The EcoWho RSS News Feed

Sainsbury’s ditches brown eggs in net zero drive

Watts Up With That — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:00:00 +1000

The UK’s second-largest supermarket plans to sell only white-shell eggs in its own-brand cartons after studies found they have a lower carbon footprint than brown alternatives..

As several Telegraph commenters have pointed, if they want to cut emissions, why don’t Sainsbury’s stop importing fruit and veg from abroad?

Your car will get better gas mileage if you clean the bug splatter off the windshield.

We don t take government grants. We don t answer to institutional funders....

From Watts Up With That

Lawmakers Warn China May Be Fueling US Data Center Backlash as Local Bans Spread

Watts Up With That — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 11:00:00 +1000

Voters in a California city ban AI data center construction, plans for Utah data center shrinking over backlash, Seattle issues one-year prohibition on center construction..

In addition to some interesting developments in the Los Angeles primary — the results of which are yet to be completely determined — voters in the nearby city of Monterey Park had the chance to consider the fate of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in the region.

About 86 percent of voters in Monterey Park,...

From Watts Up With That

Glaciers have advanced and retreated before

Watts Up With That — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +1000

We constantly hear panic stories about glaciers melting, accompanied by hysterical voices calling out that retreating glaciers are a clear sign of human-induced global warming..

Much of this hysteria is driven by green activists and politicians who know just enough to be dangerous but not enough to be sensible.

Scientifically you can’t come to a conclusion, on the basis of a principle. You have to look at the real science and carry out correct measurements.

This is a complex subject,...

From Watts Up With That

Aussie Renewable Turning Point or Imminent Economic Contraction?

Watts Up With That — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 03:00:00 +1000

Aussie greens are celebrating a reduction in Aussie emissions as a green energy turning point. But other numbers tell a different story..

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions drop as renewable energy, batteries surge

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have dropped, showing signs of a turning point in the country’s most polluting sectors.

Emissions are at their lowest point since the COVID pandemic shut down the economy, dropping 2.1 per cent over the year to December...

From Watts Up With That

A Quiet Rewrite That Could Shape a Thousand Climate Cases

Watts Up With That — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 23:00:00 +1000

An under-the-radar legal switcheroo should concern every business leader, investor, and taxpayer in America. Now, 23 state attorneys general have taken notice and sent a letter to the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts that bolsters the efforts of three eminent scientists who sounded the alarm.

From Watts Up With That

Sunny Springs Linked to Warmer Weather

Watts Up With That — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 19:00:00 +1000

The daily max is strongly correlated, but there is also a weaker correlation with daily mins. There is no evidence, in other words, that clearer skies result in colder nights during spring..

As the Met Office also suggested, the extra sunshine could be linked to reduced air pollution.

Clearer skies are definitely colder up here in the north. I find it difficult to believe that a study can conclude such nonsense. Okay, some nights when it’s clear but also breezy from the south or SW...

From Watts Up With That

Germany’s Longterm Spring Climate Data Show “No Climate Trend”

Watts Up With That — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 15:00:00 +1000

To put it briefly: quite a bit of “fluctuation” with no clear trend. Interestingly, between 2005 and 2015 there was a slight upward “spike”: apparently by chance, there was a cluster of “wet May months”..

What can be seen in the temperatures is a ‘climate effect’, quite robust, although it has been stagnating in May for about 20 years, despite the record set in 2018. For spring as a whole, no trend stagnation is apparent.

With the best will in the world, nothing of the sort...

From Watts Up With That

Proposed OMB Rules Could Reshape How US Science Is Funded and Published

Watts Up With That — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 11:00:00 +1000

Laughably, unhappy scientists complain proposed grant system overhaul could politicize research funding — as if that weren’t already happening..

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is proposing major changes to the rules that govern how federal grants, cooperative agreements, and other financial assistance are managed across the government. The goals are to increase oversight of how taxpayer money is used, align awards with current law and administration policy, and reduce what OMB views...

From Watts Up With That

Getting into your comfort zone: easy steps to an electric, snug and sustainable abode

guardian.co.uk - Energy — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 10:00:13 +1000

Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint.

From guardian.co.uk - Energy

The Climate Scam Is Acknowledged. Americans Were Fed Lies, and Deserve to Be Compensated.

Watts Up With That — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +1000

The time is ripe for a serious accounting of the harm done to Americans by climate hysteria, considering how many mea culpas are now emerging. The latest to line up with at least some nod to truth and accuracy is the New York Times, the leading “mainstream” media proponent of climate change nonsense..

The Times last week produced a story headlined, “Why Scientists Retired the Dire Climate Scenario Used for Over a Decade.” The story reported that an international team of researchers has...

From Watts Up With That

The Craziest eco laws against Farmers. Let’s check that science…

Jo Nova — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 06:55:46 +1000

The Burnett River Catchment opens to the south of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

From Jo Nova

Are we getting to the point where it's safe to gene-edit babies?

