I understood that he was just saying they aren't allowed to build them. Or maybe I got that wrong. Actually, I liked the fact that he didn't say that a particular alternative power source is the one needed instead of fossil fuels, just that there has to be a change. That way he didn't put off the kind of people who think that everybody supporting renewable energy is a hippie. Although I might have misunderstood something, as I am not a native speaker.
Good video An interesting side note about indoor light bulbs is that although they are often slated as being very inefficient. The 'wasted' heat energy merely goes to heat the surroundings and hence reduces the amount of energy needed to heat the house and so isnt wasted as much. Im not too worried about the future of energy, as I get the feeling that these things seem to work themselves out - I could put backing and explanation to that but dont feel like writing an essay on utube :/.
I disagree with him saying that people only doing a little won't help. If everybody set there thermostats to 17 degrees centigrade instead of 20 or even 22 degrees then that would make a difference. It's because only a few are doing a lot. What we need is for a lot to do a little!
About wind/solar: Besides their very high cost in capital, by nature, they're intermittent. As long as we have no way to store massive amounts of electrons, wind/solar means gas/coal power plants to provide electricity most of the time when neither sun nor wind is available. See Germany, Denmark, or Spain for examples. As for nuclear: Good for base load, but not flexible enough to adapt to user demand in real time, so we need other sources of electricity: Hydro (for countries with mountains), or… nothing since we have to stop using fossil fuel. David MacKay does an extraordinary job keeping things rational.
I completely agree, all that stuff about unplugging phone chargers and TVs is twaddle. However, he talks about needed to cover half of britain wind turbines. There are plenty of uninhabited desert-type of sites around Europe that could be covered with wind/solar farms, and then they'd only need to be connected to Britain on the power grid.. Look at Australia for eg; we can power all the world with our desert surface area.
A very good take! He is recommending a mix of electrical energy generation types. Here we are with the lights in the UK about to either go out or to become very expensive to keep on. I first had an inkling that all was not well back in 1993 when the then Tory government began endorsing and actively encouraging the of gas turbines to generate electricity in place of existing coal fired powered electricity generating plants. You can read the rest of my article at bright-work.co.uk
I think you have got the numbers wrong - which would not have happened if you had stuck to kw or kwh. in 2004 total uk electricity was 382 twh or about 0.6 kw per person. You say 6kw per person ( 125 bulbs ). I know that you have also counted gas & heating oil . My personal usage is 0.65kw electricity and 0.27kw gas . But My real point is that a kw of electricity is worth much more than a kw of gas. We run air-sourced heat pumps and get about 3kw out for each kw of electricity .
@actyogi "My personal usage is 0.65kw electricity and 0.27kw gas ." Most of your power consumption is indirect from your point of view; it is in the form of chickens, tables, street-lighting, petrol for the bus and so on.
I don't get it, you want to make a point to the country maybe even world. Yet there's only 127 views on this video, ok so its been up 1 or 2 days but still. Why not ask UA-cam to put it on the front page for a week, or on google video. I found it really interesting :)
Mackay encourages an attitude that "any actions I take as an individual are pointless": which is deeply unhelpful. If made a range of changes to my life - such as adopting best-practice insulation, getting rid of my hot-water tank, using a 300kg car, reducing set temperature of washing machines and dishwashers - I could save 73% of my personal energy use (Env Sci and Tech., DOI: 10.1021/es102641n). Even if the 73% figure is is an overestimate, these individual actions add up to many lightbulbs.
There is no way we can replace energy obtained from gas and oil. Even after full life cycle solar batteries produse less energy that was wasted to produce them.
In the begin it will. But it will become cheaper when scaling. As the fual is almost free and unlimited. Also the garbage is helium and litium. Both can be sold for alot of money
rubikfan1 It will be a bit too late for it to stop global warming. And lithium is a fuel that must be bred into something useful (the tritium) just like in a breeder reactor, except that would be depleted uranium or thorium.
It does when it causes famine and war, which it probably will. I'll stick to trying to find a solution I think, either that or build myself a bunker and learn how to hunt.
