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Super typhoon Haiyan is climate wake-up call
It seems these days that whenever Mother Nature wants to send an urgent message to humankind, it sends it via the Philippines. This year the messenger was Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Yolanda.
Yolanda: the Messenger
By Walden Bello
Hello Warsaw, this Is Haiyan calling
It seems these days that whenever Mother Nature wants to send an urgent message to humankind, it sends it via the Philippines. This year the messenger was Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Yolanda.
For the second year in a row, the world’s strongest typhoon barreled through the Philippines, Yolanda following on the footsteps steps of Pablo, a.k.a Bopha, in 2012. And for the third year in a row, a destructive storm deviated from the usual path taken by typhoons, striking communities that had not learned to live with these fearsome weather events because they were seldom hit by them in the past. Sendong in December 2011 and Bopha last year sliced Mindanao horizontally, while Yolanda drove through the Visayas, also in a horizontal direction.
That it was climate change creating the super typhoons that were taking weird directions was a message from Nature not just to Filipinos but to the whole world, whose attention was transfixed on the televised digital images of a massive angry cyclone bearing down, then sweeping across the central Philippines on its way to the Asian mainland. The message that Nature was sending via Yolanda–which packed winds stronger than Superstorm Sandy, which hit New Jersey and New York last October, and Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005–was especially meant for the governments of the world that are assembling in Warsaw for the annual global climate change negotiations (COP 19) scheduled to begin on November 11.
Is it a coincidence, ask some people who are not exactly religious, that both Pablo and Yolanda arrived at the time of the global climate negotiations? Pablo smashed into Mindanao during the last stages of the Conference of Parties 18 (COP 18) in Doha last year.
To reinforce Haiyan’s message, Commissioner Naderev Sano, the top negotiator for the Philippines, in Warsaw went on a hunger strike when the talks began on November 11.
COP 19: Another Deadlock?
It is doubtful, however, that the governments assembling in Warsaw will rise to the occasion. For a time earlier this year, it appeared that Hurricane Sandy would bring climate change to the forefront of President Obama’s agenda. It did not.
While trumpeting that he was directing federal agencies to take steps to force power plants to cut carbon emissions and encourage movement toward clean energy sources, Obama will not send a delegation that will change U.S. policy of non-adherence to the Kyoto Protocol, which Washington signed but never ratified. Although 70 percent of Americans now believe in climate change, Obama does not have the courage to challenge the fanatical "climate skeptics" that fill the ranks of the Tea Party and the U.S. business establishment on this front.
It is also unlikely that China, now the world’s biggest carbon emitter, will agree to mandatory limits on its greenhouse-gas emissions, armed with the rationale that those that have contributed most to the cumulative volume of greenhouse gases like the United States must be forced to make mandatory emissions cuts. And as China goes, so will Brazil, India, and a host of the other more industrially advanced developing countries that are the most influential voices in the "Group of 77 and China" coalition. What the governments of these countries seem to be saying is that the carbon-intensive industrial development plans they are pursuing are not up for negotiation.
Dangerous Gap
According to the Durban Platform agreed on in 2011, governments are supposed to submit carbon emissions reduction plans by 2015, which will then be implemented beginning in 2020. To climate scientists, this leaves a dangerous gap of seven years where no mandatory moves of emissions reduction can be expected from the United States and many other carbon-intensive countries. It is increasingly clear that every year now counts if the world is to avoid a rise in global mean temperature beyond 2 degrees Celsius, the accepted benchmark beyond which the global climate is expected to go really haywire.
Countries like the Philippines and many other island-states are in the frontlines of climate change. Every year of massive and frequent disastrous climate events like Yolanda and Pablo reminds them of the injustice of the situation. They are among those that have contributed least to climate change, yet they are its main victims. Their interest lies not only in accessing funds for "adaptation," such as the Green Climate Fund that would funnel, beginning in 2020, $100 billion a year from rich countries to poor countries to help them adjust to climate change (contributions so far have been small and slow in coming.) With typhoons and hurricanes now on the cutting edge of extreme weather events, these frontline countries must push all major greenhouse-gas emitters to agree to radical emissions cuts immediately and not wait until 2020.
Unorthodox Tactics
During last year’s Doha negotiations, one of the leaders of the Philippine delegation cried when he pointed to the ravages inflicted on Mindanao by Pablo. It was a moment of truth for the climate talks.
