NC Media Watch

Where are the green jobs

Russ Steele

The latest cartoon from the Chilling Effect.

Does anyone in DC know what is going on?

Russ Steele

On Fox news this morning we are hearing about Obama's plan to stop outsourcing. Stopping jobs from going overseas. Yet, down the road Congress is working on Obama's Cap and Trade program to reduce greenhouse gases. Cap and Trade will be the most powerful reason for outsourcing. Moving jobs to countries that have the lowest energy costs.  Now, we have Obama tinkering with GM management. Another reason for outsourcing the whole company, moving the company headquarters off shore to stop the tinkering.  Does, any of our political leaders do any second and third level analysis before making their back of the envelop decisions? It does not appear to be the case in DC,  or in Sacramento.

Pacific Institute truncates sea level rise data. Why?

Russ Steele

The Pacific Institute conducted a study of sea level rise and it's impact on the Bay Area. They were to evaluate the risk of future sea level rise on the California coast and the San Francisco Bay. The study was published as part of the California Energy Commission's Climate Change Center Report Series. This series is to provide California citizens ready access to climate change research.

I was reading the Pacific Institute report when I came across this graphic on page six of the report and wondered why the data plot stopped at 2000. It was a 2008 report.

Click for a larger image.

This report was written in 2008 and up to date data is available at this NOAA Web site.  Where you will find this graphic that goes to February 2009.

Earth Hour in California - Success or Bust? (Updated)

Russ Steele

At our house we set the timer to remind us to turn on all the visible out side lights.  We have multiple security lights on the garage and the barn that come on when the sun goes down. My friend George Rebane has evidence that he turned on his lights for Earth Hour at Ruminations. I should have done the same, but was working on a sea level issue in R and forgot. I am glad I set the timer to remind me to turn off the outside house lights at 9:30. 

The real question is did it Earth Hour make a difference one way or the other?

Roger Sowell had a good idea, he download the the graph below from www.caiso.com, the California Independent System Operator.  CAISO is in charge of receiving power from power generating plants, and distributing the power throughout the state grid to the various end users.

Click for a larger Graphic

Roger notes:

The light gray line is the forecasted power usage, shown in Megawatts.  The red line is the actual power consumed.  Around 1900 hours, 7 p.m., the load was approximately 24,000 MW.  By 8:00, the load increased smoothly to just over 26,000 MW.  Then the load began a steady decrease right on through the night, ending at around 22,000 MW at almost midnight.  
 
There was no apparent decrease in the power load throughout the state, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.  No step changes, nothing, nada, zip, zilch.

There you have it, scientific data showing that the Earth Hour was a total bust in California.  If you look close, you can see a little bump up above the forecast demand, which tracked very closely with actual power consumed prior to the witching hour 8:30 to 9:30. But, it is clear that power consumption did not drop, it stayed up. Maybe all those protesters forgot to turn off the lights.  

Update#1:  This post was improved on at Watts Up With That and then made it all the way to Rush Limbaugh's web page. It was mentioned on the air.  Unfortunally it did not increase any local traffic on this blog.

Lights on for Earth Hour

Russ Steele

As the Earth Hour approaches, I am turning on all my outside lights to protest of this stupidity.

The World Wildlife Fund wants every light in the world to go dark for one hour on Saturday as a symbolic gesture to call for action on climate change.

It's called Earth Hour — and among the places where the lights will go out are the Eiffel Tower, the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing, the Pyramids of Giza and Niagara Falls.

The west coast designated Earth Hour is from 8:30 to 9:30 tonight. Watch for the blazing tower of light coming from the right side of Banner Mountain tonight at the appointed hour. Please join me in this protest. Global warming is over!

Green Stimulus destroys jobs according to Spanish Study

Russ Steele

Gianluca Baratti writes on the Bloomberg web site:

Subsidizing renewable energy in the U.S. may destroy two jobs for every one created if Spain’s experience with windmills and solar farms is any guide.

For every new position that depends on energy price supports, at least 2.2 jobs in other industries will disappear, according to a study from King Juan Carlos University in Madrid.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2010 budget proposal contains about $20 billion in tax incentives for clean-energy programs. In Spain, where wind turbines provided 11 percent of power demand last year, generators earn rates as much as 11 times more for renewable energy compared with burning fossil fuels.

The premiums paid for solar, biomass, wave and wind power - - which are charged to consumers in their bills -- translated into a $774,000 cost for each Spanish “green job” created since 2000, said Gabriel Calzada, an economics professor at the university and author of the report.

I have been writing about the cost of AB32 and the Greening of California for some time, only to be dismissed Anna, Steve and other for not understanding the power of green, yet here is some evidence that going green is going to cost California jobs. According to the article even Google and Microsoft are moving their servers to Canada where the power is cheaper. When those servers moved, so did the IT jobs of attending those servers.

