Aimee Ambrose auf The Conversation:
Cost of living: the unhealthy coping strategies which are likely to rise as energy bills soar – plus how to get help
The burden of very high energy prices does not fall evenly across society. The most vulnerable customers are more likely to be on the most expensive tariffs because they’re more likely to pay for their energy via prepayment meters and face barriers to switching, such as limited access to the internet.
One in six of the poorest households have energy bills at least 25% above the average. These include people with unavoidably high energy costs, such as those confined to the home due to poor health or old age, as well as large families and those living in energy-inefficient homes who cannot afford to insulate them or rely on their landlords to do so.
People living in privately rented properties will be hit particularly hard, as this sector of housing contains the greatest number of the least energy efficient properties and the most vulnerable occupants.
My research, conducted with colleagues at the Fuel Poverty Research Network, looked at how vulnerable households cope when faced with significant increases in energy prices. We found that people have ingenious strategies for beating the cold but they come at a cost to their health and wellbeing if they become routine.
Weiterlesen auf The Conversation
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The Sun Versus CO2 as the Cause of Climate Change Projected to 2050
The current controversy over the cause of increasing global temperatures since the middle of the 20th century comes from the IPCC First Assessment Report issued in 1990. The report states rising carbon dioxide (CO2) warms the air, thereby holding more of the significant warming gas, water vapor. This additional water vapor feeds back to amplify the warming by CO2. The IPCC has continually promoted this concept in its reports since 1990. Up-to-date science proves the IPCC concept is faulty. Scientists discovered that when the Sun’s energy output changes, it impacts the Earth’s temperature, and it does this cyclically. Current, reliable evidence shows the Earth has just come through a warm period. It is now in the early stages of cooling that might be similar to the Dalton Minimum and last for three or four decades. Average temperatures can drop by up to 1.5oC and increase the rate of crop failures that have already started. It won’t be easy to maintain the benefits of the recent warm phase of the Sun during the upcoming solar minimum.
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Norwegian University of Science and Technology:
People over 60 are greenhouse gas emission ‚bad guys‘
Baby boomers have a big climate footprint. In 2005, people over 60 accounted for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. In 2015, that number jumped to nearly 33%.
„Older people used to be thrifty. The generation that experienced World War II was careful about how they used resources. The ’new elderly‘ are different,“ says Edgar Hertwich, an NTNU professor in the Industrial Ecology Programme.
An NTNU study surveyed greenhouse gas emissions by age in 2005, 2010 and 2015. The survey includes 27 EU countries, Norway, the United Kingdom, the U.S., Australia and Japan.
Big change in a short time
„The post-war ‚baby boomer‘ generation are the new elderly. They have different consumption patterns than the ‚quiet generation‘ that was born in the period 1928–1945. Today’s seniors spend more money on houses, energy consumption and food,“ says Hertwich.
In 2005, the over-60 age group accounted for lower emissions than the 30–44 and 45–59 age groups. In 2015, seniors had surpassed the 30- to 44-year-old levels, and were at the same level as the 45- to 59-year-olds.
Heran Zheng, a postdoctoral fellow at NTNU, believes that there is good reason to assume that the 60-plus group has surpassed the 45–59 group since 2015 and is now at the top of the emissions ladder.
Message to politicians
The study shows that seniors are responsible for an increasing share of climate emissions in all 32 countries surveyed. Seniors in Japan stand out, accounting for over half of climate emissions.
Zheng says the most important message from this research is for politicians to be aware that the aging population is making it more difficult to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
„The consumption habits of seniors are more rigid. For example, it would be an advantage if more people moved to smaller homes once the kids moved out,“ he says. „Hopefully more senior-friendly housing communities, transport systems and infrastructure can be built.“
Global aging wave
The aging wave is sweeping the world, so as the new elderly increase their climate footprint, it’s bad news. In addition to the fact that the large age groups from the 1950s and 1960s are on their way into old age, life expectancy is increasing. The elderly population in the 32 countries in the NTNU study will double between 2019 and 2050.
More local emissions
In comparison with other age groups, emissions that the elderly account for tend to be more local. Younger age groups consume more imported goods, clothing, electronics and furniture, goods that lead to emissions in other countries.
„Income shrinks in retirement, but seniors in developed countries have accumulated value, primarily in housing. A lot of them have seen a large increase in the value of their property. The elderly are able to maintain their high consumption through their wealth. This happens especially in carbon-intensive areas like energy. An increasing proportion of this age group live alone. This isn’t the case in all countries, but it reflects the overall picture,“ says Zheng, who is affiliated with NTNU’s Department of Energy and Process Engineering.
Norway is high on the list
If you look at annual emissions by the number of metric tons per person, the elderly in Australia and the U.S. come out worst with 21 metric tons in 2015, close to double the European average.
In Europe, Luxembourg seniors have the highest emissions with 19 metric tons. Great Britain, Norway, Finland and Ireland are also in the upper emission echelons.
Norwegians over the age of 60 have distinctly higher emissions (12 metric tons) than Swedes (7.4 metric tons) and Danes (10.2 metric tons). Elderly people in Romania, Lithuania, Hungary, Croatia and Estonia account for the fewest emissions per person.
Everyone emitting less
Although the distribution of emissions between the age groups has changed, all groups have reduced their emissions between 2005 and 2015. And the young are leading the lower trend. People under the age of 30 have cut their annual emissions by 3.7 metric tons during this period. The 30- to 44-year-olds reduced emissions by 2.7 metric tons and the 45- to 59-year-old group by 2.2 metric tons. People over the age of 60 had the smallest decline, only 1.5 metric tons.
