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Bob Bingham Blog page.

A series of opinion pieces on, mostly climate change and related subjects to do with New Zealand.

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 Renewable energy to power our transport.

25/8/2015

7 Comments

 
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New Zealand's electricity companies, in common with those around the world. are on a plateaux of consumption caused by more efficient appliances and the big increase in solar panels. This trend has only just started and as the prices of solar panels falls it becomes much cheaper to make your own electricity.
This puts the power companies in a commercial dead end where chasing diminishing customers into a market of falling prices is not a good option.


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The big area of energy use that is untapped is transport and here New Zealand is miles behind the rest of the world as we only have 700 electric cars and a very small network of electric rail system in Auckland. 
At least forty years ago Europe started to modernise and electrify its rail system, as a method of separating heavy transport from domestic traffic and reduce road deaths and reduce congestion. It is also makes good economic sense as oil is mostly imported and electricity is mostly domestic energy. 
Oil is a diminishing resource with a volatile price and its cheap today but will be expensive in five years time and New Zealand has more than enough renewable energy to power the whole country without using oil or coal.
Fraser Whineray, CEO of Mighty River power, recognises this 
 Read Here. and it trying to do something about it but he is ploughing a lonely furrow in what should be a busy and crowded market.

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I believe that bold action is needed and it requires substantial investment to change the market. If two or three power companies joined together to buy the operating rights of a railway and converted it to run on electricity they could go into direct competition with road transport. We need a transport policy more like Europe where government's recognise the value of the rail system and put it on the same financial system as roads where improvement is considered an investment in infrastructure for sound economic reasons.
It takes years to convert a transport system and the sooner it is started the sooner the country will benefit.

7 Comments

Record July and the Gulf Stream

23/8/2015

3 Comments

 
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July 2015 was the hottest month since records began in 1880 which is a huge worry but within that there is an anomaly in the North Atlantic. 
The temperature map from NOAA shows a cool patch in the North Atlantic where the Gulf stream travels towards the UK.. 
Professor Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany says that the speed of the Gulf Stream has slowed by 15-20% and this is likely caused by the big increase in melt water coming from Greenland. This melt water has increased substantially recently and has reached 13,000 cubic kilometres between 1970 and 2000 and has likely increased since then. 
 Fresh water floats over the salty sea water and has the ability to stop the normal sinking of salt laden sea water  when the Gulf Stream reaches the Arctic region off Norway. 
Sudden changes in climate can have unforeseen outcomes which must be a worry for the UK

3 Comments

El Nino Weather for New Zealand.

17/8/2015

5 Comments

 
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Weather and climate watchers will know by now that we are in a very strong El Nino year and will be wondering what this means for local weather.
In most regions of New Zealand this means an increase in Westerly winds and as most of us live and farm on the East coast and are in the rain shadow of the Westerly mountains this increases the chance of drought. 

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The increased Westerlies in a classic El Nino year are caused by the combination of low pressure systems travelling to the South of us and a high to the North of us. 

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However for those of us who live in the very Far North of the North Island we may get a different set of weather. In our case we project into the Pacific region and with increased heat in the ocean the Hadley cell could extend further South and give us warmer and moister weather.                                                             It also puts us further into the cyclone region so, we are exposed to a greater risk of storms. Tropical storms are a very hit or miss affair, they either hit you or miss you. but for us the risk will likely be higher this summer. 

5 Comments

Massive cyclone heading for China.

6/8/2015

2 Comments

 
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In an El Nino year the Pacific is having a busy cyclone season and, as they track West, China and Japan are going to be targets. Cyclone Soudler is an exceptionally powerful category 5  storm currently in mid Pacific,  and is heading for China. Weather Underground.

These huge storms are an early test for sea level rise as much of the massive industrial complex around the Shanghai region is only one metre above sea level. If there was a direct hit by a super cyclone the storm surge would flood much of the region and cause massive economic damage that would effect the whole world.
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This map is from a sea level web site set at one metre and shows the small pockets of land which is below that level. This region has a population of over 24 million and the low land, which includes huge ports, industry and  productive farmland extends right up the coast.
2 Comments

    Bob Bingham 

    Occasional blog posts on topical news items concerning the climate.  Please click the RSS feed to receive updates.

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