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[Nickbat]

It seems, at long last, that the wheels are finally falling off the global warming bandwagon. I've been banging on about this for years, but have been shouted down and abused by the zealots.

Now, though, with no warming in the last 16 years, even the head of the IPCC Rajenda Pachauri, is forced to admit that warming is at a standstill. Since CO2 is still rising (even though it's still an infinitesimally small amount of the total atmosphere), one can deduce by extrapolation that the green lobby's dire warnings of runaway warming are simply wrong.

Still, we (our beloved government, that is) continue to follow the alarmists agenda and that is why our energy security is perilous and prices skyrocketing.

One of a number of good articles on the subject this week is here:

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/2867/green_agenda_in_meltdown

The BBC hasn't noticed yet, though.
 

[Kevin Wood]

I wouldn't expect the political agenda to change much until the MPs find another profitable niche handing out lots of non-executive directorships in exchange for policy.

[Rods2]

Likewise Nick, at times with some people I felt like I had grown horns and become Beelzebub, where I questioned the consensus and the brain dead washed who are still banging their global warming drum.

I knew it had to be wrong as you cannot predict future events when the is an unknown catastrophe theory element to it. As an example the Japanese earthquake moved the earths axis by 25mm, the effect of this might be small, but it also might be enough to tip something on the edge like a slowdown in an ocean current. Likewise what effect has the Icelandic volcano have?

These are the minor things. What effect do sun spots and output fluctuations have on the kw/m² of heat hitting the earth. How do these vary? Now I have done some research and read various papers on the Internet on the sun's output and there is an awful lot that is just not known. How do changes in the Earths atmospheric layers and magnetic field affect the kw/m², there are the obvious ones like cloud (in itself a variable), but again there is much that is just not known. The Earths rotation around the sun is elliptical and our distance varies along with the earths axial position, all of these are subject to slight but unpredictable variation. So as soon as you have unknowns on something you are trying to model, the immediate question is what assumptions are you making? Have the fraud squad IPCC ever made these public, not as far as I'm aware. Their whole approach has been where the experts, you won't understand so just accept it a gospel. 

As soon as somebody tells me this is a fact, you won't understand it, just accept it, that is a red rag to a bull to me, so I do as much research as possible, so I do have a reasonable appreciation. I think it stems from my misspent childhood where as soon as I was given any toy, the first thing I would do was take it all to pieces and work out how it worked and then put it back together again.

The renewable green energy situation is an interesting one as windmill produce massive grid instability as the percentage of the electricity they produce increases as Germany have found to their cost, hence the emergency building of 12 coal fired power stations. The production of solar-panels is so energy intensive, that it takes 10 years of their 20 year life to save that  and bio-fuels depending on the technology only produce between 1.1 and 2 time the energy they consume in their production, you are better off as keeping them as crops, rather than risking global food shortages. So in there own ways they are all pretty useless. France are the only European country that have got there electricity generation mix right. Ukraine is also not bad with 50% nuclear, 20% hydro and and 30% fossil fuels.

Maglev Trains have interested me for sometime and I have been following their development as they are the transport of the future along with Thorium power stations to supply the electricity. By running in tunnels with an atmosphere of the equivalent of about 100,000ft, supersonic trains may well become the norm. Just imagine spending a day travelling from Edinburgh to Paris and then getting on a supersonic train and then just two hours later being in Beijing. 

Just think of the trade possibilities with high sub-sonic Maglev freight trains, order a part in China in the morning, have it delivered in the afternoon in Berlin or Paris. How will this affect industry in mainland Europe with just in time delivery over large distances and local assembly? Global production centres with their economies of scale and fast delivery at a fraction of the cost of air freight. It won't matter to the UK as we will still be using quaint Victorian technology. We used to have visionaries looking and pushing things like this. The only person and thing I can see at the Richard Branson with his space tourism and good luck to him on this.

This is why I'm quite vocal on HS2 being an old technology white elephant.

If Isambard Kindom Brunel was alive in this era instead of being the iconic engineer of the Victorian era, he would probably a humans right lawyer working in Cherrie Blairs chambers. 

it is about time this country changed its name as Great Britain is a falsehood. Still I guess the EU will be doing that in a few years with what ever provincial name they decide to use for this EU province. 

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Maglev Trains have interested me for sometime and I have been following their development as they are the transport of the future along with Thorium power stations to supply the electricity. By running in tunnels with an atmosphere of the equivalent of about 100,000ft, supersonic trains may well become the norm. Just imagine spending a day travelling from Edinburgh to Paris and then getting on a supersonic train and then just two hours later being in Beijing. 

Just think of the trade possibilities with high sub-sonic Maglev freight trains, order a part in China in the morning, have it delivered in the afternoon in Berlin or Paris. How will this affect industry in mainland Europe with just in time delivery over large distances and local assembly? Global production centres with their economies of scale and fast delivery at a fraction of the cost of air freight. It won't matter to the UK as we will still be using quaint Victorian technology. We used to have visionaries looking and pushing things like this. The only person and thing I can see at the Richard Branson with his space tourism and good luck to him on this.

This is why I'm quite vocal on HS2 being an old technology white elephant.

If Isambard Kindom Brunel was alive in this era instead of being the iconic engineer of the Victorian era, he would probably a humans right lawyer working in Cherrie Blairs chambers. 

I agree fully Rods2.  However they are no more than 'visions of the future' currently because to build such a system would cost trillions of pounds many times over and we have not yet established the technology to drive that future, possible, untested, transport system on.  We must learn to walk before we can run. It takes time and much money, which frankly few countries have at the moment.

Remember, Brunel tried often to push the boundaries too far and wasted shareholders money with schemes like the atmospheric system on the South Devon Railway and The Great Eastern steam ship.  Although I will always admire him for his determination and pioneering spirit, it does remind us that until the technology has been proved an engineer can over reach themselves and incur huge financial penalties that others have to pay for.  Would the British public now have the stomach for such huge financial risks; I doubt it!

[Rods2]

It won't happen in Britain, we are more interested along with the rest of Western EU Europe in human rights and equality, not to mention ruinous de-industrialization through stupid green eco policies.

This will be pioneered by the 21st century industrial powers in Asia, who do have the money. China has over $5tn in reserves, due to global trade in-balances, this is why they can afford to spend so much on 21st century infrastructure. The spending of this will really open up China's industrial capacity as there is much more to come from that where there are many more remote places that are currently being opened up and their peasant workers ready to join in for the better wages. If you think they are big now, just watch the next 20 years.

Korea is another global industrial giant powering ahead. Their biggest problem at the moment is a shortage of labour, with many Russians now working there and of course, the uncertainty from North Korea. India is only just getting into its industrial stride and will eventually overtake China, Malaysia has plenty of growth potential and places like Indonesia, Vietnam and Burma have growing populations and are still at a very early industrialization stage. The US with cheap shale oil and gas and can do attitude might keep up, but with their current politicians copying Europe in trying to create a New Jerusalem, they may end up like the EU Europe as a third world backwater. I think the next 20 years will decide that. A very left wing President trying to create a client 'uman rights, cradle to grave, moribund, eco-green socialist society which is being only currently held back by Republican majorities in their legislative chambers.

South America is a mixed bag of success with Brazil and Columbia powering ahead with Venezuela and Argentina going backwards, but both countries ruling families have done well, amassed much wealth at the countries expense.

Eastern Europe will do well, through natural resources and having lived under communism / socialism, the vast majority don't want to go back there.