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'Pause' in global warming was never real, new research proves
Claims of a 'pause' in observed global temperature warming are comprehensively disproved in a pair of new studies published today.
An international team of climate researchers reviewed existing data and studies and reanalysed them. They concluded there has never been a statistically significant 'pause' in global warming. This conclusion holds whether considering the `pause' as a change in the rate of warming in observations or as a mismatch in rate between observations and expectations from climate models.
[...] Dr. Risbey said: "Our findings show there is little or no statistical evidence for a 'pause' in GMST rise. Neither the current data nor the historical data support it. Moreover, updates to the GMST data through the period of 'pause' research have made this conclusion stronger. But, there was never enough evidence to reasonably draw any other conclusion.
"Global warming did not pause, but we need to understand how and why scientists came to believe it had, to avoid future episodes like this. The climate-research community's acceptance of a 'pause' in global warming caused confusion for the public and policy system about the pace and urgency of climate change.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday December 20 2018, @05:03PM (2 children)
But in that context it's worth noting that with current design we probably don't have enough resources to build enough solar cells. So it's going to need a different design, possibly based around carbon, or at least different doping compounds and different connections.
Of course, cheap energy would help, as part of the reason for lack of materials is that it's too expensive to refine low grade ores. But I can't see running a refining factory on locally sourced solar energy. Especially not one that's even more energy intensive than the current ones.
There are lots of other reasons to want controlled fusion. (For me one big one is space habitats out beyond the asteroids. But they'd need to be large enough to be considered towns to be practical, and the economics are a bit dubious...so it's going to take more than one technological change.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday December 20 2018, @09:35PM (1 child)
[Citation needed]
We may not have enough neodymium for high efficiency generators (or electrical motors for EV), but silicon is abundant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday December 21 2018, @04:05AM
This is a reference to an article that appeared here within the last week. I didn't read it for the details, but they're usually talking about one of the rare earths, which aren't really rare, but which most of the ores for are extremely low grade. I've seen it argued for indium, tellurium, various others. The argument is always economic at it's base, but that doesn't mean it isn't valid. So I didn't check the details of this one. (But the normal argument is why I put in the caveat about "with cheap enough energy we could refine lower grade ores".)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.