Wind Turbine Terror: Spanish Home Hit by Flying Blade – Just 1 of 3,800 Blade ‘Fails’ Every Year

STOP THESE THINGS

Bid for blade ‘freedom’ in Germany ….

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The number of cases involving collapsing turbines and flying blades (aka “component liberation”) has become so common that, if we were a tad cynical, we would go so far to suggest the possibility of some kind of pattern, along the lines proffered by Mr Bond’s nemesis, Goldfinger: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times it’s enemy action”.

Dutch dash for liberty …

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Turbines have been crashing back to earth in frightening numbers – from Brazil – to Kansas – Pennsylvania – Germany and Scotland – Devon and everywhere in between: Ireland has been ‘luckier’ than most (see our posts here and here) and their luck is being enjoyed in Sweden too (see our posts here and here).

Then there’s the wild habit of these little ‘eco-friendlies’ unshackling their 10 tonne blades, and chucking them for miles in all…

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Wind Turbine Terror: Collapses & Spontaneous Combustion

STOP THESE THINGS

Gravity at work, Fintona County Tyrone, Ireland.

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The number of cases involving collapsing turbines and flying blades (aka “component liberation”) has become so common that, if we were a tad cynical, we would go so far to suggest the possibility of some kind of pattern, along the lines proffered by Mr Bond’s nemesis, Goldfinger: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times it’s enemy action”.

Turbines keep crashing back to earth in frightening numbers – from Brazil – to Kansas – Pennsylvania – Germany and Scotland – Devon and everywhere in between: Ireland has been ‘luckier’ than most (see our posts here and here) and their luck is being enjoyed in Sweden too (see our post here).

A couple of months back, Swedes had the pleasure of waking up to the sound of a vertically-challenged 290 tonne, whirling Danish Dervish splattering itself across a country road, fortunately…

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Ocean bacteria are programmed to alter climate gases

Watts Up With That?

CORVALLIS, Ore. – SAR11, the most abundant plankton in the world’s oceans, are pumping out massive amounts of two sulfur gases that play important roles in the Earth’s atmosphere, researchers announced today in the journal Nature Microbiology.

“Everyone knows these gases by their smells”, said Steve Giovannoni, a distinguished professor of microbiology in the College of Science at Oregon State University, and corresponding author of the study.

“One of these compounds – dimethylsulfide, or DMS – we recognize as the smell of the sea. The other gas – methanethiol – makes us think of leaking gas lines. In the atmosphere dimethylsulfide oxidizes to sulfuric acid, which some scientists think can seed cloud formation and alter heating of the Earth.”

What is most interesting, the scientists said, is that the newly discovered metabolic circuit is hardwired into cells. Normally, cells turn genes on and off, as they are needed, but…

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“Five Pacific islands vanish from sight as sea levels rise.” Part Deux: The Erosion Strikes Back

Watts Up With That?

Guest post by David Middleton

Featured image borrowed from USGS.

As promised, here is the sequel to “Five Pacific islands vanish from sight as sea levels rise.”  The thoroughly ridiculous New Scientist article is based on this paper:

Simon Albert, Javier X Leon, Alistair R Grinham, John A Church, Badin R Gibbes and Colin D Woodroffe.  Interactions between sea-level rise and wave exposure on reef island dynamics in the Solomon Islands.  Environmental Research Letters, Volume 11, Number 5.  Published 6 May 2016. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/5/054011.

Apart from some obligatory babbling about IPCC sea level rise projections, the paper is actually very good.

At least eleven islands across the northern Solomon Islands have either totally disappeared over recent decades or are currently experiencing severe erosion. However, islands in the more sheltered Roviana area of the southern Solomon Islands did not experience significant coastal recession.

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