4 million views on BNC
Today this modest climate + energy blog passed 4 million page views.
My thanks to all the regular guest posters and commenters on BNC for building up and critiquing the archives of content — 550 posts and rising.
This blog has been dedicated to the enormous challenge of replacing fossil fuels by mid century. That goal continues. Whatever our core future energy generation sources turn out to be – nuclear or renewables – if we can solve the ‘sustainable energy problem’, the possibilities for humanity are many and exciting.
So let’s keep thinking, and debating, and advocating, for good policy and smart use of technology. The biosphere depends on us getting this right. As does the prosperity of our own species. Onward!
Brave New Climate 
11 replies on “4 million views on BNC”
Totally awesome! Onward BNC! =D
About ways to create fireworks in space… I’m pretty sure it’s not as easy a problem as you might first think.
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Congratulations, a well-deserved landmark!
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I don’t believe the species is mature enough for nuclear. I don’t believe “renewables” can be the path. I believe we will live at the energy level of the middle ages. Here are some essays in support of my thoughts
Solar and wind capturing devices are not alternative energy sources. For the renewable devices – wind, photovoltaices, solar hot water, hot air panels – the sun and wind are there, are green, are sustained. The devices used to capture the sun and wind’s energy are an extension of the fossil fuel supply system.
There is a massive infrastructure of mining, processing, manufacturing, fabricating, installation, transportation and the associated environmental assaults. There would be no sun or wind capturing devices with out this infrastructure. This infrastructure is not green, sustainable, or renewable. The making of the these devices inadvertently but directly supports fracking, tar sands and deep ocean drilling because of the need for this infrastructure.
I invite you to view these essays.
This essay has diagrams and pictures of how we get copper, aluminum, glass, black chrome – the chemicals, heavy machinery, and industrial processes that are necessary to make the devices to capture the energy of the sun and wind.
http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2011/12/machines-making-machines-making.html
and
http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2014/03/reality-again.html
and
http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2014/02/solar-investing.html
And even if you could get around the environmental degradation, the low ERoEI and could amass enough extra energy to reproduce the capturing devices and their equipment, then how about the rest of the STUFF of high tech, high energy society?
http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2011/10/to-make-light-bulb.html
and
http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-small-fan.html
http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-middle-ages.html
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Congratulations.
By the way, what does “markdown is enabled” mean?
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Yes. BNC is a fantastic resource. It’s a pity Barry lost interest a year or so ago and people have move elsewhere. I’d also like to see a greatly improved (easier to read) interface, and especially an index to previous posts with title, author and link to the article as used to be easily available from the “Sustainable Nuclear” and “Renewables Limits” tabs.
It’s a real pity that the BNC 4 million page views has been achieved at the same time as B&W has slashed its SMR development program:
Read the artcicle here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/pikeresearch/2014/04/28/mpower-pullback-stalls-small-nuclear/
IMO, this is very bad news for the short term and medium future for nuclear power and for a realistic possibility of cutting global CO2 emissions from electricity by 50% by say 2060.
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Great job. The blog that led me from climate change to learning about nuclear power many years ago! I know it has had a similar significance for many others.
Onward!
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Fukushima was a huge load to carry, in many ways. Barry, your site’s contribution to the ensuing debate was and is a giant achievement bordering on superhuman. There is no need to apologise for taking a breather after that frantic year or more.
The next couple of years promise to be very interesting, at least in Australia. I’m optimistic that the public will tire of three word slogans and anti-science stances from politicians, that they will come to respect opinion based on knowledge and that policy without reasoned analysis will be rejected… at least, regarding energy, science and climate issues.
So, thanks for the sometimes wild ride past the first 4 million hits, Barry.
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I am sure Barry didn’t “lose interest” so much as “run out of steam”. We have to realise that he has a very demanding “day job” mainly concentrating on his ARC Future Fellowship conservation biology work, which requires a huge workload and constant publishing of papers etc.
And let’s not forget he also has a wife and two sons with whom he likes to spend time.
BNC is a testament to his commitment to finding a solution to the problem and looming disaster of climate change. 4 million hits is to be celebrated and I congratulate Barry on his success in reaching such a wide audience.
Superhuman indeed singleton engineer :-)
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msperps,
I agree. ‘Run out of steam’ is a better description than ‘lose interest’. I thought I was saying what Barry had said, but didn’t checked back to what he actually did say. No offence was intended.
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To get off the fossil fuels, the world needs a balanced energy portfolio. Further development is required in
Nuclear power for concentrated loads in cities and industrial centers.
Wind and solar with local storage as a distributed generation.
The Australia, one of major uranium producers, does not use any nuclear energy
It sells India, one of the big energy hungry neighbors coal but not uranium
The current reactor construction is concentrated in highly populated parts of Asia, as expected. Australia, a bigger producer like Russia, should also use this energy.
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Congratulations.
Remember, it is not about us, at least not much, but the respect of the future, and you have worked hard for that.
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