New Scientist - Environment — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 06:11:08 +1000

A team in the US has reported promising results after using an improved form of CRISPR to gene-edit human embryos, but a major issue remains unsolved.

When a rogue researcher in China revealed in 2018 that he had used CRISPR to create three gene-edited children , his actions were almost universally condemned by biologists around the world. The main objection was not that gene-editing babies is wrong in itself, but that the CRISPR technique used was not safe and had a very high risk of causing...

From New Scientist - Environment

Quit Lying WPLN, Evidence Proves Black Bears Are Thriving, Not Threatened by Climate Change

Watts Up With That — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 04:00:00 +1000

Since modest warming over the past hasn’t made habitat and ecological conditions worse for bears in Tennessee, but rather has improved such conditions, contributing to a growing population, climate change can’t be “threatening” bear survival, as Eggers claims in her WPLN story..

Had Eggers not tried to drag climate change into her WPLN story about problems some Tennesseans are having with bears, she might have written a valuable and interesting story. She could have explained the dangers...

From Watts Up With That

Cuts to US ocean programme will hinder monitoring of El Niño and AMOC

New Scientist - Environment — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 03:16:15 +1000

Scientists warn that the Trump administration's push to dismantle a vital network of ocean-sensing instruments will stymie crucial weather and climate monitoring in the Pacific and Atlantic.

One of the Ocean Observatories Initiative’s mooring spheres being lifted out of the sea

In the winter of 2013-2014, the strong winds of the jet stream shifted north, allowing a mass of warm water dubbed “the blob” to swell across more than 1500 kilometres of the north Pacific Ocean.

Floating...

From New Scientist - Environment

Live at 1 PM ET: Europe Boils – The Climate Realism Show #204

Watts Up With That — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 02:40:00 +1000

Summer has arrived in Europe a little early this year and alarmists in the media say it’s unprecedented, dangerous, all because of climate change. But what if it is not our fault? What if it’s not all that unusual? We will sweat the details..

On Episode #203 of The Climate Realism Show, we will also cover some of the Crazy Climate News of the Week, including a comeback for coal power, bringing science back to court decisions, and wondering what Mr. Wizard would say about climate change today.

Join...

From Watts Up With That

Flood of AI 'garbage' is pushing open-source developers to the limit

New Scientist - Environment — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 01:21:45 +1000

The modern world depends on open-source software maintained by volunteers, but the added demands of checking and fixing AI-written submissions are causing some to burn out and quit.

A viral cartoon about open-source software shows a teetering pile of boxes labelled “all modern digital infrastructure” and one tiny box right at the bottom, propping up the whole lot: “a project some random person in Nebraska has been thanklessly maintaining since 2003”.

That’s...

From New Scientist - Environment

A chromosome from a frozen rat has been resurrected inside mice

New Scientist - Environment — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:52:40 +1000

Mice that contain cells with an added rat chromosome have been created by scientists. The next step is to try this with frozen elephant tissue – and if that works, the team will try it with frozen mammoths.

The de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences could be about to get leapfrogged. It might be possible to resurrect mammoth chromosomes in living cells after scientists transferred a chromosome from a rat that has been deep-frozen for more than a year into living mouse cells. They then...

From New Scientist - Environment

This is why I tried to buy the Edison Election Data

The Air Vent — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 23:06:50 +1000

California Democrats are rigging the election: the statistical probability of Spencer Pratt getting 0 out of 24,000 votes in last nights late night Los Angeles ballot drop is “1 in trillions”

They will not even answer an email.

From The Air Vent

‘EV Guy’ Crushed by His Readers (social media correction)

Watts Up With That — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 23:00:00 +1000

“The magical thinkers defending wind, solar, batteries, and EVs encounter immediate, blistering pushback from general observers who follow the pro-con arguments. ‘The EV guy’ could hardly respond to the flood of criticisms toward his half-baked arguments.”.

“This is incredible!” explained “the EV Guy” Steve Hutchings on social media (April 21, 2026). He stated in “Just how wasteful is fuel?”:

Most people think about what happens inside the engine… But the real waste...

From Watts Up With That

The maths meme that has been distracting mathematicians for a century

New Scientist - Environment — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 19:00:46 +1000

A seemingly simple set of rules kicks off a kind of mathematical magic trick, which has kept great minds busy since the 1930s. Columnist Jacob Aron explores the origins of the Collatz conjecture, why it is so addictive to mathematicians and whether AI could help us solve it once and for all.

From New Scientist - Environment

The Justification for Net Zero Has Vanished with the Demise of RCP8.5

Watts Up With That — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 19:00:00 +1000

Any justification for Ed Miliband’s Net Zero climate policy, whether real or imaginary, has vanished with the official abandonment by the IPCC of the scariest concentration scenario RCP8.5. Even Tony Blair can now perceive that the pursuit of Net Zero is unwarranted and harmful to Britain..

It’s now 20 years since the publication of the ‘ Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change ‘ in 2006: a review commissioned by Gordon Brown, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a Labour government...

