Dust And Other Weird Devils

Mostly during the warm times of year, dust devils swirl in open areas on sunny days. The sun heats the ground, producing updrafts. Breezes can start spinning the air and you get dust devils, that basically look like little tornadoes on nice days.

Dust devils are almost always harmless, but the strongest ones can cause some damage.  Sometimes you get some strange examples, like a couple of cool ones we'll highlight here.

In Elkhorn, West Virginia, a dust devil turned into a coal devil as it moved over a field of coal dust last week. I'm sure the air was just FINE to breathe inside this thing:



In the next video, taken more than a month ago, an unusually strong dust devil takes a palm tree for a spin in Phoenix, Arizona.  If that tree was a person, that person sure would be dizzy after this. Watch:



The final video was taken in July, 2018 near Blythe, California by Chris Mackie. This is along the Colorado River during a major wildfire. These fires can creatre whirls or "fire devils," or whatefer you want to call them that can by much more intense than regular dust devils.

This Blythe, California one started as a big, strong rotation in the wildfire, strong enough to uproot and fling trees. Wildfires create their own weather, so when the whirl kept going out onto the water it became a sort of intense waterspout.

On rare occasions, an intense wildfire can create its own intense thunderstorm that can actually produce real tornadoes. This might have been one of those cases. Really amazing!

Britain Went Coal Free For A Day, Maybe An Anti-Climate Change Trend?

A coal mine near Gillette, Wyoming. Will demand for coal
fade away in the coming decades and we won't burn it
anymore? Climate scientists and activists would like that. 

On a Friday in April,  the entire nation of Great Britain met all of its energy needs without burning so much as one lump of coal.

It was the first time since 1882 that Great Britain went an entire day without burning coal to power factories, homes, businessees and whatnot, according to the BBC.

To cut carbon emissions, Britain plans to phase out its last coal burning plants by 2025. The British National Grid said the coal-free day was a "watershed moment" for the country.

It was a symbolic moment - Britain quickly returned to burning some coal - but it's another powerful sign that coal is on its way out. And good riddance.

I know, I know Donald Trump says he's going to bring all those coal mining job back.

However, despite Trump and other conservatives' denials, people are getting more and more concerned about climate change, and coal is steadily becoming a pariah product.

It's got bad optics nowadays. Coal is considered among the worst emitters of carbon dioxide, which feeds climate change. The search is on for cleaner energy.  Nobody wants coal anymore.

Well, that's not quite true. Developing nations are still buying it up, so demand for coal is expected to stay at current levels or even rise slightly between now and 2021. But that's a big switch. Until recently, worldwide coal demand kept spiraling up.

The BBC said that the coal-free day in April is believed to be the first time since 1882 that Britain did not use coal for energy usage at all. That time in 1882 was the first time coal was used to generate electricity from a centralize public coal-fired generator.

I wonder if we're coming up on the last day that will happen?

Nobody Is Quite Sure What Trump Is Trying To Accomplish With Climate Change Attack

Trump loves coal, and thinks climate change is hoax, but
the rest of the world is already moving away from
his line of thinking

As you probably heard on the news, President Trump signed an executive order a couple weeks back  intended to roll back his predecessor's actions on climate change

I suppose Trump's climate executive order is meant to be marketed as a pro-business, pro-job move, but it's hard to imagine how it will help businesses or job growth all that much.

A centerpiece of Trump's campaign last year was to promise people in coal producing zones in the United States that he would bring coal jobs back.

That was part of the motivation of Tuesday's executive order. To "keep" his campaign promise.

However, Trump knows that no matter what he does, he won't keep his promise to bring all those coal jobs back.

Basically, nobody wants to buy coal anymore.

As Vox points out:

"Even the most anti-Obama coal executive on the planet, Robert Murray of Murray Energy, knows this. He supports Trump's assault on climate policy and wants it to go further. (after all, he stands to benefit!), but he's under no illusion it will help coal miners. When he met with Trump, 'I suggested that he temper his expectations,' Murray told The Guardian."