Ok: So we go for the wind option, 600,000 1.5 mw turbines. Then we decommission all our conventional and nuclear power stations, Happy Days. From the 15 th December 2009 to 21st January 2010 and from 2nd February to 27th February 2011 a blocking weather system happened in the eastern Atlantic which caused anti cyclonic calm conditions over Ireland and Britain. 3 out of four days in 2011 were too calm to generate wind power. So where is the power going to come from?
@powpanda If all you read on German, Russian and Swedish forums are "We can power the entire Europe by covering Great Britain with solar panels and wind turbines", how would you respond?
IT needs about 40 nukes @ 1Gw to generate our 2004 electricity production - but u probably need 3x that to allow for peak loading. You would use some gas turbine / pumped storage to ameliorate the peaks .
We can talk about pressing global issues, without sinking into a soapy gloom of wishfull thinking and with actual suggestions, realistic approaches and facts? If only I would have known.
Well... China opens 1~2 coal power stations every week (yes week) which means that in one year they install the equivalent of the entire UK electrical capacity installed in Britain in the space 100 year. in 2001 China had 700GWe of coal power stations operating against a TOTAL capacity (coal , gas, nuclear etc) of 80GWe installed in the UK. Sorry, nothing we can do will make shred of difference just hope that predictions on climate change are just wrong
@italobambino43 He didn't mention recycling, and certainly replacing one of those lightbulbs with one that consumes only 25% of the energy does make a difference. Environmentalists are not standing in the way of a solution to this; they have a wider view of the damage to the environment, not just from AGW but also to habitat, health, and from nuclear pollution. Before jumping on the nukes bandwagon, think about eg Europe being powered via a cable to huge solar arrays in the Sahara. This works.
We need to take action now! Recycle your waste, use energy efficient light bulbs, walk your way around, do all you can(the cash'll be great too)! In 40 or so years, your grandchildren will gaze upon our once beautiful forests and say "its your fault". They'll be right. p.s. for those of you who do care, i like you already.
one thing that really angers me is how many shops leave lights on after hours! 24 hrs a day 7 days a week !!!!! what a joke that they are aloud to do this
Note, no talk about global climate change in this video. That must be because it is not the problem!!! The problem is we are running out of fossil fuels.
There is also so many other forms of energy possible and not to mention much more efficient designs. There isn't much we can't techoloically manage with todays true techologies but the only thing that prevents anything happening is buiessness, Does it make money ?. besides wind, we have geothermal, hydroelectric, solar and many more. Not to mention how more efficient each can become. This earth can produce enough energy for the world is people cared more for the world than ruling and money.
In all honesty, wouldn't you say he is a little more educated on the subject than you are? These are people who have spent life work on this topic and you are just a person who believes it's all a lie because you seen a video on youtube. Give the scientists some credit, they know what they are talking about.
![[UA] NAVI vs MOUZ | BO5 | IEM Rio 2024](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/CMBYk0cbGoA/mqdefault.jpg)
RIP Dr. Mackay. Thank you for all you did to help boost our climate and energy literacy.
I was lucky enough to hear David Mackay speak in Seattle - awesome. Entertaining, to the point, an important message. Read his book!
Very insightful perspective on the situation! Well done.
I understood that he was just saying they aren't allowed to build them. Or maybe I got that wrong. Actually, I liked the fact that he didn't say that a particular alternative power source is the one needed instead of fossil fuels, just that there has to be a change. That way he didn't put off the kind of people who think that everybody supporting renewable energy is a hippie.
Although I might have misunderstood something, as I am not a native speaker.
Good video
An interesting side note about indoor light bulbs is that although they are often slated as being very inefficient. The 'wasted' heat energy merely goes to heat the surroundings and hence reduces the amount of energy needed to heat the house and so isnt wasted as much.
Im not too worried about the future of energy, as I get the feeling that these things seem to work themselves out - I could put backing and explanation to that but dont feel like writing an essay on utube :/.
davey mackay is a legend
He isn't lying about anything, he is simply stating how much we currently use.
