Climate Change Idiocy

Every time I think the climate change alarmists have hit peak stupid, they take that as a challenge to prove me wrong.

How One Commonly Used Asthma Inhaler is Damaging the Planet
The problem with MDIs is not carbon dioxide (the most common greenhouse gas), but rather methane, which represents a far smaller share of greenhouse emissions, but a much more powerful one, with up to 84 times the heat-trapping power of CO2. Even the least polluting inhaler was found to emit methane at levels equal to up to 10 kg (22 lbs.) of carbon dioxide into the air over the course of its 200-puff lifetime. The worst emitted the equivalent of more than 36 kg (79 lbs) of CO2.

Jeffrey Kluger (Twitter) is talking about this study, which he clearly didn’t read.

Let’s look at the first problem, which most clearly illustrates Kluger’s remarkable (dare I say “peak”) stupidity. The study didn’t mention methane. That isn’t what they looked at. At issue is something hydrofluoroalkanes (HFAs), the propellant in inhalers. (Update: After four days, they finally corrected the “methane” error. But they added another one saying that only one type of MDI uses HFAs.)

But let’s have a little fun. HFAs are allegedly potent greenhouse gases, according to the paper around 1,300 times as potent as CO2. Thus, 1 ounce of HFA is the “warming” equivalent of 1,300 ounce of CO2.

The “worst” inhaler in the study is good for 120 doses. Depending on the use, you might use it as often as twice a day, or no more than twice a week. Let’s roll with the twice a day scenario. It should last two months, yielding the CO2 equivalency of 36.5 kilograms, or 80.5 pounds.

That works out to 1.34 pounds of CO2 equivalency per day. Remember; this is the worst case scenario: most usage of the worst inhaler.

The best case is twice a week with the best inhaler in the paper, good for 200 doses. That’s the CO2 equivalent of 0.027 pounds per day.

Putting that in perspective: the average human exhales 2.3 pounds of actual CO2 per day.

So, in the time from when Kluger exposed his idiocy to now, he has exhaled around 9.2 pounds of actual CO2. A worst case inhaler user would have averaged 5.36 pounds equivalency in the same period. A best caser user would be at 0.11 pounds.

Just by breathing, Kluger has contributed 1.7 to 83.6 times as much CO2 equivalent as an measured-does inhaler.

I won’t call this one peak stupidity, out of fear of what “horrifying” doomsday scenario they’s dream up next.

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There goes their carbon footprint

Massive Power Outage In San Francisco Follows PG&E Substation Fire
“Insulation is still smoldering,” said a San Francisco Fire Department spokesman of the substation fire. “We are trying to cool it, but we need to bring in our CO2 unit to assist us. We have been using dry chemicals to put out the flames, but it’s still hot and keeps reigniting.”

But… but… This is green California. Shouldn’t they file environmental impact statements with the CARB and EPA before releasing that poisonous, Gaia-cooking, nasty CO2?

I’m sure they might get approval in a few months, if the greenweenies don’t file too many lawsuits blocking the release.

Email programs need double-confirmation for ‘Send’

At least for those prone to abuse recreational chemicals. You know, something like

Followed by

ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT?

But some people really need triple confirmation.

SERIOUSLY, DUDE. READ IT AGAIN. DO YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO SEND THAT, IN A WORLD WHERE WHAT’S ON THE INTERNET IS IMMORTAL?

ON YOUR HEAD BE IT. I TRIED TO WARN YOU.

But I saw it on TV

As seen at WUWT:

Quote of the Week- Mann parodies science: ‘we don’t need no stinking data’
“What is disconcerting to me and so many of my colleagues is that these tools that we’ve spent years developing increasingly are unnecessary because we can see climate change, the impacts of climate change, now, playing out in real time, on our television screens, in the 24-hour news cycle.”

-psst- Mann, you do know those aren’t documentaries you’re watching on the SyFy channel, right?

I suspect I wasn’t the only one ridiculing the Global Cooling Skyscraper

When last we saw architect Venturella’s “Global Cooling Skyscraper,” Sr. V was mumbling vaguely threatening requests that I delete all discussion of his physics-warping Onion bait.

And that was the last we saw it. Yep, it’s gone. 404’d into oblivion. In fact, his entire site seems to be MIA. No loss.

Happily, Archive.org captured it for posterity and future giggles.

