| HEAT How To Stop the Planet from Burning George Monbiot Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2007 |
Rating: 4.5 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-89608-799-8 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-89608-799-4 | 277p. | HC/GSI | $22.00 | |
| Page vi: | "In fact his administration's proposal to deal with climate change by means of 'modifying solar radiance' moves from metaphor into reality by injecting smoke and mirrors into the atmosphere." |
| Here, the Bush administration term does not mean, as it might suggest, turning down the Sun, but rather altering the transmissive properties of the atmosphere — undoubtedly by means of sulfate aerosols. |
| Page xii: | "Even demanding the restitution of a largely agricultural society, or the economy of 'a very poor third-world country' would be pure self-indulgence." |
| Missing comma: S/B "country, would". |
| Page xix: | "I hope I have been able to demonstrate that it is not — as some people (notably the geophysiologist James Lovelock have claimed — too late." |
| "geophysiologist"? |
| Page 12: | "...a decrease of the oceanic overturning circulation is well underway." |
| Missing space: S/B "under way". |
| Page 17: | "Because the carbon released now stays in the atmosphere for some 200 years.129 and causes climate change many years into the future..." |
| Replace period (full stop) with comma: S/B "years,129 and". |
| Page 32: | "...the fake citizens' group had a name: The Advancement for Sound Science Coalition, or TASSC." |
| Wrong word: S/B "of Sound Science Coalition". |
| Page 76: | "It would cost manufacturers next to nothing to install a panel on their gadgets — a bit like the digital thermometer on a fridge — showing how much electricity it is consuming." |
| How many fridges have digital thermometers? Only the high-end models, right? Although efficient fridges cost so much, the electronics cost might in that case be negligible. But in most cases, the electronics to measure and display interior temperature would increase the consumer price of the item. |
| Page 79: | "And if either too much or too little [electric power] is produced, the voltage and frequency fluctuations will crash the country's computers." |
| There could be voltage fluctuations, and lesser frequency changes. But this is why the grid includes power factor correctors and other means to stabilize voltage and frequency. (It's very unlikely the frequency could change enough to damage a computer.) |
| Page 103: | "ETSU also assumed that no wind turbine would be built in water deeper than 40 metres. The government believes they could be planted in the bed of seas as deep as 50 metres." |
| I submit that they could be deployed anywhere seagoing oil platforms are. |
| Page 104: | "But, most importantly, though the initial loss on a DC line is higher, it does not increase with distance. On AC systems, by contrast, the longer the line, the more you lose." |
| Wrong: I2R losses happen on both types of systems. The loss is a function of current being drawn, of the cable size and length, and (to a lesser extent) of power frequency — not of the type of electricity. The reason losses are less on a DC line is that the voltage is higher, thus current (the "I" in the formula) is lower for a given load level. Double the voltage, halve the current; the I2R loss drops by a factor of 4. DC is used because it avoids the AC peak voltages, which increase corona losses. (Now it gets technical.) Wikipedia has a good writeup. |
| Page 112: | "Here, he suggests that emergency power sources like those in hospitals could be used to supplement power from renewable sources when those faltered." |
| I think this is a very bad idea. Emergency power sources should be saved for emergencies. |
| Page 114: | "If the wind is blowing strongly while demand is low, then turbines will have to be shut down if the frequency of the alternating current on the grid (assuming we are still using an AC grid) is not to rise beyond its limits." |
| Again, this betrays a weak grasp of power systems. The grid will include preventive devices. It is true that some turbines may have to be shut down, but not because of great variations in frequency. Also, there is always the option of routing the excess energy for storage: to pump water uphill, or to charge batteries, for two examples. |
| Page 116: | "But there is a problem which most of the people who have written about 'demand management' have not addressed. The national grid company, sensibly enough, increases the frequency when it anticipates peaks in demand. It will do the same if it sees that supplies of renewable power are about to drop." |
| I think I see what's going on here: Monbiot confuses voltage with frequency. |
| Page 153: | "It's reassuring, isn't it, to see how seriously the government takes these questions." |
| Even more reassuring than to know every journalist ends a question with a question mark. |
| Page 155: | "...the Prius manages just 51 miles per gallon on highways." |
| The footnote on this page rates the Prius mileage as "55 miles per gallon (average across all conditions)". Somebody's wrong. |
| Page 173: | "While they reflect some of the sun's heat back into the space, they also trap heat in the atmosphere..." |
| Extra word: S/B "into space". |
| Page 194: | "This suggests, at mean windspeeds of 4 metres per second, that their average combined output is a little over 0.4 kilowatt hours* — a microscopic fraction of the power the store must use." And the footnote says, "* Building for a Future gives the output of a 3.5-metre turbine at (sic) 1766 kilowatt hours per year at 4.0 metres per second." |
| Wrong physical quantity: S/B "energy". (Also, S/B "as 1766 kilowatt hours".) |
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