Global Warming To Hinder Wi-Fi Signals, Claims UK Gov't 280
radioweather writes with news of a government report from the UK's Dept. for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which warns of global warming's harmful effect on Wi-Fi and other communication protocols. Quoting the Guardian:
"Presenting the report, the secretary of state for the environment, Caroline Spelman, said that higher temperatures can reduce the range of wireless communications, rainstorms can impact the reliability of the signal, and drier summers and wetter winters may cause greater subsidence, damaging masts and underground cables. The threat posed by climate change to internet and telephone access is a rare example of when the developed world would be hit harder than developing countries, which are in general more at risk from increased floods, droughts and rising sea levels. 'If climate change threatens the quality of your signal, or you can't get it because of extreme fluctuations in temperature, then you will be disadvantaged, which is why we must address the question,' said Spelman, 'and just imagine in the height of an emergency if the communications system is down or adversely affected.'"
Never mind (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh jeez. (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes rain and snow attenuates radio waves. But not by a huge amount. The human race would likely go extinct from Heat stroke before anybody noticed any real decline in WiFi connectivity. This article smacks of "the sky is falling" fearmongering. Like this:
"On March 20, 2000, The Independent, a British newspaper, reported that the Dr. David Viner of the UK's Climate Research Unit warning within a few years snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event." Indeed, Viner opined, "Children just aren't going to know what snow is." Similarly, David Parker, at the UK's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, said that eventually British children could have only "virtual" experience of snow via movies and the Internet.
"The Union of Concerned Scientists opined confidently in 2004 scientists claim winters were becoming warmer and less snowy. In 2008, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. bemoaned that children would be robbed of the childhood joys of sledding and skiing in the DC area due to global warming. A year later, the area set a new seasonal snowfall record with 5 to 6 feet of snow and sleds and skis were the only way to get around." http://www.nipccreport.org/articles/2011/apr/13apr2011a3.html [nipccreport.org]
If the models can not predict snowfall, how can they be counted-upon to predict anything else in future weather?
Re:Scraping the bottom of the barrel (Score:4, Interesting)
I may have missed something, but are you saying manmade climate change isn't happening?
Considering that they can't even decide whether 'manmade climate change' would cause drier winters or wetter winters, I think the answer is an obvious yes.
Re:Inception (Score:4, Interesting)
Global warming will come and go, just like every other supposed crisis which is solved as soon as technology brings us to the tipping point of financial advantage.
Re:UK Government Hinders WiFi (Score:3, Interesting)
It's worth noting that the twentieth century was one of the four most active centuries in the history of the holocene for Mr. Sun, too. In fact, solar cycles 21 and 22 were grand maxima, and 23 was still quite large.
Solar cycle 24, OTOH, looks like it could be the lowest one in over a century, although it has pepped up a bit in the last two months. At the moment, the global temperature anomaly is 0.1C BELOW the thirty year running mean (and has been for a couple of months now). So yes, global warming is real, but it is entirely possible that its cause is, and has been in the past, the Sun. Not CO_2.
And real or not -- asserting that it will affect Wi-Fi range simply shows that either somebody dumped lysergic acid into their beer or that there are, quite literally, no limits to the sensationalist lies that people will tell to try to convince people that this particular piece of the sky is falling. Especially when what they should be fearing is the end of the Holocene, or just a simple Maunder minimum. Warm weather is good. Plants grow. People eat. A year without a summer, such as 1816 (Dalton minimum heterodynes with volcanic activity) could kill a hundred million people in a year.
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