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Earth Television Science

TV Coverage of Cycling Races Can Help Document the Effects of Climate Change (phys.org) 171

Researchers from Ghent University were able to detect climate change impacts on trees in Belgium by analyzing nearly four decades of archive footage from the Tour of Flanders. The findings were published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution. Phys.Org reports: Focusing on trees and shrubs growing around recognizable climbs and other 'landmarks' along the route of this major annual road cycling race in Belgium, the team looked at video footage from 1981 to 2016 obtained by Flemish broadcaster VRT. They visually estimated how many leaves and flowers were present on the day of the course (usually in early April) and linked their scores to climate data. The ecologists found that the trees had advanced the timing of leafing and flowering in response to recent temperature changes. Before 1990, almost no trees had grown leaves at the time of the spring race. After that year, more and more trees visible in the television footage -- in particular magnolia, hawthorn, hornbeam and birch trees -- were already in full leaf. These shifts were most strongly related to warmer average temperatures in the area, which have increased by 1.5 degrees Celsius since 1980.
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TV Coverage of Cycling Races Can Help Document the Effects of Climate Change

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  • Just because Bob Roll calls it "Gent-Bubblegum"
  • Maybe they could spray those trees with something to prevent this problem.

  • Yet another story about how the world is getting warmer. I'll get excited when I see the federal government start building nuclear reactors to replace the coal power we have now.

    Nothing is safer than nuclear. Nothing has a lower CO2 footprint than nuclear. If it wasn't for the government bureaucracy holding up the issuance of licenses then we'd be seeing new nuclear reactors going online at a rate of about one per month.

    Here's my conspiracy theory. I am admitting up front that this is approaching tin fo

    • Re:Blah blah blah (Score:4, Insightful)

      by religionofpeas ( 4511805 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @10:53PM (#56890224)

      The government doesn't want to actually solve the problem of global warming, they just want to be able to use the threat of global warming as an excuse for what they want to do.

      Funny how all the governments in the world want the same thing, supported by all their scientists.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by blindseer ( 891256 )

        Funny how all the governments in the world want the same thing, supported by all their scientists.

        Here, let me fix that for you...

        Funny how all the dictatorships in the world want to take America's wealth, supported by all their government employed scientists.

        We have the UN IPCC issue reports periodically on how the world will be uninhabitable in 100 years unless the USA hands out money to all the poor nations of the world. They aren't demanding the USA stop burning oil, in fact if the USA stopped burning oil then many of these dictatorships would collapse as they have nothing else of value to offer in

        • Funny how all the dictatorships in the world want to take America's wealth, supported by all their government employed scientists.

          Most climate scientists are in the US and Europe. When is the last time you counted dictatorships in those places ?

        • Using natural gas in cars would cut CO2 production per mile traveled in half compared to diesel fuel or gasoline,
          Cut down by a 1/3rd perhaps, probably less ... certainly not halved.

    • Re:Blah blah blah (Score:4, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @11:36PM (#56890326) Homepage Journal

      Blah blah blah yet another post where you ignore reality in order to jerk off nuclear power. All anyone has to know to understand that nuclear is a boondoggle is that it is absolutely slaughtered by basically everything else at cost per watt. Even if there were not lots of other good reasons why nuclear is crap, that would be sufficient.

      P.S. We have a solution for long haul freight using electricity, it's called rail.

      • All anyone has to know to understand that nuclear is a boondoggle is that it is absolutely slaughtered by basically everything else at cost per watt.

        Maybe that's true in whatever nation you are from but here in the USA nuclear is quite inexpensive.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

        Before you say that solar and wind will get cheaper and beat nuclear, consider what the price of nuclear can do in the mean time. That's right, nuclear can get cheaper too. Of course there is a limit on what the bottom can be because of the prices of materials and such. I have a pretty good idea on where that bottom lies, and it doesn't look good for solar. Wind might stay

        • Nuclear energy is not safe and is not inexpensive when humans are involved.

          Decommissioning costs are running two orders of magnitude more expensive than proponents said they would be.
          * This means that nuclear is actually much more expensive than it's stated cost and that means the next generatiosn subsidizes nuclear power used by the prior generations.

          Securing the nuclear waste costs millions of dollars per site per year for the foreseeable future.
          * This cost increases over time. What cost $6 million 10 ye

          • Nuclear energy is not safe and is not inexpensive when humans are involved.

            It's safe...
            https://ourworldindata.org/wha... [ourworldindata.org]
            https://www.nextbigfuture.com/... [nextbigfuture.com]

            It's inexpensive...
            https://www.eia.gov/electricit... [eia.gov]
            https://insideclimatenews.org/... [insideclimatenews.org]
            https://www.forbes.com/sites/j... [forbes.com]

            Decommissioning costs are running two orders of magnitude more expensive than proponents said they would be.
            * This means that nuclear is actually much more expensive than it's stated cost and that means the next generatiosn subsidizes nuclear power used by the prior generations.

            That's just a lie. The Forbes article above explicitly point out that decommissioning costs are included in the price. They also point out that past cost overruns in nuclear power were often the result of poor money management, not any flaws in the technology or construction.