I disagree with him saying that people only doing a little won't help. If everybody set there thermostats to 17 degrees centigrade instead of 20 or even 22 degrees then that would make a difference. It's because only a few are doing a lot. What we need is for a lot to do a little!
Human innovation is the first renewable energy source.
The truth is we need a mixture of energy sources, 50% Nuclear and 50% Renewable seems to be a good target.
i cant wait to go to cambridge university :)
About wind/solar: Besides their very high cost in capital, by nature, they're intermittent.
As long as we have no way to store massive amounts of electrons, wind/solar means gas/coal power plants to provide electricity most of the time when neither sun nor wind is available. See Germany, Denmark, or Spain for examples.
As for nuclear: Good for base load, but not flexible enough to adapt to user demand in real time, so we need other sources of electricity: Hydro (for countries with mountains), or… nothing since we have to stop using fossil fuel.
David MacKay does an extraordinary job keeping things rational.
And then, when the world has no more oil?
I completely agree, all that stuff about unplugging phone chargers and TVs is twaddle.
However, he talks about needed to cover half of britain wind turbines. There are plenty of uninhabited desert-type of sites around Europe that could be covered with wind/solar farms, and then they'd only need to be connected to Britain on the power grid.. Look at Australia for eg; we can power all the world with our desert surface area.
SOMEONE NEEDS TO INVENT COLD FUSION NOW!
A very good take! He is recommending a mix of electrical energy generation types. Here we are with the lights in the UK about to either go out or to become very expensive to keep on. I first had an inkling that all was not well back in 1993 when the then Tory government began endorsing and actively encouraging the of gas turbines to generate electricity in place of existing coal fired powered electricity generating plants. You can read the rest of my article at bright-work.co.uk
why don't we import electricity from solar rich countries or build solar farms in other countries and "ship" it home?
We will never solve our energy problems as long as we work as individuals and not as a united world.
I think you have got the numbers wrong - which would not have happened if you had stuck to kw or kwh.
in 2004 total uk electricity was 382 twh or about 0.6 kw per person. You say 6kw per person ( 125 bulbs ). I know that you have also counted gas & heating oil . My personal usage is 0.65kw electricity and 0.27kw gas .
But My real point is that a kw of electricity is worth much more than a kw of gas.
We run air-sourced heat pumps and get about 3kw out for each kw of electricity .
Why didn't he mention solar energy?
@actyogi "My personal usage is 0.65kw electricity and 0.27kw gas ."
Most of your power consumption is indirect from your point of view; it is in the form of chickens, tables, street-lighting, petrol for the bus and so on.
I don't get it, you want to make a point to the country maybe even world. Yet there's only 127 views on this video, ok so its been up 1 or 2 days but still. Why not ask UA-cam to put it on the front page for a week, or on google video. I found it really interesting :)
"There will never be the kind of nuclear build up he is recommending." Goodbye civilization, it was fun while it lasted.
Mackay encourages an attitude that "any actions I take as an individual are pointless": which is deeply unhelpful. If made a range of changes to my life - such as adopting best-practice insulation, getting rid of my hot-water tank, using a 300kg car, reducing set temperature of washing machines and dishwashers - I could save 73% of my personal energy use (Env Sci and Tech., DOI: 10.1021/es102641n). Even if the 73% figure is is an overestimate, these individual actions add up to many lightbulbs.
there is another featured video which is exactly the same as this....
don't exactly know why
There is no way we can replace energy obtained from gas and oil.
Even after full life cycle solar batteries produse less energy that was wasted to produce them.
we need to make a fusion reactor. that whould solve all our energy problems.
+rubikfan1 Not if it costs +10 times as much as a breeder reactor.
In the begin it will. But it will become cheaper when scaling. As the fual is almost free and unlimited. Also the garbage is helium and litium. Both can be sold for alot of money
rubikfan1
It will be a bit too late for it to stop global warming. And lithium is a fuel that must be bred into something useful (the tritium) just like in a breeder reactor, except that would be depleted uranium or thorium.
