Thoughts on current political and financial developments, travel, climate and the environment with a humorous twist where possible
An interesting recent report (Nature January 2019) has emerged from CHIME - the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment - on Fast Radio Bursts, but in this case including some repeating bursts. A single burst apparently represents an energy output equivalent to that of our sun over 10,000 years. The source is said to be… Continue reading Dark Energy and Repeating Radio Signals
Temperatures After what seemed like a hot and mostly dry December (up to the 30th) it has been easy to feel that the weather is getting warmer year by year. However the chart below shows how this is clearly not simply a gradual warming year by year. (Full September 2015 data is not available but… Continue reading Highveld Early Summer Weather Trends
Ion engines have been used in space for a long time as their low power is not a big issue when there is no air resistance and low acceleration almost irrelevant in the timescales involved. It was thus a rather special recent event when, to little fanfare, an ion drive powered model aircraft built by… Continue reading Ion Engine in Ground Level Flight
Climate Action Tracker updated their end of century forecasts on 11 December in the middle of the Katowice meeting which presumably was not a coincidence. Had there been no actions taken to limit global warming (the 'baseline scenario') they predict the temperature rise by end century above pre-industrial levels would likely be in the range… Continue reading December 2018 Global Warming Projections for 2100
The South African analysis is the first in a series to be produced by Climate Action Tracker (CAT) comprising three independent research organisations (Ecofys, NewClimate Institute and Climate Analytics) tracking climate action since 2009. Scaling up refers to the likely measures required to bridge the gap between current emissions projections and Paris compatible pathways. Reports… Continue reading South Africa GHG Emission Reductions – Scaling Up
In earlier blogs I have looked at the later onset of rains in the Highveld summer and subsequently at the trend to the rains ending a little later. The graph below pulls this together by comparing average monthly rainfall from 1977 to 1996 with that for 1997 to 2018. This illustrates the later shift of… Continue reading Highveld Rainy Season Shift
About 90% of international trade in goods is via shipping, involving over 100,000 commercial ships. The propulsion units rank among the world's most powerful machines (the Wartsila Sulzer RT-Flex 96 C has an output of approximately 80,000 KW or 108,900 BHP) yet few alternatives to fossil fuel burning have been widely introduced. On top of… Continue reading Shipping Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Possible Solutions