From Watts Up With That

A Tale of Two Types of States: Those with Dumb Energy Laws, and Those with Smart Laws

Watts Up With That — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 15:00:00 +1000

“It was the best of energy policies; it was the worst of energy policies” – Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. (Apocryphal).

Higher electricity prices and a lack of cheap energy are in the news. Even before the start of the Iran war, consumers over the winter of 2025-2026 experienced some of the highest energy prices on record, especially electricity consumers in the Northeast and New England.

A recent report by the American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC, America’s...

From Watts Up With That

Scramble for biofuel as oil prices rise ‘could push world closer to food crisis’

guardian.co.uk - Energy — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 14:00:26 +1000

Experts say increased use of crops for fuel is ‘dangerous game’ that could send food price inflation soaring.

Demand for biofuels is likely to leap by nearly a third this year, which could send food price inflation soaring further and push the world closer to a global food crisis .

More countries are opting to increase biofuel use as the price of oil has jumped to nearly $100 a barrel after the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and the closure of the strait of Hormuz.

The US, Indonesia,...

From guardian.co.uk - Energy

Climate Fact-Check May 2026

Watts Up With That — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 11:00:00 +1000

Debunking claims of climate causing ‘less healthy’ food – Melting ice will NOT ‘drown millions’ – Droughts NOT caused by fossil fuels – Earth is NOT spinning slower due to climate change!...

From Watts Up With That

Oh No, We’re All Dead – According to a 2016 Climate Mass Extinction Prediction

Watts Up With That — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +1000

Are failed climate doomsday prophecies are coming home to roost?.

Back in 2016, Professor Guy McPherson predicted we’d all be dead in the next decade.

Since then most of us have quite plainly not died, and even Michael Mann has been forced to downgrade his doomsday prophecies.

Democrats and globalists are abandoning climate doomsday predictions and embracing the new scare, artificial intelligence.

The inventor of the Gaea hypothesis James Lovelock recanted...

From Watts Up With That

Trump uses wartime powers to dole out $700m to ‘clean, beautiful’ coal

guardian.co.uk - Energy — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 06:22:10 +1000

US president announces plans for two new coal plants, in Alaska and West Virginia, using Defense Production Act.

Donald Trump is using wartime presidential authority to hand $700m to coal-fired power plants in the US, the latest move by the president to bolster what he called “clean, beautiful coal”, despite it being the dirtiest of fossil fuels.

“Today, we’re taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean,...

From guardian.co.uk - Energy

China cooks the carbon accounting books by 400 million tons

Jo Nova — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 04:56:04 +1000

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash By Jo Nova We’re facing the sixth mass extinction but carbon accounting games are a performance art and almost no one cares that the largest emitter on Earth has gaping holes in their numbers...

From Jo Nova

Becoming a parent may make you love your partner less

New Scientist - Environment — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 03:00:21 +1000

Parents report loving their partners less within the first year of having a child, but that doesn't mean the feeling is permanent or inevitable.

It may feel like the exhaustion of caring for a newborn leaves little room for romance. Now, researchers have found that people really do seem to love their partner less in the first year of parenthood – but there are ways to buffer against this.

Prior studies suggest that relationship satisfaction tends to decline in the two years after having...

From New Scientist - Environment

More Sun, Less Sun

Watts Up With That — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 03:00:00 +1000

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach (@WEschenbach on X, my personal blog is here.) Well, I had some further insights and questions about the issue of sunshine hours that I discussed….

Well, I had some further insights and questions about the issue of sunshine hours that I discussed in my last post , but as is far too common on my planet, along the way I got seriously side-tractored, all the way over to the question of the atmospheric window.

And what is the atmospheric window when it’s...

From Watts Up With That

Mysterious ‘cold blob’ in the Atlantic suggests the AMOC is weakening

New Scientist - Environment — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 01:00:15 +1000

A patch of ocean south-east of Greenland is the only place on Earth that is cooling, and it could be a sign that the warm water "conveyor belt" in the Atlantic is slowing down.

The “cold blob” appears in a data visualisation showing average temperatures in 2015, relative to the 1951-80 average

Over the past 150 years, Earth’s entire surface has been warming, except for one patch of the north Atlantic. Located south-east of Greenland, this area has cooled by as much as 1°C...

From New Scientist - Environment

Wrong, Daily Mail, The Thwaites Glacier Isn’t About to ‘COLLAPSE’

Watts Up With That — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 23:00:00 +1000

The DM’s tone implies the inevitability of collapse. But that's wrong..

The Daily Mail (DM) claims in “ Is Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier about to COLLAPSE? ” that the Thwaites Glacier could lose its ice shelf “this year” with “devastating consequences” for global sea levels. This is false. The article’s claims rely on worst-case modeling scenarios while ignoring measured data, physical scale, and the substantial uncertainty surrounding projections.

The DM article warns...

