Author Archives: Robert I. Ellison

The map – a thermally enhanced satellite photo – below shows September 2015 sea surface temperature anomalies – that is the difference from average temperatures over a period. During the most resent El Niño.  The oceans have a sun warmed … Continue reading →

A silly thing about light water nuclear reactors is that half a percent of energy as mass (E = mc2) in nuclear fuel is used.  This is one example of an advanced reactor that uses all the energy.  Energy and fission products … Continue reading →

“To build a better world, we must have the courage to make a new start. We must clear away the obstacles with which human folly has recently encumbered our path and release the creative energy of individuals. We must create … Continue reading →

The current average retail price of electricity in the US is $12/MWh.  Our prices are twice that. The increase in the retail price as a result of 80% renewables (in the US) is some $30/MWh.  This is an academic exercise … Continue reading →

Australia committed in Paris in 2015 to a 26% reduction on 2005 in CO2 equivalent emissions by 2030.  The Labor Party has an election platform of 43% reduction.  The Liberals have a holistic policy including a safeguard mechanism as plan … Continue reading →

Factory made, dropped into a bunker or a mine, run uninterrupted for 20 or 30 years using leftover ‘nuclear waste’ – of which there is enough for hundreds of years of energy supply.   And then recycle the fuel core to … Continue reading →

“With energy efficiency as its cornerstone and needing its pace redoubled, climate protection depends critically on seeing and deploying the entire efficiency resource. This requires focusing less on individual technologies than on whole systems (buildings,factories, vehicles, and the larger systems embedding them), and … Continue reading →

To understand the multiply coupled Earth system requires tracing the flow of energy through the relevant physical mechanisms.  Over decadal to millennial scales much climate variability emerges from polar regions in changing patterns of meridional (north/south) and zonal (east/west) wind … Continue reading →

Stocks and flows exist at the cellular to planetary scales.  Stocks are an accumulation of some sort.  It may be water, heat or biomass.  Water, heat and populations ebb and flow.   Mass and energy are conserved.  Water and heat can … Continue reading →

Where the atmosphere meets space – all energy is electromagnetic.  Incoming from the Sun and outgoing from reflected light and emitted heat.  At most times incoming and outgoing energy at the top of atmosphere (TOA) are not equal and Earth … Continue reading →