Perhaps Venturella will demand that Google recognize his dubious right to be forgotten, while he pursues a new career in comedic literature. Oh. Wait. That’s what he was doing. I think.

UPDATED 3: Censorship Request – When I win the lottery, my new house will be designed by an engineer

Update 3: Venturella wants this post gone. See below for original post.

I received a second reply from Mister Venturella (or someone using his sig-line).

My response: “No.” And I referred him to this post again.

So? why do you think you can call me “ignorant a*****”?
It is just a concept idea. If you don’t like I can accept the fact that you don’t like.
But now please just remove your post and your link and let’s solve this friendly and the story will end here. ok?

[previous quoted emails snipped. See below for originals.]

____________________________

Paolo Venturella Architecture

Via Arturo Colautti, 5
00152 – Roma

WS: http://www.paoloventurella.it
EM: info@paoloventurella.it
PN: +39 06 9 784 06 71
MP: +39 339 75 46 342

I’ll take those one at a time.

• I suggested that Venturella is scientifically ignorant because his concept appears to be physically impossible without Star Drek force fields and antigravity. See below talking points. Even the idea that it can be “cantilevered” for support is simplistic. Simple cantilevering would only apply for the portions close to the Earth’s surface. Extended “arms” would require reinforcement in the opposite direction to deal with centrifugal forces.
• “Asshole” is hyberbole to emphasize disdain for the concept and for the person who demonstrated such ignorance.
• I absolutely will not remove a public discussion of a publicly published concept. If Venturella wanted no discussion, he should not have made his concept public in the first place.
• It is not “friendly” to demand criticism of your public work be deleted.
• It would be better that “story will end” by Venturella accepting that the law and common sense allow discussion of public material, and withdraw his ridiculous self-censorship request.

Sr. Venturella, if you think my comments — based on some basic scientific and engineering knowledge — are bad, you should see what other people are saying. One of the kinder comments compares your concept to a “high school science fair project.”

I live in America. Under our laws, I can criticize other people’s work. I can point out flaws. I can speculate that a person demonstrating apparent ignorance may well actually be ignorant. I can even use derogatory hyperbole to do so. Italian law — which for all I know might disallow all that — does not apply here. You can’t even enforce an Italian court judgement here if it is based on laws that conflict with American law.

And should you be thinking about abusing copyright by whining that I used your diagram, please note that copyright law allows for fair use. A single significantly down-sized graphic, out of many, used to illustrate what I am discussing, is allowed fair use.

A penultimate point, sir. Please familiarize yourself with the Streisand Effect. If you wish to minimize the attention paid to criticism of your concept, drawing more attention to it with unreasonable requests or demands isn’t going to help you.

What would be reasonable would be for you to reply, in comments below, to the points I’ve raised. If you find one valid, admit it and explain how you would address the issue now that you know. If you believe I’m wrong, explain why (i.e.- have you found something in materials literature that leads you to believe that materials of the necessary strength and low mass can be produced?).

Engage productively with your critics instead of trying silence them.

---

Original post (and previous updates):

No architects need apply.

Global Cooling Skyscraper
This works according the same principle of the “solar tower”. Thanks to the accumulation of heat in the glazed structure, air flows naturally from hot to cold generating rapid and strong flows. These flows bring hot air far from the Earth cooling down the temperature of the whole globe.

I’m not even sure how many ways that’s… wrong.

• How the ever-lovin’-fuck do we mine and process enough materials for a structure that size?
• That’s a cantilevered structure suspended from a single point; apparently one roughly FIFTEEN THOUSAND MILES LONG. The mass will be enough to affect tides. A lot. I don’t care if you build the SOB from aerogel and carbon nanotubes.
• Lunar/Solar tidal effects are going to warp it.
• If you build it anywhere but the ocean, the shadow over arable land is going to adversely affect crops. Hell, it’s still going to.
• Taking the diagram and artist conceptions at face value, the thing is at least a thousand miles thick. You’d have to totally clear everything from Low Earth Orbit (and some of MEO, depending on the real scale) of every bloody satellite. You’d never be able to launch another satellite because even geosynchronous birds start in LEO and boost up. Say goodbye to satphones, satellite Internet, GPS, polar commsats, the ISS, our space telescopes…
• That diagram shows air being sucked out of the atmosphere into space by thermosiphoning. I’m pretty sure Earth needs an atmosphere to support life.

This is what happens when you leave your laptop with Adobe Illustrator unattended with an innumerate, scientifically-ignorant architect.