From Watts Up With That

How Rachel Carson's Silent Spring changed the world in 1962

New Scientist - Environment — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 22:00:58 +1000

Rachel Carson’s look at the dire effects of industrial and agricultural pollution birthed the modern environmental movement when it was first published – and remains as crucial a read today, finds Rowan Hooper...

From New Scientist - Environment

Stonehenge's altar stone probably wasn't transported by a glacier

New Scientist - Environment — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 19:00:04 +1000

A glacier could have carried the giant sandstone at the centre of Stonehenge southwards from north-east Scotland, but this scenario appears unlikely.

Researchers investigating the origins of Stonehenge’s enigmatic altar stone say it is possible that the 6-tonne rock was carried southwards from Scotland by a glacier – but this hypothesis relies on an unlikely series of events, making it more likely that humans transported it.

The 5-metre-long monolith, which is partially buried and overlain...

From New Scientist - Environment

NOAA Bets on AI to Translate Weather Warnings—But Can Machines Reliably Convey Life-and-Death Messages?

Watts Up With That — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 19:00:00 +1000

A new study celebrates artificial intelligence for translating National Weather Service forecasts into multiple languages, claiming accuracy above 95 percent and dramatically faster turnaround times. Yet the history of weather communication shows that translation failures often stem from culture, context, and human interpretation—areas where AI still faces significant challenges.

From Watts Up With That

‘Happiness is not just about GDP’: ambitious plan or utopia?

guardian.co.uk - Energy — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:28:10 +1000

Some will question its credibility – but the alternative future to the one imagined in the World Justice Report is far more bleak.

‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival

In our increasingly dystopian world, who wouldn’t want to at least be open to a utopian antidote? The World Justice Report, published on Thursday, outlines how to build a prosperous, equitable world within safe planetary boundaries. It’s a push from...

From guardian.co.uk - Energy

Germany’s Die Welt: “Too Much Is Too Much” … Green Energies Are Cannabalizing Each Other!

Watts Up With That — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 15:00:00 +1000

Daniel Wetzel in Die Welt (paid article) on a phenomenon: more and more plants are being put into operation, but the yield does not increase to the same extent..

However, the article also demonstrates very well that the thesis that wind and solar complement each other perfectly is flawed. The sunny holiday weekends in the spring of 2026 clearly showed that wind power has to be curtailed because millions of solar systems are pushing their electricity into the grid unregulated. Wetzel calls it...

From Watts Up With That

‘Waste colonialism’: Fiji says no to Australian billionaire’s incineration plan

guardian.co.uk - Energy — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:53:22 +1000

Government rejects offshore rubbish being shipped to Fiji and burned after opposition from traditional landowners and tourism operators.

The Fijian government has rejected a plan by an Australian billionaire to burn rubbish for energy in Fiji after backlash from traditional landowners and tourism operators.

The plan to ship non-recyclable rubbish from across the region to Fiji , popular with tourists for its pristine beaches, and build an incinerator to consume 900,000 tonnes of waste...

From guardian.co.uk - Energy

Wyoming Golden Eagles should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act

Watts Up With That — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 11:00:00 +1000

Incredibly, Golden Eagle numbers in Wyoming have declined by nearly a third over the past 20 years according to Teton Raptor Center conservation director, Bryan Bedrosian. This precipitous population drop is clearly serious and must be stopped. Wyoming is America’s Golden Eagle population center, so what happens there potentially affects us all.

From Watts Up With That

UAH v6.1 Global Temperature Update for May, 2026: +0.53 deg. C

Watts Up With That — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +1000

The Version 6.1 global average lower tropospheric temperature (LT) anomaly for May, 2026 was +0.53 deg. C departure from the 1991-2020 mean, which is up from the April, 2026 value of +0.39 deg. C...

The Version 6.1 global area-averaged linear temperature trend (January 1979 through May 2026) remains at +0.16 deg/ C/decade (+0.22 C/decade over land, +0.13 C/decade over oceans).

A Note on These Tropospheric Temperature Anomalies vs. Surface Temperature Anomalies

The following table...

From Watts Up With That

The Wind Power Puzzle (add more wind turbines and get the same output)

Jo Nova — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 05:45:04 +1000

by Lieven By Jo Nova The bottomless pit of public spending strikes again Germany added 14 gigawatts of wind power in the last 5 years, however the total amount of electricity produced is still around 106 Terawatt hours...

From Jo Nova

In first, California city overwhelmingly votes to permanently ban datacenters

guardian.co.uk - Energy — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 05:40:36 +1000

While many US city councils have passed moratoriums, Monterey Park is first where residents have voted on a ban.

Residents in Monterey Park, California , became the first in the US to vote on a permanent ban on datacenters on Tuesday, and early results indicate a resounding victory for the prohibition.

While many cities and counties have already passed temporary or indefinite moratoriums via their local governments, Monterey Park would be the first to do so through a ballot initiative.

The...

From guardian.co.uk - Energy

The looming El Niño could be bad – but much worse is to come

New Scientist - Environment — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 04:00:37 +1000

Global warming will amplify the impacts of El Ni o events, and could also make them much stronger and more far-reaching.

