“NASA should be at the forefront in the collection of scientific evidence and debunking the current hysteria over human-caused or Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). Unfortunately, it is becoming just another agency caught up in the politics of global warming or, worse, politicized science.”
-- Walter Cunningham
Astronaut, physicist and climate warrior Walter Cunningham passed away on January 3, 2023 at age 90. Mr. Cunningham is perhaps best known as America’s second civilian Astronaut. During eight years with NASA, he contributed to the design, development and testing of all the major operating systems of the Apollo spacecraft.In 1968, he orbited the earth 163 times as the pilot of Apollo 7--the first manned flight of the Apollo Program to land a man on the Moon. Apollo 7 is still the longest, most ambitious and most successful first flight of any manned vehicle. Following the Apollo 7 mission, he became Chief of the Skylab branch of the Astronaut Office.
Dear Readers: On November 29 I suffered a heart attack and had a quadruple bypass surgery. I am now on the mend and doing well. I appreciate the prayers of my wife, friends and am grateful for their support. Blessings to you all, Martin.
KLIMATE SCIENCE Part II
Solar energy delivered through the photovoltaic process is the predominate passive renewable energy. It converts solar radiation to electricity directly. Other “solar power” systems capture the radiation as heat that can be used directly or converted to electricity through a mechanical process to drive a generator. But the primary solar energy is in the form of photovoltaic solar panels arrayed in solar panel farms.
The other major form of renewable energy is a wind turbine driving an electrical generator. Wind turbines are not dependent on solar radiation but on areal differences in that radiation which creates wind. These differences are due to the rotation of the earth, the cloud cover and the albedo. Albedo is just the heat absorption of the earth’s surface. For example, snow cover reflects the solar radiation so that area stays cold. The air moves from the warm area to the cold area. That is the wind. That is a bit simplistic but fairly accurate. The ocean currents also move heat around so some areas are also warmer than others. There are other factors involved, but you get the idea.
Like solar panels, wind turbines must also be arrayed in wind farms but they require a much larger areal footprint than solar panel farms. The wind farms are typically in remote locations which will require a costly expansion of the electrical grid.
Both solar panels and wind turbines require massive amounts of materials, most of which are dependent on fossil fuels for mining and manufacturing. Many of these materials are being produced with slave labor and in environmentally unsound ways. Other more available materials such as cement, steel and aluminum require fossil fuels for production.
Solar panels and wind turbines are the “renewables” that are the source of political corruption, corporate greed and the pursuit by some governments for world domination.
Most solar panels are made in China. America’s attempt into solar panels, Solyndra, was plagued with corruption and corporate greed. The winners were China and Obama administration insiders and donors. The losers were American taxpayers. Today China has cornered the solar panel market and locked up the material resources to stay at the top. But they are not eliminating fossil fuels at all. They are building more coal plants than ever before.
Politicians, turned renewable lobbyists, have cashed in on subsidies for solar installers of Chinese panels, turbine blade and generator set manufacturers. Most of the blades and generator sets are made overseas. Utility companies are loading up on future unreliable renewable energy projects which will result in a German style energy poverty in America. They are even phasing out residential gas for cooking and heating.
We are subsidizing electric vehicles and proposing electric charging stations using taxpayer dollars which will lead to even more fraud, waste and corruption. All the time not answering the question—Where do we get electricity at night and when there is no wind and we have no fossil fuels?
Climate research funding from governments to the universities has been directed towards academics who maintain the false narrative that fossil fuels have an adverse impact on global temperature due to the greenhouse gas effect. While our use of fossil fuels is adding to the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, the very slight warming effect is beneficial to plants and animals. There is no climate catastrophe. But if a researcher does not follow the climate alarmist narrative, there will be no research funds.The most revealing discussion on this perversion was detailed in “POLITICS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: A History” by petrophysicist Andy May.
We will discuss Biofuels in Part III of KLIMATE SCIENCE.
Read through Astronaut Cunningham's excellent short essay -- Facts vs. Faith. . .here is a link:
https://authorzilla.com/dQzoV/global-warming-facts-versus-faith-walter-cunningham.html