            Securing the nuclear waste costs millions of dollars per site per year for the foreseeable future.
            * This cost increases over time. What cost $6 million 10 years ago, costs $8 million a couple years ago.

            Prove it.

            Private insurance will not cover the risk. That's evidence right there that the risks are unknowable or larger than proponents say.
            * This means citizens are on the hook for unlimited losses. Corporations and executives get the profits up front and dump the costs on citizens.

            The risks are large. That's

            • An article of subsidies for nuclear Nuclear Subsidies [taxpayer.net]
              "The Forbes article above explicitly point out that decommissioning costs are included in the price." since when is the price agreed on the initial contract the actual price at the end of the build? They are always massively under quoted to try and make it seem a reasonable venture. it doesn;t matter what the reasons are for cost/time overrun, its the reality. "They also point out that past cost overruns in nuclear power were often the result of poor m
              • Re:Blah blah blah (Score:4, Insightful)

                by blindseer ( 891256 ) <blindseer@noSPAm.earthlink.net> on Wednesday July 04, 2018 @05:35AM (#56891060)

                Yep, the nuclear power industry got about one billion dollars year after year for 50 years in government subsidy. Nuclear power also provides 20% of the electricity generated in the USA. Compare this to what wind and solar get in subsidies. I did some searching on this and I've been getting some conflicting numbers, they vary from 7 billion dollars to 15 billion dollars based on who is providing the number and which year is being discussed. That alone is disproportionate subsidies. Consider that wind and solar combined provide less than 10% of our electricity that is very disproportionate. That's something like a 20 times difference in subsidies, based on money spent and energy produced.

                How many have actually been built on time/cost, I couldn't find any, all i can find is massive cost and time overruns.

                Probably because being on time and on budget isn't newsworthy.

                I'll hear people complain about the money spent on Yucca Mountain. A nuclear waste site that's been a money pit for years and still has not been declared fit for disposing of waste. Well, that's what you get with a government run project that's so politically charged. We had US senators approve funds for the building of the site, because that's federal money spent in states where senators can buy a lot of votes. When it comes to funding the inspections and licensing for declaring it suitable for nuclear waste these same senators deny the funds. Now they can play the hero to their voters because dangerous nuclear waste won't be traveling on the roads through the neighborhoods where their kids play. There is no technical reason we can't put waste in this site, it's been held up only by politics. I imagine this money pit is included in the "nuclear industry subsidy" column when it contains no nuclear material, and may never contain nuclear material if it's not maintained. Maintaining it costs money, even if it's just a security detail to keep homeless and pot smoking teens out of it.

                You are living in the land of unicorns

                Yep, and it seems you are as well.

            • Here is the reason why nuclear is so "inexpensive":

              The demolition of a nuclear power plant is a technically complicated undertaking that can take between 15 and 20 years to complete. In the case of Obrigheim, dismantling the power plant will cost energy utility company EnBW, which owns the facility, an estimated â500 million ($684 million). Compared to other plants in Germany, this pressurized-water reactor is relatively small. The dismantling of larger plants like Gundremmingen B or Isar 2 in the state of Bavaria are estimated to cost as much as â1 billion each.

              Most Germans have assumed that these costs will be picked up by the energy utility companies, which have gleaned billions of euros in profits from these plants. Besides, why should different rules apply to nuclear plant operators than to normal car owners, who have to pay to scrap their car when it's no longer fit for the road?

              But the heads of Germany's three major electric utility companies -- E.On CEO Johannes Teyssen, RWE chief Peter Terium and EnBW head Frank Mastiaux -- have come up with what they think is a brilliant plan to transfer the billions in risks related to dismantling nuclear plants. They want to punt responsibility to the state and taxpayers.

              Article: Utility companies want public trust for winding down nuclear plants [spiegel.de]

              1. Make big $$$ while plants operate.
              2. When it's time to shut down, involve taxpayer
              3. Profit!

            • Oh come on. That's obviously underbid amounts even now.

              Decommissioning costs are 10%-15% of construction costs and rising.

              Companies have repeatedly not set aside the money to decommission and so the it will fall on the citizens.

              We need clawback provisions on nuclear industry executives pension and savings if we want the money set aside.

              Humans always become careless, sloppy, and cut corners for everything. Nuclear power is no different in that regard.

              I don't think your information is very realistic.

              As you'

              • I don't think your information is very realistic.

                I noticed you offered no links for me to see where you got your information.

    • "Nothing is safer than nuclear." - bollox, it is dangerous, expensive to commission/decommission, single point of failure, lovely target in the event of war, makes the land uninhabitable as soon as its built and for years after decommission, needs constant subsidy and then the owners can screw you over on how much they want to charge if they have a monopoly
      You could cover millions of roof with solar panels (and provide battery storage) / create wind farms by the time you've built a nuclear power station a
      • Re:Blah blah blah (Score:5, Interesting)

        by blindseer ( 891256 ) <blindseer@noSPAm.earthlink.net> on Wednesday July 04, 2018 @04:54AM (#56891020)

        I noticed a lack of citations on your claims. Here's mine:
        https://www.nextbigfuture.com/... [nextbigfuture.com]

        Nuclear power is in fact the safest source of energy we have today.