From New Scientist - Environment

Escher: The paradoxical artist beloved by mathematicians

New Scientist - Environment — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 04:00:32 +1000

A new retrospective of M.C. Escher’s work opens this week. Explore some of his most mind-bending, mathematically inspired works here.

From New Scientist - Environment

New Scientist recommends a deep dive into our organs by Giulia Enders

New Scientist - Environment — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 04:00:00 +1000

Giulia Enders made her name with Gut, an exploration of our intestines. Now, in the compelling follow-up Organ Speak, she’s listening to what our other organs are telling us.

Work, home, politics, TV sagas, juicy celebrity gossip – who doesn’t get caught up in the drama of everyday life?

But there may be an equally compelling and fascinating story unfolding every second of every day inside the squishy bodies doing all that living.

There, our organs do the quiet yet incredible...

From New Scientist - Environment

Australia’s battery-powered revolution: inside the 5 June Guardian Weekly

guardian.co.uk - Energy — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 03:00:11 +1000

How to change the energy market from within. Plus: Is Iran Trump’s Vietnam?.

Last week, as the war in Iran continued to choke global oil supplies, the UK government announced a 13% increase in the cap on energy prices. But it was another related story on the other side of the world that caught my eye.

In Australia, the energy minister announced a fall of up to 10% in the benchmark electricity price in parts of the country, driven by record levels of renewables and batteries in the power...

From guardian.co.uk - Energy

China Rejects Accusations of Cooking the Books on Carbon Emissions

Watts Up With That — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 03:00:00 +1000

Apparently disappearing half of China’s emissions has a perfectly reasonable explanation – and Western nations should look at their own carbon accounting practices. .

From Watts Up With That

CERN’s new chief on the gamble that could fix our picture of reality

New Scientist - Environment — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 02:00:58 +1000

Mark Thomson has taken the reins at CERN just as particle physics confronts some of its deepest unknowns – and faces hard choices about what comes next.

When Mark Thomson was 13, he read a book about the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, a particle physics lab whose remit was to interrogate the fabric of reality. The book left him both fascinated by how the universe worked and frustrated by its lack of detail. More than 40 years later, Thomson is CERN’s director...

From New Scientist - Environment

Earth has a mysterious triple symmetry that may influence its climate

New Scientist - Environment — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 02:00:31 +1000

A circle running along the 27° east and 153° west meridians divides the globe into two halves with equal reflectivity – and this may have implications for solar geoengineering schemes.

The 27° east meridian, running through Europe and Africa, divides Earth into two equally reflective halves

A line that runs through Africa, Europe, Alaska and both poles divides Earth into two halves that reflect the same amount of light – and this newly discovered symmetry may play a critical role...

From New Scientist - Environment

Ditch the niceties in AI prompts to save energy use, say researchers

New Scientist - Environment — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 01:00:16 +1000

A UN report warns of the rapid growth in AI energy consumption, but suggests users can improve efficiency by making prompts more concise.

UN researchers are urging people to be less polite to artificial intelligences after a report found that cutting words from prompts could reduce ChatGPT’s energy consumption by up to 25 per cent.

Removing “please”, “thank you” and other unnecessary words from AI prompts could save 87 to 98 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year, the report from...

From New Scientist - Environment

Are Lithium Ion Batteries Safe?

ecowho.com — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 21:25:28 +1100

We ask if Lithium Ion Batteries are actually safe for use in home power storage systems or not?

Lithium Ion batteries, like all batteries, store their power using a chemical process. Different processes have different energy densities and characteristics, like sensitivity to heat and longer term usable storage capacity (most batteries degrade over time).
The particular question with Lithium Ion and their safety, in part, relates to their incredibly high energy density; a high energy density means there is a lot of 'chemical potential' stored in a given volume. In essence there is more energy in a Lithium Ion battery to go wrong 'with' if something does happen to go wrong. Also Lithium Ion has a nasty characteristic of being able to self sustain a fire event, it literally can feed off itself. For instance on some planes with Lithium Ion backup batteries, they actually have a 'vent' to the outside, so if they do happen to catch fire all the heat and fumes go outside..
Now, if we were to just install basic Lithium Ion batteries in our homes without appropriate safe guards, we would be setting ourselves up for a disaster. Luckily though manufacturers of Lithium Ion batteries for home use have worked hard to put in place multiple design safe guards to prevent 'run away' fire situations occurring, they do this by:

Physical Design - making the battery robust and secure
Monitoring - checking temperature and battery vitals to ensure it does not overcharge
Installation Procedures - ensuring it isn't installed in places where it could be a problem.

So, Lithium Ion batteries have the 'potential' to catch fire; but the actual risk of them doing so has been reduced through design and processes to actually make it not a significant worry.
...

Solar Batteries Comparison Table is Live

ecowho.com — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 08:32:18 +1100

The new solar batteries Comparison Table is now live.

