John Dunton-Downer

Filmmaker, ex-democrat, curious about how power protects itself. Currently convinced that the larger the state, the smaller, more controllable the citizen.

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

Thank you, @peterDClack, for your eloquent and concise, dense summation.

[Peter Clack @PeterDClack]

Wind and solar aren't the future - they are a high-maintenance, low-yield, asset-degrading collection of unreliable gadgetry.

Ultimately, the actual physics makes them exceptionally intermittent and they fail to deliver a true net profit to everyone who was forced to subsidise them. We are told wind and solar are the limitless, romantic future of energy. But when you strip away the romance, they are not pristine monuments to progress.

The reality is, they are complex jumbles of electronics, specialised glass, composite blades and concrete foundations. Like any domestic appliance, they degrade, malfunction and eventually they just wear out, sooner rather than later.

Whether it is a 'minor rural block' or a massive multi-million-dollar commercial farm, the financial equation is plagued by intermittency. Because these technologies only work sometimes, they require trillions in redundant grid infrastructure, backup gas plants, or toxic, short-lived battery arrays just to keep the lights on.

The narrative promises clean, free power from the sky. But both wind and solar are bound by physical barriers that guarantee they can never deliver the promised utopian returns.

A wind turbine cannot simply absorb all the energy passing through it. In 1919, physicist Albert Betz proved that if a turbine extracted 100% of the wind’s kinetic energy, the air behind the blades would stop moving entirely, blocking any new wind from entering. The absolute mathematical maximum efficiency for any open-airflow turbine is 59.3%.

Because of this physical wall, real-world utility turbines max out at around 45% efficiency in perfect conditions. But because the wind rarely blows at perfect speeds, their actual annual average output (capacity factor) globally sits at a dismal 25% to 40% depending on location. They aren't magical power plants; they are mechanical bottlenecks.

Solar panels face an equally rigid thermodynamic wall. Standard silicon panels have a maximum theoretical efficiency of roughly 33% because nearly half of all incoming solar energy is simply too powerful to be captured and is instantly lost as heat, while another chunk of photons passes right through the material like a ghost.

Millions of homeowners who bought into rooftop solar since the late 2000s are discovering the financial math didn't hold up. As early subsidies and high buy-back tariffs evaporated, owners were left with creeping daily grid supply charges and degrading panels.

After only 10 to 15 years, the costly inverters fail, leaving properties with expensive, non-functioning roof clutter.

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

Aye aye

[John Cleese @JohnCleese]

The last line of this reads

'Extremists do not represent all of us'

We'd like to know roughly what proportion is not represented by the extremists

Could they speak up, please ?

[Matt Ridley @mattwridley]

Yes.

We should be free to criticise any faith, dogma or belief, especially if we think it is leading people to being unreasonable or harmful,

whether it be Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Zoroastriastrianism, animism, Climate Change, transgender activism or Islam.

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

@messedupfoods 40%? Let’s put all restaurants out of business. That’ll sort this out.

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

Right. And neither system ever actually existed in the pure, vacuum-packed version described. Just count the raw percentages of hunger and other neediness in lefty Utopias and you start your journey out of this ditch toward truth. And you’ll be so much happier when you get there too.

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

@ChrisGloninger 🥱 oh dear, look at the time.

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

@AntiWokeMemes No. YOU are probably experiencing a lack of mental fortitude. Sorry!

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

@WeatherProf 🥱

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

@Tw_timerAlder Ah yes, the to-hand, easy, pat answer based on nothing genuine, issued by no independent authority but sounded good T the time since the cause is to stir fear, guilt and some sense of a proximate limit to maximise both.

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

😆

[David Turver @7Kiwi]

Meanwhile, cereal yields have tripled since the 1960's. Turns out a bit of extra warmth and more CO2 helps plants grow better.

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

Bjorn Lomborg did not deny climate change, but treated it as one problem among many.

The past 20 years vindicate his position: emissions are rising more slowly than feared, disaster deaths have fallen, and poverty remains a more acute threat than climate.
https://t.co/mHYY0azefv

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

@MartinBuckby You’re high?

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

Terrible.

[Tom Tugendhat @TomTugendhat]

This is a man-made tragedy all down to energy policies that have pushed prices higher in search of a carbon ambition at home and simply pushing businesses to the wall.

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

@omgsidewalks You’re way behind in this conversation.

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

@pmarca @mattwridley Climate crisis. What an absurd meme, made sinister by how normalised the media is trying to make it. Just say no.

[Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby]

Hezbollah began firing rockets isn’t an escalation.

But Israel responding is escalating the conflict.

You cannot hate the New York Times enough.

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

For insertion into pipe and smoking. For your health.

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

If science were never to be questioned, your doctor would still be recommending a particular brand of cigarette to settle the nerves.

You'd be dosing the baby with heroin cough syrup, because Bayer sold it over the counter.

You'd be rubbing cocaine on its gums for teething, and the chemist would recommend the stronger tube.

The DDT lorry would still come round to fog the street while the children carried on playing in the spray.

Your surgeon would be reaching for the icepick, because the man who pioneered the lobotomy was given a Nobel Prize for it.

Pregnant women would be handed thalidomide for their morning sickness, with a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

You'd be drinking radium tonic for your energy and brushing with radioactive toothpaste for the glow.

Stomach ulcers would still be filed under "stress," and the man who proved they were bacterial would still be a laughing stock.

Butter would be the villain and margarine the heart-healthy hero, on the firmest medical advice going.

Lead would still be in your petrol, your paint and your water pipes, certified harmless by the people selling it.

All of it, in its day, was the consensus. Settled. Beyond polite debate.

"Settled science" is the phrase people reach for when they would quite like you to stop asking questions.

[Kate Hoey @CatharineHoey]

What a brilliant put down of @sainsburys Makes you wonder who in the company they pay to come up with these pathetic plans. Do they think it makes them see ‘on message’ !!!!

[Andrew Fox @Mr_Andrew_Fox]

Sam Harris has written the best thing you’ll read today.

https://t.co/gI0wZZNH4m

[John Dunton-Downer @doubledee3]

@zarahussain999 Islamophobia? And what is the word we should use to describe what Muslim preachers feel about non-Muslims?