H/T to The Chilling Effect

And the real tipping point is where?

Russ

Paul Stevens, writes Benny Peiser at CCNet, toughing on a subject that has been rattling around in my mind for several months now. I am wondering if other readers have similar views.

Benny,

I have been struck, recently, by what I think is a significant shift observable in the public media. I don't mean that suddenly all newspaper, television and internet outlets are suddenly printing anti-global warming pieces. Rather, it is in the comment sections under most internet blog and news items and in letters to the editors of hard copy news journals.

There now seems to be a preponderance of public comment that rejects the wilder claims of the AGW proponents and that recommend nuclear power as a clear and reasonable alternative to windmills and solar photovoltaic as primary generators of electricity. I would say this turnaround has occurred within the last year. It is now common to see more than five comments rejecting alternate energy solutions to every one supporting it. And an even higher ratio rejecting wild claims of doom for inevitable global warming for every one saying it is natural, or slight or something that can easily be accomodated in a world whose people are growing more prosperous.

This has been happening gradually for years, but in the last twelve months public opinon (as expressed in the available media) seems to have reached a tipping point. Maybe the climate change cheerleading squads are just tired, after hyping it for so long, with so little actual change. I wouldn't call this a rout just yet, as long as Obama feels he has to mouth platitudes about how the US will soon be leading the charge, but it is starting to take on the odour of one.

Paul Stevens

What do you think?  Is this a real tipping point or, just wishful thinking, like Al Gores tipping point? 

What are we teaching our children? (updated)

Russ Steele

Ellen and I spent the day at the new California Academy of Science building yesterday and really enjoyed the experience, except for the crowds. I break out in crowds. With spring break in full force, there were hordes of children, the lines to the tropical rain forest sphere, the aquarium, bugs in 3D, and the planetarium were long. One display that did not receive much attention was the global warming, save the planet from global warming display. Or, as it was properly labeled the Ocean Warming display. 

The interactive display to save the polar bear cub, by creating more ice by reducing greenhouse gases was empty the three times I passed by the booth. The AGW "hockey stick" was is full view. (Note this was not the famous Mann hockey stick, but a scary hockey stick designed to scare)

There was a clever device to demonstrate the value of carbon credits to off set the family carbon foot print stood unused except for one young man and his dad. There was no pushing and shoving to observe these displays or use the interactive tools.

For the most part these displays were ignored, except for a few casual observers seeking refuge from the long lines at the real science displays.  This lack of interest and participation seems to reflect the recent Gallup Polls indicating people are not really concerned about global warming, or ocean warming either. It could be our children have caught on to the scam, or they have reached global warming overload for the school lessons,  and want some real science for change of pace.

Update #1: Anthony Watt has made this post with some minor edits a guest post on WUWT. Thanks Anthony!

NYT: Eminent physicist Freeman Dyson's views on Global Warming

Russ Steele

This a rather long NYT essay on how Freeman Dyson arrived at his views on global warming, and should be read by all the climate skeptics and the warmers as well. His views on Gore and Hansen are priceless.

The best part:

What may trouble Dyson most about climate change are the experts. Experts are, he thinks, too often crippled by the conventional wisdom they create, leading to the belief that “they know it all.” The men he most admires tend to be what he calls “amateurs,” inventive spirits of uncredentialed brilliance like Bernhard Schmidt, an eccentric one-armed alcoholic telescope-lens designer; Milton Humason, a janitor at Mount Wilson Observatory in California whose native scientific aptitude was such that he was promoted to staff astronomer; and especially Darwin, who, Dyson says, “was really an amateur and beat the professionals at their own game.”

I am thinking Anthony Watt and Steve MacIntyre and many others who make great contributions to WUWT and Climate Audit.

An opportunity to engage in a scientific career

Russ Steele

 

In his offer to buy the unfinished hospital on what we now call and Litton Hill, Charles Litton Sr, expressed a desire to help young people to find a career in science and electronics. He thought that moving his manufacturing facility to Grass Valley would encourage more young people to seek scientific careers. Writing in his offer to buy the hospital:

It has long been my opinion that communities such as Grass Valley and Nevada City could greatly benefit from a more diversification of industry endeavors . . . most such communities cannot provide opportunity for their young citizens who might like to engage in the trades or professionally in scientific and electrical fields . . .

And today, 56 years later, we still need to find opportunities to encourage our young people to engage in scientific careers. The Sierra Environmental Studies Foundation has stepped to the fore with TestTech 2009, a merit scholarship program which will award $15,000 in grants to the highest scoring Seniors on a four-hour written examination of math and science questions. The exam will take place on 4 April at NUHS.

Seniors and parents can find details at the SESF Web Site and at Rebane's Ruminations. Like Charles Litton,  George and Jo Ann Rebane have been the vision behind SESF's effort to get more young people interested in scientific careers. Do not let your High School Senior miss this opportunity.