After much hard work, the Solar Batteries Comparison Table is now live.
This lists the most common batteries for use with solar panels (or time shifting) with the ability to sort, them got into a detailed page on each battery, so you can easily select which batteries are of interest to you.
These battery pages are fully incorporated into the site, so you will find references to them all over the site where appropriate.
We will also be adding more functionality to the database over time to make the pages more useful, so please keep coming back.
If you did find the pages useful, please remember to Like the pages for us!
Enjoy!

BTW If you are a supplier or manufacturer of a battery and find something wrong, please do get in touch and we will correct. Also, we would appreciate it if you would point us to the following up to date information for your battery:

White background media ready images of your battery.
Fully detailed technical specifications.
Specific description of the warranty and any conditions.

This way we can ensure people are evaluating your batteries based on the most up to date information.

2016 February temperature uptick caused by El Niño

ecowho.com — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 20:39:36 +1100

The AGW alarmists seem to think the Feb 2016 sudden uptick in temperature is caused by Co2, this is not the case, its a strong El Niño - as it matches what has happened before.

Given the current screaming and shouting going on in the media with respect to the February 2016 temperature increase in the GISS Land-Ocean Temperature Index, you would be forgiven for thinking the end is nigh - well it isn't. This has happened before and we survived without issue - its called a strong El Niño.

This can be proven to be nothing unusual in the cycle by the following two charts:

The above chart shows the changes differences one month from the next, as can be seen by the red line, the February jump is nothing odd.

Now the above charts show how this El Niño compares to the previous one in 1997/1998 - looks pretty similar doesn't it? Now if you take into account the uncertainties (error bars), and mentally put a +/- band of 0.17 degrees around each line plot - they overlap each other considerably - thereby they are statistically similar...
...

Must watch video about the Green movement and environmental damage

ecowho.com — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 21:26:41 +1100

This video exposes the gross hypocrisy of the Green movement and the damage their policies are causing to the environment and peoples standard of living - their are effectively anti-people and dangerous.

BLUE (Blue Beats Green) Full Movie HD from JD King on Vimeo.

The above video was funded by a crowd funded campaign, it talks to many people negatively effected by the Green movement and provides evidence of the environmental damage caused. Anybody who has an interest in a better future for themselves, their offspring and the planet should watch this video.

The Australian Carbon tax is no more

ecowho.com — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:04:36 +1000

Yesterday in the Senate the Carbon Tax was removed. This was a great victory for common sense as concerns realistic environmental policy.

The Carbon Tax in Australia is gone - hurrah!
Now, you may think this is somewhat a strange statement to find on an environmental website, but this is actually good news. The Carbon Tax, in its construction and operation, was actually more about money moving around for political gain than actually about doing anything to 'save' the environment.
Australia, in terms of 'carbon footprint' is a minor player on the international stage; China dwarfs us in its Co2 emissions and does so burning coal Australia supplies - anybody detect a hint of hypocrisy here? Our political class seemed perfectly happy to place an additional tax burden in our businesses and indirectly on the public - yet were perfectly happy to let Co2 producing coal go overseas to China?
Anyway its gone and good riddance. Hopefully this might lead to more enlightened policy decisions with respect to the environment and the real issues that impact Australia. For instance:

Water availability and supply;
Land degradation;
Energy usage efficiency.

I'm a firm believer that environmental policy needs to based on rational, realistic and hard science based logic. Of late we have had too much 'knee jerk/follow the leader' policy and too little analytical thinking. It's time to change the game for the benefit of all.

Dueling Climate Reports

ecowho.com — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 09:13:45 +1000

In the interests of free speech I'm reposting this article so it gets better exposure.

Guest essay by Dr. Craig D. Idso

The release of a United Nations (UN) climate change report last week energized various politicians and environmental activists, who issued a new round of calls to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Some of the most fiery language in this regard came from Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who called upon Congress to “wake up and do everything in its power to reduce dangerous carbon pollution,” while Secretary of State John Kerry expressed similar sentiments in a State Department release, claiming that “unless we act dramatically and quickly, science tells us our climate and our way of life are literally in jeopardy.”

Really? Is Earth’s climate so fragile that both it and our way of life are in jeopardy because of rising carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions?

In a word, no! The human impact on global climate is small; and any warming that may occur as a result of anthropogenic CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions is likely to have little effect on either Earth’s climate or biosphere, according to the recently-released contrasting report Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts, which was produced by the independent Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC).

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Second hand building materials

ecowho.com — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 22:53:46 +1100

Second hand building materials offer an excellent way to reduce environmental impact, we show you how.

Houses and buildings are constantly being demolished and rebuilt all the time. This creates a large amount of second hand building materials, that with a bit of careful planning and thinking can be used to not only reduce environmental impact but reduce the costs of a build as well.

1. Know what can reuse and what you cannot

Some materials from old building are not suitable for reuse, either due to legislation or known health effects. Asbestos is the best know of these, but there are a whole range of 'old' building materials which cannot be used. We suggest if in doubt do not use.

