be powered? To my knowledge it is predominantly through natural gas at the moment, as biofuels are limited and will remain to be due to the simple fact that the UK doesn't have the supply ability in the form of raw materials.
Natural Gas is a resource that will run out, and the question is whether this form of energy should be used to generate another. I think this is the biggest area of concern, not nuclear.
Yes the national grid is wasteful but it allows for control of power to areas in times of need such as adverse weather conditions.
On your other point about carbon capture as stated before this will lead to less effeciency of a coal power station, therefore is it not better to leave be?
Nuclear power can solve the countries power needs in combination with coal and renewables amongst other sources. A whole suite of power generation is needed.
Finally, i am not currently convinced by the CO2 man made global warming argument although i keep an open mind on this matter. There seem to be some major failings in the theory. What I find more annoying though is the reaction i get simply from expressing some doubts like i am Adolf hitler!! I do support renewable energies but not necassarily the C02 argument
Perhaps you can enlighten me on my doubts to explain the following:
1. Why have global tempretures not risen so far this century?
2. Why did global tempretures go down after the second world war to the mid 1970's?
3. Is it not a fact that the sea sucks in C02 and puts out C02 at different tempretures?
4. why were there previously vineyards all over britain?