Moorland is burning behind Cardross tonight, a sign of climate change?

Post Number 3 - 28 April 2022 – There is moorland burning behind Cardross across the Clyde. Is this an consequence of climate change?

Today I was out rowing in a St. Ayles Skiff with others at the Royal West of Scotland Amateur Boat Club. As I walked home, I noticed smoke across the Clyde behind Cardross. The Helensburgh Advertiser reports that the fire is at Carman Reservior. The first photo was taken around 6:00pm and the second at 9:30pm.

My wife, a native of Greenock, just commented this morning on how this is exceptional weather for April. I understand that no one event can be tied to climate change. However, it is early in the year for these types of fires. Moorland burning is something we see behind Greenock but I remember it happening much later in the year around August and September.

According to the brief news item in the Helensburgh Advertiser (https://www.helensburghadvertiser.co.uk/news/20102111.carman-reservoir-fire-crews-tackle-grass-black-near-renton/ ) mentions that there are 4 fire engines attending the blaze. These fire engines will be powered by diesel engines and there is currently no feasible way to replace diesel engines with say electric trucks. Aviation is another sectors of the economy that for the foreseeable future will require liquid fuels. Fossil fuels are going to be with us for a long time because of the inherent advantages of high energy density liquid fuels.

In a typical economy around one third of the energy is used to produce electricity, around one third is for transport and one third is for heat. One of the mantras of the decarbonisation crowd, which I endorse, is ‘electrify everything’. This will change these ratios in the future. Wind and solar produce electricity but this electricity is of marginal use for around the two-thirds of the other energy we use. Heat is an energy use where I see real opportunity for nuclear power. We should begin to think of using nuclear heat directly in industrial processes. Nuclear power could also be the method used to produce low carbon hydrocarbons with carbon from biomatter and hydrogen from electrolysis or high temperature thermochemical water splitting. This would begin to make the sections of transport that require liquid fuels lower carbon.

There I said it, I mentioned the ‘N’ word. Expect more of this in the future.

Have a good weekend. I am going to participate in my first rowing regatta at Port Seaton this weekend.