It's true that the world went through a coal burning boom as the 21st century opened. China, India and some other developing countries went on a coal plant building binge, which of course is bad if you're worried about climate change.

Coal is pretty much the worst, most effective greenhouse gas you can get. Lots of countries are getting the message. They're increasingly afraid of climate change, which is a good thing to be afraid of.

With that in mind, it seems like the ardor for coal in these countries is starting to cool. For one thing, those big bursts of smog that China has endured in recent years, is partly due to coal plants and people are not happy about it.

This next bit from Vox is pretty stat heavy, but really worth going through. Because it's very telling about how out of step Trump is:

"Here's what happened with coal plants around the world, year on uear, from 2016 to 2017:

"Pre-construction activity (planning, permitting, etc.) was down a whopping 48 percent. In January, 2016, there was 1,090 GW (gigawatts) worth of coal capacity in pre-construction planning; as of January, 2017, it had fallen to 579 GW.

Work in ongoing coal plant construction projects was down 19 percent. In China and India alone, scattered across more than 100 sites, some 68 GW worth of coal plant construction was frozen in place. In fact, across the world, 'more construction is now frozen than entered construction in the past year.

Construction starts - new coal plants entering construction - were down by 62 percent. Meanwhile, especially in the U.S. and Europe, coal plants are retiring, to the tun of about 64 GW worth in the past two years.

It's all slowing down."

(The report referred to in this excerpt is the annual "Boom or Bust" report on the global coal pipeline from Coalswarm, the Sierra Club and Greenpeace.)

Meanwhile, investments in energy production from wind and solar continue to climb worldwide The U.S. could be a worldwide leader in these industries, but Trump is too dumb to see that.

Trump said when he signed the executive order rolling back climate change initiatives that coal miners will get their jobs back. That "clean coal" whatever the hell that is, is the future of American energy independence.

Stephen Colbert reacted this way, which is perfect: "Clean coal sounds like an oxymoron but then so does President Trump."

I've always said that the most dangerous people in the world are very stupid ones who think they are smart. That description fits Donald Trump more than any other person I've ever heard of.

One thing Trump is good at is creating alternative realities for entertainment and business purposes. But when you create these fake realities, real reality always comes back to bite you.

Hard. 

Alabama Officials: God Gave Us Coal. Maybe The Lord Wants Global Warming?

Chip Beeker said God gave
Alabama coal so it can do
anything it wants with it.  

Some Alabama officials have come up with the wackiest reasoning yet for continuing to extract coal, burn it and add to global warming:

God wants us to do it.

According to Al.com, an Alabama news site, some officials said the federal EPA's attempt to regulate coal emissions is against God's will, an affront to God, if you will.

Alabama Public Service Commission President Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh (love that name!) said the EPA is also taking away Alabama's way of life.

Here's the money quote from Al.com:

"At their news conference...Cavanaugh and PSC commissioner-elect Chip Beeker invoked the name of God in stating their opposition to the EPA proposal. 

Beeker, a Republican who is running unopposed for a PSC seat, said coal was created in Alabama by God, and the federal government should not enact policy that runs counter to God's plan.

'Who has the the right to take what God's given a state?' he said."

OK, I've got a few questions.

God wants us to burn coal and worsen global warming? Maybe God wants the second Great Flood? Paging Noah!!!

How does Beeker know God gave Alabama the coal?  Yes, it's there, but who's is it? What about the landowner where the coal is? What about the people, or the plants that will burn it?  Maybe God secretly gave the EPA control over the coal and didn't tell anybody else?  Did God specifically appoint Cavanaugh and Beeker to administer the coal He gave them? If so, where's the paperwork?

This hue and cry started when the EPA announced back in June it wanted to curb carbon emissions from coal in an effort to curb global warming.

In any event, Cavanaugh implored the fine citizens of Alabama to seek God's help. "I hope all the citizens of Alabama will be in prayer that the right thing will be done," she said.

Well, there's something Cavanaugh and I agree on. Although I doubt her idea of the "right thing" and mine match.