It does when it causes famine and war, which it probably will. I'll stick to trying to find a solution I think, either that or build myself a bunker and learn how to hunt.
Ok: So we go for the wind option, 600,000 1.5 mw turbines. Then we decommission all our conventional and nuclear power stations, Happy Days.
From the 15 th December 2009 to 21st January 2010 and from 2nd February to 27th February 2011 a blocking weather system happened in the eastern Atlantic which caused anti cyclonic calm conditions over Ireland and Britain. 3 out of four days in 2011 were too calm to generate wind power. So where is the power going to come from?
@powpanda If all you read on German, Russian and Swedish forums are "We can power the entire Europe by covering Great Britain with solar panels and wind turbines", how would you respond?
IT needs about 40 nukes @ 1Gw to generate our 2004 electricity production - but u probably need 3x that to allow for peak loading. You would use some gas turbine / pumped storage to ameliorate the peaks .
We can talk about pressing global issues, without sinking into a soapy gloom of wishfull thinking and with actual suggestions, realistic approaches and facts?
If only I would have known.
5:55 "...600,000 wind turbines, which would cover half of Britain." LOL Yeah totally realistic.
Well... China opens 1~2 coal power stations every week (yes week) which means that in one year they install the equivalent of the entire UK electrical capacity installed in Britain in the space 100 year. in 2001 China had 700GWe of coal power stations operating against a TOTAL capacity (coal , gas, nuclear etc) of 80GWe installed in the UK. Sorry, nothing we can do will make shred of difference just hope that predictions on climate change are just wrong
@italobambino43 He didn't mention recycling, and certainly replacing one of those lightbulbs with one that consumes only 25% of the energy does make a difference. Environmentalists are not standing in the way of a solution to this; they have a wider view of the damage to the environment, not just from AGW but also to habitat, health, and from nuclear pollution. Before jumping on the nukes bandwagon, think about eg Europe being powered via a cable to huge solar arrays in the Sahara. This works.
I've got three words:
CARBON, CAPTURE & STORAGE
We need to take action now! Recycle your waste, use energy efficient light bulbs, walk your way around, do all you can(the cash'll be great too)!
In 40 or so years, your grandchildren will gaze upon our once beautiful forests and say "its your fault". They'll be right.
p.s. for those of you who do care, i like you already.
im off tesco to get 10 more light bulbs :D
one thing that really angers me is how many shops leave lights on after hours! 24 hrs a day 7 days a week
!!!!! what a joke that they are aloud to do this
Not even in our children children's lifetimes
Why does nobody ever mention solar power?
Fit all new homes with some solar panels. At least it's a start.
yesterday we used 240v to power things, today many things could run from a 12 or 6v resource
+Adrian Newsum Absolutely, like steel mills and the chemical industry, .......oops
Note, no talk about global climate change in this video. That must be because it is not the problem!!! The problem is we are running out of fossil fuels.
@thefrequencykenneth ...which reminds me of Monster Inc. lol
Um no. Coal is everywhere.
There is also so many other forms of energy possible and not to mention much more efficient designs. There isn't much we can't techoloically manage with todays true techologies but the only thing that prevents anything happening is buiessness, Does it make money ?. besides wind, we have geothermal, hydroelectric, solar and many more. Not to mention how more efficient each can become. This earth can produce enough energy for the world is people cared more for the world than ruling and money.
In all honesty, wouldn't you say he is a little more educated on the subject than you are? These are people who have spent life work on this topic and you are just a person who believes it's all a lie because you seen a video on youtube. Give the scientists some credit, they know what they are talking about.
run out of coal? lololol
@jimmyrich1 20% of world electricity is consumed in lightning. 40% of food is wasted in the Western world. We can do better than that.
far too simplistic - what about changing our life style!
All this coming from the person who thinks this is a huge conspiracy and that we are getting brainswashed? If only there was a guffaw button ...
Only boring people get bored.