Green Planet

I’m reposting this blog item from 10 years ago because the hypothesis predicting a breakdown of the Atlantic conveyor within this decade is becoming more prominent in scientific circles. Sadly, the NOAA links it refers to have since been either removed or superseded. And yes, I did see the Palm Trees of Ireland in 2023…

Here’s the post:

The deep freeze of 2010. Proof that there is no global warming. I mean, how can there be global warming when everything’s freezing across the entire European continent?

That’s the conventional wisdom driving many people to conclude that the “scientific evidence” being evangelized by many is some sort of fabrication designed to cast uncertainty and doubt at best, or a carefully contrived lie whose entire purpose is to enrich personal wealth at worst. In either case, how can these supposed “scientists” continue to spout this drivel in the face of such overwhelming evidence?

How indeed.

Perhaps we should consider this: Europe is North. Way North. But thanks to the great Atlantic conveyor, enough warm water pours past to allow Palm trees to exist in Ireland. This fact is unbelievable in itself when one considers the latitude of Belfast, a city in the middle of Ireland, is 54 degrees, 37 minutes North. That’s less than 300 miles south of Juneau Alaska. Heck, Minneapolis Minnesota, at 46 degrees, 55 minutes North latitude is itself about 450 miles south of Belfast.

Now to the scary part. Here are some pictures of the great Atlantic conveyor showing heat disbursement. First, one from October of 2008:

Now here’s that same picture, taken in October 2010:

Ok, so what’s going on? Notice the yellow band. About the same location in both shots. But why is the region around England so much more blue in 2010 than it is in 2008. For the answer, look to the left at the large dark blue plume coming from Newfoundland that simply wasn’t there in 2008. It’s pretty easy to see its effect on warm currents traveling Northward. (As an aside, check out the increased equatorial heat zone too. I wonder what effect that is having?)

Here’s the scary part: Do you know what the blue plume is? It is cold, fresh water coming from the accelerated ice melt that’s occurring up there. Pretty much proof of what scientists are warning us about. It’s effect on the conveyor is quite easy to see. Without the Atlantic conveyor, Europe reverts to the kind of climate it should have.

Feel free to check out the current data yourself from the NOAA site. Here’s the link: ROTFS (Atlantic). Be sure to switch to salinity view to see what I’m talking about.

What’s the lesson here? Simply, it is this: “global warming” is about increased energy in the system. It doesn’t mean that every place on Earth will get hotter; rather it means that everything on Earth will change. Storm systems will intensify, climatic regions will shift and with it, people will suddenly find that the infrastructure they’ve built based on their local climate will have suddenly become very, very inadequate. Heck, I remember that the house I lived at in Rochdale, Lancashire England when I was 10 had external plumbing because nothing ever froze there. That plumbing was painted bright green too!

The next effect of climate change, if drastic enough, could lead to mass migration as people try to escape from conditions that have suddenly become hostile. At very least, economic problems must multiply as people try to adjust to the change. Consider my childhood home in England as a case in point: The plumbing was external because the walls were solid. No major insulation was needed because of the mild climate. Heck, it didn’t even have central heating. Now those pipes have frozen. The bathrooms don’t work any more. There’s no running water. What can poor Graham Litchfield (the man who bought the house) do now? How much will it cost him? Now multiply that problem by the rest of the reigon. External plumbing is common in England.

The major effects of global warming are beginning. If you haven’t seen the Palm trees of Ireland yet, it’s quite possible that you never will.

Mini Splits are small heat pumps that are typically used to service single or small groups of rooms. Computer controlled and equipped with inverter powered DC compressors, they literally sip energy compared to their centralized counterparts.

The indoor half of a mini split is designed to sit unobtrusively near the ceiling of a conditioned room and comes equipped with a whisper quiet (less than 40 db) fan. A small handheld remote control gives easy access to temperature, mode, and fan settings.

The outdoor unit is generally located near the indoor unit. It can be mounted on brackets attached to the wall or on a pad in much the same way as a traditional central air outdoor unit. Like a traditional outdoor unit, it houses the compressor, fan and associated electronics while also providing power for the indoor unit.

Refrigerant lines connect the two devices together to form a single heat pump system. Typically, mini splits come pre-charged with refrigerant for linesets as short as 15 feet and as long as 25 feet. For linesets that fall outside of this range, refrigerant can easily be added/removed.

Inverter powered DC motor technology is key to a mini split’s energy efficiency because it permits precise compressor power adjustments to match the required level of heating/cooling demand. This results in a more even output without start/stop events that draw large amounts of electricity

So just how effective are mini splits from an energy usage perspective? Well, 22 SEER cooling efficiencies and 9.8 HSPF heating efficiencies have now become typical. Also, since mini split technology represents a ductless solution, there are no duct work related losses to deal with either. All of the output is instead sent directly into the conditioned environment. Finally, these heat pumps are effective from 5 degrees to 115 degrees ambient making them usable over a wide range of geographical climates.