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Video: Why flush toilets are wasteful
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Earth Institute at Columbia University:
Was it a flash flood or not? Categorizing disaster types in historical records
One of the important applications of climate knowledge is in the area of disasters. Being able to predict the scale of a potential disaster and the risks a disaster could impose on a community in the future is valuable and crucial information for not just government agencies and aid organizations, but also to support individuals and communities to both build strategies to become more resilient, and to anticipate when a disaster is likely to occur.
Disasters can differ widely based on region, climate, time of year, socioeconomic context, and other factors. However, while we have seen significant advances in understanding risk for some disaster types, such as drought and hurricanes, progress has lagged behind for other types—such as floods and particularly flash floods. While floods differ based on the water source and land area, it is generally recognized that flash floods can be especially dangerous.
Andrew Kruczkiewicz, Agathe Bucherie, Simon Mason, and their colleagues have delved into these definitions for a recent paper. We asked Agathe and Andrew for their insight into this intersection of climate data and application.
Some people might see dividing floods into different types as splitting hairs, but it’s true that a ‚coastal‘ flood is very different in many ways from a ‚flash‘ flood. Why do you think these distinctions are crucial? Why do we need to categorize disasters?
Agathe Bucherie: Not all floods are the same. They can have different root causes and behavior, leading to very different impacts. Understanding and categorizing floods according to their triggers is key to improving disaster predictions. Indeed, techniques used for coastal flood forecasting (for instance based on storm surge models) differ significantly from riverine flood forecasting (commonly using large scale hydrological network monitoring) or flash flood forecasting (primarily based on local and extreme precipitation forecast). Furthermore, flood risk differs significantly in time and space from one flood type to another. Mapping accurately where and when populations are more likely to be affected by each type of flood is crucial to improve disaster risk perception. Unfortunately, some disasters like flash floods remain neglected, and some communities in highlands, far from commonly mapped flood-prone areas such as coastal or floodplains, might feel safe and not aware of the flash flood risk. Floods have very different behaviors, and knowing which type of flood communities are exposed to is crucial for disaster practitioners to anticipate what type of impact to expect. For instance, flash floods, characterized by localized and suddenly devastating events, are the most damaging and deadly flood type globally. Appropriate disaster preparedness and response actions might therefore differ from one flood type to the other.
Weiterlesen auf phys.org.
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Rescued Victorian rainfall data smashes former records
130 years‘ worth of data transcribed by volunteers fills in gaps in UK’s rainfall history
Record-breaking Victorian weather has been revealed after millions of archived rainfall records dating back nearly 200 years were rescued by thousands of volunteers during the first Covid-19 lockdown.
The Rainfall Rescue project was launched by the University of Reading in March 2020 and offered members of the public a way of distracting themselves from the pandemic by digitally transcribing 130 years’ worth of handwritten rainfall observations from across the UK and Ireland.
Weiterlesen auf Eurekalert
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Leserpost von Dipl. Ing. Martin Krohn:
Betreff: Verdopplung der Windkraftanlagen, Absurdität der Energiewende
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
einige Anmerkungen zum Blog vom 28.05.22. Zum einen wurde auf einer eigenen Seite über die Verdopplung der Windkraftanlagen spekuliert. In den Diagrammen wurde der Strombedarf und die durch Windenergie gelieferte Strommenge dargestellt. Bei einer Verdopplung der Windkraft entsteht ein Überschuss, welcher nicht genutzt werden kann. In dem Beitrag wurde auf die Erfordernis von Speichermedien hingewiesen. Nach den Darstellungen ist jedoch erkennbar, dass der Überschuss in windstarken Zeiten, auch bei einer Verdopplung der Kapazität an Windkraftanlagen die Stromlücke nicht ausfüllen kann. Somit würden extrem teuere Speicheranlagen nur einen kleinen Anteil der Stromlücke abdecken können. Dazu kommt noch, dass die Planung der Grünen, NGO´s etc. die zunehmende Elektrifizierung (E-Autos, Wärmepumpen, …) einen deutlich höheren Strombedarf ergeben werden. Ein Mehr an Windenergieanlagen würde auch eine gegenseitige Abschwächung der Wirkungen bedingen.
Auf der zweiten Seite der heutigen Beschreibung wird in einem Artikel der Ausbau der Windenergie im Reinhardswald erklärt. Entsprechende Verbände protestieren gegen den Bau der Windkraft im Wald. Natur- und Artenschutz sollen dabei abgeschwächt werden. Eigentlich eine absolute Schande für eine Partei und für NGO´s, welche sich angeblich den Naturschutz auf die Fahnen geschrieben haben. Doch in der Realität ist nichts davon übrig. Es werden Wälder zerstört und es werden seltene Vogel- und andere Arten einfach geopfert. Dazu kommen gesundheitliche Probleme für die Menschen, welche in der Nähe von Windkraftanlagen leben. Diese Probleme werden dann immer als Einbildung abgetan. Doch die Mengen von Beeinträchtigungen, die weltweit eingetreten sind, können sicherlich nicht als Einbildung abgetan werden. Eine weitere Problematik ist sicherlich die Störung der sonstigen Tierwelt. Tiere sind oft viel empfänglicher für Beeinträchtigungen als der Mensch. Wie reagieren die Tiere im Wald, wenn neben ihnen Windräder rattern?
Viele Grüße
Dipl. Ing. Martin Krohn