Added: Damn, this monstrosity is stuck in my head.

Assume he caps the ends and recirculates the atmosphere instead of blowing it into space.

• The wind gennies in the uptake part could partially power fans in the return duct. It would still require power input unless someone has invented perpetual motion.
• But now you have a permanent colossal hurricane. I figure if this sucker is in the mid-Atlantic, the storm bands would extend well into Europe and Africa, and into the Americas. Forever.
• Aside from the megaGIGA-hurricane, the structure would be a wall blocking global air circulation. That might have some effect on global climate, ya think?
• Forget transoceanic air travel: there’s a wall in the way.
• And the never-ending, thousand-mile hurricane isn’t exactly going to help surface shipping either.
• Depending on how much light is blocked, this will impair photosynthesis — possibly shut it down — for thousands of miles. (Hint to Venturella: photosynthesis is what takes carbon dioxide out of the air and turns it into oxygen.)
• You could make up some of the loss of satellites by mounting comm relays on the structure, but that also requires making the structure stronger. More freaking mass.
• Trying to visualize this, I think a mid-Atlantic structure a thousand miles high is going to be visible in the Midwest. And those Cape Cod assholes thought wind gennies in their view sucked.

I assumed Venturella is just an ignorant asshole with mad Photoshop skills, but it’s been suggested that he’s actually just trolling everybody. Maybe even making fun of the AGW climate alarmists.

Perhaps, but I’ve seen enough honest dumbfuckery (particularly from architects) that I’m not ready to write this off as a joke.

Update 2: I thought it only fair to share this with Venturella. I just got an email back.

I LOVE HATERS LIKE YOU.

Yeah, all-caps. My response:

Dude,

I’m not a hater, I just passed my high school and college physics courses.

---

 

(Hat tip to Watts Up With That.)

Weather BS

This Is the Year’s Weirdest Weather Moment Yet
It’s been a bizarre winter, and Wednesday might just bring the weirdest moment yet: It could be as warm as 40 degrees at the North Pole.

I don’t think so. Current conditions for the North Pole shows 6 below zero (21 degrees F) and 13 m/s (29 MPH). Scroll down, and you’ll see temperatures are forecasted to drop from there.

More likely this Newser nitwit, aided and abetted by Discovery.com clickbait, confused the North Pole with North Pole, Alaska, which isn’t particularly close to 90N: 42 degrees F.

Climate change, my ass.

We don’ need no steenkin’ habitable planet

President Dumbass is on TV, telling the nation how great COP21 is, but that it will only go part of the way towards eliminating carbon dioxide from the atmosphere altogether.

I wish he’d do his part.

<b>Added:</b> <a href=”http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/12/12/global-climate-deal-announcement-in-paris-nears/?intcmp=hplnws”><i>”The world is holding its breath, it’s counting on all of us,” the minister added.</i></a>

Just doing their bit to keep CO2 out of the atmosphere.

COP21

The logo for COP21 in Paris this week.

Personally, I think red ‘Cs’ surrounded by a green wreath would more accurately reflect their watermelon status.

Invest in popcorn futures

Bill would switch off lights for nearly 40K commercial buildings
City Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Queens) has introduced legislation that would prohibit exterior and interior lighting at night for roughly 40,000 buildings, with exceptions carved out for small stores and landmarks like the Empire State Building.

The bill is part of the city’s plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

This isn’t just one lone idiot, ignorant of what it takes to keep a city of 8.5 million alive. There are 13 genocidal lunatics backing this. I kinda hope they convince enough more to pass it.

It’ll be exciting. I hear most people in NYC don’t cook. They go to restaurants, eat take-out, or buy microwaveable prepared foods. Someone has to constantly cook that food, ship and stock the store shelves, run the phone systems, clear stopped-up plumbing — take trouble calls and <i>schedule</i> repairs for the next day — repair taxis. And so on and so forth. Heck, watch Wall Street try to handle after hours trading in the dark.

Turn out the lights. Now lay off all the shift workers that you can’t move to straight days. (And remember that all the folks rescheduled to days add to the commuter traffic.)

Economy? Who really needs an economy?

The crime business (muggings, robberies, burglaries, murders, rapes) will be booming though, what all the convenient darkness.

Someone has a short memory.

Graft will be great for bureaucrats and pols, as non-exempt business scramble to bribe themselves a fresh exemption.

Care to make a wager on whether these clowns support a little population reduction?