Consider mini splits for bedrooms and additions. With their super high efficiency, easy installation, and prices approaching $.11/BTU they are certainly worth a serious look when any HVAC change is planned!

Ok preppers, here’s the second installment in my little “planning for climate change” series…

For those of you who own portable backup generators, you really need to test them out on a regular basis to make sure everything’s running well.

Running a test is important for other reasons as well, since its also a good time to educate the rest of your family so that they can fire things up themselves should you be unavailable when the power goes out.

We have a “todo” list for this attached to the generator that we go through when we test run it twice per year. Here’s how it looks:

1. (detailed instruction for starting up the generator)
2. Connect a portable load (we use a space heater) to one of the 120V outlets. This stabilizes the generator RPMs if its “hunting” which many do when there’s no load.
3. plug the custom 60′ power cord into the 30Amp outlet.

meanwhile, the second person is:

1. running the custom 60′ power cord that goes from the generator through the kitchen (4 outlet drop there) down to the furnace room (ends with another 4 outlet drop)
2. plug the furnace into the outlet
3. plug computer UPS into the outlet
4. plug an extension cord into the outlet and connect it to the water heater
5. plug another extension cord into the outlet and connect it to the sump pump.
6. go back upstairs and plug the refrigerator into the kitchen outlet.

When you run through the test, you’ll be amazed at what you will uncover. Don’t just assume everything will work especially if you have a new generator that’s never been used before.

I’ve been saying for quite some time now that “global warming is about more energy in weather systems”. But what does that mean from a practical perspective? In short, it means that we can expect our weather to intensify. Temperature swings will become more extreme and storms will become more intense as global average temps rise. Here then is the first of a series of posts that just might help you to prepare for this.

Do you own a standby generator? If you do, that’s a great first step, but that step alone won’t help you to keep warm if you lose power in the winter. There’s a simple solution to this however! Your natural gas furnace only draws about 900 watts peak and that’s easily handled by most backup generators. But how can you connect it safely and legally? The answer is also simple: convert it to a corded appliance. Now, when grid power is unavailable, you can unplug your furnace from the wall outlet and plug it into your backup generator.

Here’s an article that shows how to inexpensively DIY the conversion. I did ours over the weekend.

I read with some amusement today about the crisis being faced by oil futures traders as they grappled with the fact that if they didn’t dump their shares soon, a whole lot of oil was going to show up on their door. Thus the reason for May delivery futures dropping to -$37 a barrel. “Good thing those weren’t pork bellies” I thought laughingly to myself, but even as I was chuckling, another thought was crossing my mind…

What was really going on here? Well, the global transportation industry had pretty much ground to a halt, that’s what. It would appear that our most prominent use for oil is to power our own transportation industry! When the vehicles stopped running, the oil prices tanked.

And look at the difference a few months have made. People are posting shots from India that show the Himalayas in the background again. I never even knew they were close; my time in Noida was spent in ignorance of this. In fact, they are quite majestic:

This is only a small part of what’s going on too. Scientists are saying that the Earth is not “ringing” as much from the collective sounds of our daily lives any more and that their instruments can now detect much fainter seismic activity. As a species with 8 billion members, we are now a major force on this planet.

In three short months, the Earth has begun to improve. Animals are moving into unused venues and the air quality is improving. Scientists at Columbia University recently detected a 10% localized drop in atmospheric CO2.

It remains to be seen what the overall impact to climate change will be (so far NASA satellites haven’t detected a global change in atmospheric CO2), but the point is well made here: reductions in transportation based fossil fuel use have impact far beyond a stock trader’s dread of approaching oil tankers.

So while we sit here in COVID inspired isolation, perhaps now is the time to consider what we will advocate for when we come out of it. How can we accelerate the transformation of our transportation industry to electric and hydrogen power sources? How do we transform other industrial processes away from hydrocarbon fuel dependence? Lately, electric arc furnaces have made their appearance in heavy industry. This is a good sign.

Perhaps now is the time to think about how we can shape our planet’s future. Our species is not insignificant; the Earth’s reduced “ringing” proves this. There is a way we can personally help to not only avoid the impact of climate change but also make our world a more beautiful place to live in. We are doing it now, albeit with some difficulty and self sacrifice. When we come out of this, if we can just focus on promoting those leaders who share a concern for climate change impact and then try to include increasingly affordable climate friendly options into our buying decisions, then we can have a significant impact. If we can resist the increasing noise on social media propagated by those who don’t want to see change then we can solve this. Look around yourself. Does the blue sky seem just a bit more vivid to you now? Are there a few more stars in the sky that perhaps you hadn’t noticed before?

We are at a once in a lifetime crossroads thanks to SARS-CoV-2 and our future will be different because of it. Why not use the opportunity to save our climate too?

Indeed, why not? In upcoming installments I’ll share some of the gems that I’ve recently uncovered on my own journey towards a more sustainable future.