        The claim on nuclear power being a prime target in war is cute. Have you seen a modern nuclear power plant? Did you notice something? A big concrete dome perhaps? I'm sure if someone dropped a big enough bomb on the dome it would break open but if that's your standard then consider this, how well protected are windmills from an attack in a time of war? What of solar panels? You want to put windmills off shore too? I wonder how well protected those would be from an attack, or a drunken container ship captain.

        If you want to talk about making land unusable then consider how much land would have to be plastered over with solar collectors. We can't grow crops in the shade. Oh, we put the solar panels on the roof you say? That doubles or triples the cost. When prodded on price solar power advocates talk of the price on utility scale solar, which by some estimates is as cheap as coal. When prodded on the enormous amounts of land use it suddenly and magically becomes far more expensive rooftop solar. Well, make up your mind. Do we get cheap solar and make that land unavailable for crops or housing, or do we get expensive solar and put it on our rooftops? You get one or the other to make your case, you can't have both.

        Oh, another argument I hear often is that solar will get cheaper in the future. Well, nuclear will get cheaper in the future. We've been subsidizing solar for decades now with the promise that someday, with enough research and development, it will be cheaper than coal. Well, why not subsidize nuclear too to make it cheaper than coal, safer than wind, and lower CO2 output than solar? Oh, wait, we don't have to do that because nuclear is already there. You think that's "bollox"? Show me your numbers.

        • by kackle ( 910159 )
          I recently read that 1 pound (weight) of nuclear material yields roughly the same energy as does 8,000 tons of coal. That's amazing. However, it made me wonder whether this incredible fact distracts everyone involved from the fact that nuclear plants create permanent (for all intents and purposes) poison as a waste by-product. (Humans are good at focusing on one, not-so-important fact.) And it's apparent that our feckless, ever-changing, governmental administrations aren't handling that waste properly,
        • We can't grow crops in the shade.
          Of course we can ... plenty of plants don't like direct sunlight, and you can cover a field in a way that at any time only 1/3rd is in shadows.

          BTW: the amount of space to power the whole world with solar alone is astonishing small.

          • I point out that nuclear is cheaper than coal, safer than wind, and lower CO2 output than solar and you come back with a comment on how if we space out the solar panels enough we might be able to grow handpicked strawberries in between? That's telling me that you have nothing to counter the safety, cost, and CO2 output of nuclear.

            I will concede some points about solar power. It is possible to make solar as cheap as coal, quite safe (though perhaps still not safer than nuclear), low CO2, with storage, and

            • I point out that nuclear is cheaper than coal, safer than wind, and lower CO2 output than solar
              You claim that. But your claims are wrong. No one ever died to wind power ...
              and you come back with a comment on how if we space
              Because you claimed, there would not be enough space to power everything with solar.

              If competition from natural gas doesn't kill it then something else will. Har Har Har, natural gas is only cheap in the states. And as most nations are phasing out CO2 producing power plants, gas plants ca

        • The claim on nuclear power being a prime target in war is cute. Have you seen a modern nuclear power plant? Did you notice something? A big concrete dome perhaps? I'm sure if someone dropped a big enough bomb on the dome it would break open but if that's your standard then consider this, how well protected are windmills from an attack in a time of war?

          Israel proved you don't even have to hit the dome to destroy a nuclear plant. Bomb the control center and turbines next door, and the best case scenario is a pristine reactor dome that won't produce power for many months and that's with a super fail safe design. Fukushima had less damage and resulted in core melt.

  • They can probably find even earlier photographic evidence with a bit of effort and extend out the range to get a more better picture of the gradual greening uptick. It would be interesting to see such data from a regional perspective and see how it matches.

    Very clever idea.

    Ferret
  • The weather has never been predictable, life on this planet is capable of dealing with changes in climate. Watching trees adjust their growing cycles in reaction to changes in the entire climate isn't scary, it isn't bad, it's proof that they can handle a little change even if it scares the crap out of us hairless monkeys Plants have more CO2 which makes them healthier, they have longer growing seasons, which makes them bigger. The "Green" movement is literally fighting against something called "Global G
    • Do you have a faint idea how much carbon we pull out of the ground in form of oil and coal every year? To sequester this in plants, we'd need to grow another amazon forest. And those plants better never die and release that carbon again.

  • Maybe stuff is greener because we fixed acid rain..

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Cycling is one of the most polluting ways of transportation once you take into account just what's required to fuel the muscles of the person riding the bike. That's a bit like saying electricity is a clean energy source because it doesn't pollute (other than heat), but you have to generate electricity from other sources of energy first.

  • Crack out the popcorn, it's yet another climate change article. People from both sides of the fence will throw various more or less sensible arguments at each other, not even remotely interested in listening.

    Personally, I don't care anymore. I have no kids. I'll be dead in 50 years. Yes, I know the planet is going to hell, but why bother trying to educate the stupid? You want your kids to live in a hellhole, so who am I to keep you from being eventually cursed and wished to hell or worse by your descendants

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