2. Prepare to be flexible

If you are buying second hand, its unlikely you will exactly what you need. So do not wait around for the perfect door or window, rather have a minimal set of requirements and shop to those. This will also make searching for such materials easier online.

3. Take your time

You need to plan to make use of second hand building materials; it won't all come together over night. Plus you carry the responsibility to locate and move anything you find, this all takes time to plan.

4. Have somewhere to store it

Yes, you can store what you buy on your building site, although unless you are regularly onsite and have secure storage - its not ideal. Plus this rather limits your ability to store smaller but higher value items (think door and window fittings, lights, etc).
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Climate Council, represents who?

ecowho.com — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 21:03:58 +1000

The Climate Commission is being reformed as the Climate Council, we ask who do they represent and what is their funding model?

According to this article Tim Flannery is reforming the Climate Commission as the Climate Council. The new Climate Council will consist of Commissioners from the old Climate Commission.
They need to be very careful in setting this up, as it could just been seen as an attempt to reuse the 'authority' of the old Climate Commission to continue the same messaging as they did before; which they cannot do, as they no longer have the 'platform' of being a government funded body; i.e. they have to now prove independence and transparency, it cannot be just assumed to be so.
For instance in this article:
'Professor Will Steffen said one of the first orders of business for the not-for-profit Council will be assessing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) fifth assessment report, due for release on Friday.

"We will do the very best we can to pull out the main points to this report and make it understandable to the Australian public," Prof Steffen told AAP, adding that he and colleagues hoped to produce a summary document within days of the release.'

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Rise of the Eco Warriors Screening

ecowho.com — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 06:30:19 +1000

Rise of the Eco Warriors is a film about spending 100 days in the Borneo jungle and saving wildlife

If you are in Sydney and looking for something to do come the 9th of October 2013 - you couldn't go far wrong by going to see an advance screening of 'Rise of the Eco Warriors' - a film about a group of people spending 100 days in the Borneo jungle and saving wildlife effected by the all habit destruction occurring in that country.

See here for more details and on how to book.

Fringe Benefits Car tax change bad for the environment

ecowho.com — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 05:45:23 +1000

The changes proposed by Labor to the fringe benefits car tax will be bad for the environment actually.

Changes in the fringe benefits tax proposed by Labor will remove the statutory rate; this means for abut 320,000 people they will have to keep log books and loose the ability to salary sacrifice against the benefit of having a company car - essentially making it uneconomical to 'share' the use of one car between a company and private usage.

So why is this bad for the environment? Well, cars these days for most families are essential to getting around. Removing the advantage for a company car to be used for private usage is forcing people to make a choice between having no car or buying another (cheaper) car. This is bad news for the environment, as it forces people into using two vehicles when they wouldn't otherwise need to.

It's also bad for the local car industry, as a lot of new lease hire cars will no longer be needed, the public rarely buys new cars and the manufacturers know this. This is turn is bad for the environment, as vehicles which are less efficient and clean are kept on the road for longer.
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Solar Power Installers, what to look for..

ecowho.com — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 07:11:14 +1100

When looking for a solar power installer, it pays to do your homework and double check that you are getting the best.

Given the money to be made from doing solar system installation, both for the installer and the final client. There are a lot of businesses doing solar power system installation. This, of course, means that some are better than others and some are rather worse than others.

So, given you want to have a system which will last for at least 20 years ideally, we provide some straight forward advice on how to find the best at a price point that works for you.

1. Shop around installers

Do not go with the first company you come across. As with most things in life, it will pay dividends to shop around. Not only will you get a better idea of what the price ranges and differences are between the systems being installed; you will also educate yourself on what goes into these system far quicker than just going with the first you find.

BTW you won't go far wrong read some of our articles in solar power anyways, plus they are free..

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Choosing a water tank

ecowho.com — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:38:16 +1100

Water tanks, they come in so many different sizes and forms, it is often hard to work out what to choose and why, we can help..

A few years back we were having a reno done, and given we wanted to have a 'lush' garden without the water bill to match; we did some extensive research into what sort of water tanks would work for us and how to maximize the rainwater harvesting our roof would offer.

Well I have good news for you, all the research has been written up in an article - The Facts about Water Tanks . I hope you find it a useful read that will really focus your thinking on what you can do with a water tank or two..

Free Green Business Listings

ecowho.com — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:33:39 +1100

If you are running a Green or Eco Business, you can list it for free.

If you are running a business which is green or eco related, you can list it for free in our Company Listings Directory . This is great if you are a small business looking for additional online exposure.

Also if you provide a link back to ecowho.com, we will upgrade your listing for free.

So, you have nothing to lose, give it a try!

Shale Oil in South Australia, problem or opportunity?

ecowho.com — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:39:48 +1100

Potentially massive amounts of shale oil exist in South Australia, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

According to this article it looks like up to 233 billion barrels of oil might be sitting in shale deposits under South Australia...

Now if that is so, and it looks like it could indeed be, it amounts to a heck of a lot of oil, something to rival the oil rich Middle East. Which in turn equates to billions upon trillions of money to be made from extracting this.

