Climate change - phooey

[diffwhine]

Can somebody tell me how we have managed to go from a blocked drain to towing ice bergs to the UAE? 

[Old Hywel]

I believe it's 1/3rd above water.

A quick internet search gives figures around 10%, depending on the salinity of the sea and the amount of trapped air in the ice.

[Wittsend]

I/we were always taught that 9/10th of an iceberg sits below the water.

Leading to the saying of "the tip of the iceberg".

 

[Alan Drover]

I was quoting from memory but I wasn't sure and I:m wrong, Wittsend and you're correct.

[Richard]

According to Archimedes you're right, Wittsend.
Richard

[Ken]

IIRC pikecrete, if that was its correct name was the invention of a genius who did much more than this and this is a true story. During the battle of the Atlantic allied aircraft could reach so far out into the Atlantic from both sides but not the bit in the middle. This chap hit on the idea of mixing wood chips with ice to create a floating ice aircraft carrier and with refrigeration units to help keep it frozen. They proved the concept on a lake in British Columbia and the material was virtually undamageable. Trouble was that by the time the doubting Thomases had accepted he was right we'd pretty much beaten the u boats and it wasn't needed.
There's a book on this guys life story which is brilliant, well worth a read.

[Larry S]

IIRC pikecrete, if that was its correct name was the invention of a genius who did much more than this and this is a true story. During the battle of the Atlantic allied aircraft could reach so far out into the Atlantic from both sides but not the bit in the middle. This chap hit on the idea of mixing wood chips with ice to create a floating ice aircraft carrier and with refrigeration units to help keep it frozen. They proved the concept on a lake in British Columbia and the material was virtually undamageable. Trouble was that by the time the doubting Thomases had accepted he was right we'd pretty much beaten the u boats and it wasn't needed.
There's a book on this guys life story which is brilliant, well worth a read.

Project Habakkuk

[w3526602]

According to Archimedes you're right,

Hi,

Er ... what experience did Archimedes have of ice? (Visions of fur lined togas).

602

[Richard]

Good morning,

Something to do with putting stuff in water and the upward forces exerted by the water on that object being equal to the weight of the water it displaced. I'll let Wikipedia do the explaining. (Personally I found the explanation in the Britannica for kids a lot better: below.)
Richard

[2286]

I daren't express my opinions.

Is there a cabinet position at stake?

[Alan Drover]

The only cabinet position is me being stuffed inside a kitchen cabinet.

[Richard]

Can somebody tell me how we have managed to go from a blocked drain to towing ice bergs to the UAE? 

Can somebody tell me how we have managed to go from a blocked drain to stuffing people inside kitchen cabinets?
Richard

[2286]

As he is in the upper cabinet, he can decline answering using parliamentary privilege.

Grids, were referenced with regard to floods, floods with regard to temp rises and global warming, there was some talk of lassoing icebergs and that is the precis if I have understood correctly.

[Wittsend]

Put them all in a cabinet and throw away the key ... which brings you back to Brewster's Millions.
for none of the above 

[Sunny Jim]

Well obviously global warming is real, and the man-made aspect of it is undeniable. But I'm sure you all know that.

Interestingly, there has never been any scientific proof of climate change being driven, or affected by CO2 levels, let alone man made CO2. The ice core data unequivocally shows that temperature is the principle driver of atmospheric CO2 levels due to the differential solubility of CO2 in water with temperature. A recent Norwegian study has just (daringly) shown this. A recent Italian study showed no long term trend in any 'adverse' effects, but some increase in 'reported' effects, which is an entirely different thing! This last study ended up retracted, not because of scientific inaccuracy, but for political reasons. Eventually the truth will out.

Things like flooding and wildfires have been made worse by human activity in, as this topic started, failure to maintain infrastructure. Flooding is worsened by not clearing drains, increasing drainage from building projects overloading drainage over short timescales, ceasing dredging of rivers (look into the history of Cockermouth for instance), building on flood plains and flood prone areas etc. Wildfires are made worse by failure to maintain firebreaks, failure to clear/thin out forests, ceasing the practice of controlled burns etc. Wildfires are indeed mostly started by human activity such as someone burning a stolen car (Australia), a barbecue getting out of hand (California), and willful arson (I think it was Greece where someone was on CCTV lighting a fire).

Increasing capital damage by things like wildfires, storms etc, is driven primarily by the increase in infrastructure to damage, so is a circular argument. It is interesting that a former US President, who thought he could better King Canute, ended up buying a nice retirement pad by the sea.

Population growth follows an 'S' shaped curve, as we learned at school about 45 years ago. The 'Malthusian' theory was disproven by observation - we are seeing a drop in fertility rates around the world so that even the usual alarmist suspects have dialled back the hysteria! 'Developed' countries are leading this, but even so called third world countries are finding this.

It is interesting that the 'planet loving environmentalists' seem to all hate humanity, and propose measures to make human life more miserable! I think a 'Golgafrinchan' solution is needed here, at least sending them all to the poles to see what the cold they crave really looks like.

Also, we seem to have a governing glass who are best described as 'criminally insane'. If it weren't for Ratcliffe on Soar power station chugging away, winter and summer round here, we would be having power cuts!

The place I live has a name that means 'High Ridge' in old Norse - even up here we get road flooding because of blocked drains. The town was cut off in two directions recently due to flooding caused by poor drainage. Has anyone else noticed that a lot of new housing developments have balancing ponds, to slow water flow in heavy rain?

In 1610, there was a huge storm across western Europe that caused extensive flooding, and lots of deaths. Unfortunately it was not possible to live stream this at the time, but there are woodcut engravings of it!

I attach a picture of flooding in Nottingham from 1947 - not many people today will remember this, hence the finger pointing and hysterical reactions. Also, a temperature reconstruction from Greenland to show how we are all going to die!

So, our powers that be are using 'Climate Alarmism' to scare people, and excuse their own incompetence!

As a PS, Israel built desalination plants, however, these are completely unnecessary here as we have plenty of water. Remember last year's drought? No? Forgotten already with the latest flood hysteria? Round here, we were told it would take three years to refill Ladybower reservoir, those of us that remember 1976 laughed at this, and were proved right three months later! After 1976, a water grid was proposed, so that our ample water supply could be moved to where it was needed, guess how much of this was built? Oh, and we never had any hose pipe bans here either!

Sunny Jim