So given the many zeroes sums of money to be made from this - I doubt even the political Green movement will be able to 'bury' this. Sometimes the rewards can be so great to 'leap' over any obstacles, and I think this clearly qualifies on that regard.

Now, of course, if this is going to happen, one wants to see the best outcome for the environment and given the monetary return it should indeed be possible to extract the oil whilst doing proper environmental protection.
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Sea level rise of 1 meter in Australia unproven

ecowho.com — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 23:18:12 +1100

The ABC is currently saying that properties on the Australian coast are at risk for a 1 meter rise by the end of the century - where is the proof???

The ABC are currently promoting a blatant lie as concerns proven sea level rises.

The problem with this is that what they say will impact on the property market close to the sea, in the same way that a Greenie fraudulently issued a press release, they are in serious danger of making those who issue or present such false statements legally liable.

As regards the 'threat' of rising sea levels - to rise one meter by the end of the century would require 11.5mm per year. Yet if one looks at the current rate of sea level rise, as recorded since 1850 we get the following graph.

As can be seen, there has been no acceleration on this record since 1850. In fact we would need the rate of sea level rise to be eight times faster than it currently is; i.e. in reality we have a rate of sea level rise of about 9cm per 100 years - a darn sight less than 1 meter. For more information on this read this article .
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Tasmania Bushfires, lack of hazard reduction burns to blame

ecowho.com — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 00:13:40 +1100

The Tasmania Bushfires are more a result of a lack of hazard reduction burns and not due to Climate Change.

Miranda Devine has just published an article concerning the fires in Tasmania and how the lack of back burning and hazard reduction burns have in fact contributed massively to the intensity of the fires and that it is NOT caused by climate change.

She has also done a radio interview on the matter.

To be honest, what she says make a lot of sense. If gum leaves, bark, etc are left to accumulate you quickly have a 'fuel load' so high that it is not possible to be managed in the event of a fire. As someone who has pile burnt leaves, sticks, etc to keep my place tidy, there is a very clear reason why you do not pile it all up too high, rather than being a controllable fire it soon turns into an absolute fireball of intense heat. All those oils in the wood create a 'perfect storm' of conditions in high fuel load to create something that is uncontrollable.
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Mental Maths app Maths Bug updated

ecowho.com — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 05:27:10 +1100

Maths bug, the app to help teach and improve mental maths skills has been updated.

Maths Bug has been updated as follows:

Several annoying bug fixes
Support for latest version of Android OS
Localized into Chinese and Spanish.

This is a significant update to help users across the globe get more enjoyment from the app.

Its available for free from the Google Play Market here . If you would like to learn more please visit the apps' website .

Enjoy!

Updated Green Directory

ecowho.com — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:21:48 +1100

Our Green Dictionary App has undergone an upgrade.

We have just finished doing some upgrade work to the Green Dictionary App as follows:

Well over 800 definitions and terms covering the green, eco, environment and climate space;
Better support for tablets and latest edition Android (including Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean).
'Live' fetching of related blog posts for each definition, so for instance look up 'solar power' and see the latest blog posts that relate from leading eco, climate and science blogs.

If you have not got the App already you can download it from free from the Google Play market here . Give it a go!

Greenland Ice Sheet Melt

ecowho.com — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:00:45 +1100

We look at reports regarding the rate of Greenland ice sheet melt.

According to recent reports (see CNN & The Australian) it appears that the speed of the Greenland ice melt has been increasing at an 'alarming' rate...

The trouble with this is that this is only a problem if:

The measurements are indeed accurate enough to allow this analysis to stand, and,
The melt water remains as melt water and is not taken up by other parts of the climatic system (i.e. it gets converted back to ice somewhere else) and remains in balance as a whole.

Now, look at the following:

Embracing Data 'Noise' Brings Greenland's Complex Ice Melt Into Focus

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Straw man science: keeping climate simple; watch the pea..

ecowho.com — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 02:57:10 +1100

The conversation has just published a rather incorrect article claiming that none of the human produced Co2 is absorbed by the natural Co2 cycle, we blow it out the water.

See the offending article here , to quote:

"We produce a modest percentage of all CO2 emissions. But the extra emissions aren’t absorbed by the carbon cycle, so CO2 builds up in the air. A small rise each year has resulted in a 40% increase of CO2."

Wrong, yes Co2 has gone up, but it has been going up for the last 50m years, see here. Although, as noted in the paper, working out the exact source of Co2 and its relationship is very hard to do, as each source does not have a distinct Co2 'fingerprint' - rather there is a lot of overlap as different sources and sinks inject and consume different isotopes of Co2 in different ways.

As for the extra Co2 emissions from man not being consumed in the carbon cycle, it is well know that Co2 is growth promoter in plants. So much so that commercial operations growing plants often inject Co2 into their greenhouses to speed growth. Also it is known that the biosphere is blooming, and that the African Savannah's are turning into forests.
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