This year, the delegation must convert tears into anger and denounce the big climate polluters for their continued refusal to take the steps needed to save the world from the destruction that their carbon-intensive economies have unleashed on us all. Perhaps the best role the Philippine delegation and the other island-states can play is by adopting unorthodox tactics, like disrupting the negotiations procedurally to prevent the conference from falling into the familiar alignment of the rich North versus the Group of 77 and China. Such a configuration guarantees a political deadlock even as the world hurtles toward the four-degree-plus world that the World Bank has warned will be a certainty without a massive global effort to prevent it.
Now a member of the Philippine House of Representatives representing Akbayan (Citizens’ Action Party), Walden Bello was a member of the boards of both Greenpeace International and Greenpeace Southeast Asia, which he helped set up.
10 November 2013
http://opinion.inquirer.net/65115/yolanda-the-messenger
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Philippine groups demand action on climate finance, loss and damage in Warsaw climate talks
By Aksyon Klima Pilipinas
MANILA, 11 November 2013 – The outpouring of sympathy for the countries hit by super typhoon Haiyan should translate to substantial progress in the United Nations climate change conference opening today in Warsaw, according to Filipino climate activists.
"The Philippines cannot afford low expectations and stagnant discussions toward a 2015 climate deal, set to be implemented only in 2020. The rest of the world cannot do so, either," said Voltaire Alferez, national coordinator of climate network Aksyon Klima Pilipinas.
"Climate change has stacked more odds against us, setting us up for strong typhoons such as Haiyan and already costing hundreds, if not thousands of lives of Filipinos. We demand concrete action in Warsaw, owed to us by the richer countries which are mostly responsible for global warming," he added.
Haiyan pounded central Philippines last Friday, after hitting Palau, and has already made landfall in Vietnam. It was touted as the world’s strongest typhoon this year as well as the strongest ever typhoon to have made landfall. The Philippine government has kept the official death toll to 255 (as of 6 am Monday, Manila time) while reports continue to trickle in, although Leyte’s police chief believes that 10,000 died in their province alone.
"We hope that the governments who have expressed their solidarity and sympathy for our losses become allies of the Philippines towards a climate deal for all countries, whether developing or developed," Alferez said. "There is so much we share in the Southeast Asian region, so we ask solidarity not only for ourselves but for our neighbors as well. Here we share not only the air and the seas. Even hurricanes are shared, including the pain they bring."
Climate finance, loss and damage
Aksyon Klima challenged negotiators for governments around the world to focus on substance rather than process in the upcoming climate talks, especially in the areas of climate finance and loss and damage.
Little progress has been made since developed countries agreed in the 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen to jointly mobilize $100 billion every year by 2020 to help developing countries such as the Philippines deal with climate change impacts, the network stated. Global investment in climate change last 2012 has mostly kept to the 2011 figure at almost $360 million, according to a new study of the international Climate Policy Initiative. In addition, only $7.5 million has been raised as of June for the Green Climate Fund, which was established during the 2011 Durban negotiations to be the main conduit for climate finance.
In Warsaw, negotiators will also discuss how to address loss and damage caused by the adverse effects of climate change, as agreed upon in last year’s climate conference in Doha.
Developed countries have publicly opposed setting up an international mechanism to compensate economic and non-economic losses due to the adverse effects of climate change, which developing countries, especially the Philippines and others which are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, have been pushing.
"Loss and damage due to climate change is beyond adaptation and has not been addressed yet in the negotiations. It is therefore of paramount importance that the negotiators in Warsaw agree on the establishment of an international mechanism to address losses attributed to climate change, including those caused by slow-onset events. This mechanism should enable countries to effectively and urgently recover from the impact of extreme weather events, like what happened to the Philippines in the aftermath of super typhoon Haiyan," Alferez said.
The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that intense tropical cyclone activity is "more likely than not" to rise in the Western North Pacific and North Atlantic.
Mitigation and tech transfer
Aksyon Klima also called on negotiators to set concrete targets for mitigation and technology transfer.
"Those who signified their support for a second commitment period, should clearly signify the level of ambition or the magnitude of emissions cuts that they will have to do," Alferez said on the Kyoto Protocol, the legal mandate to reduce emissions which was extended to 2013-2020.
While those cuts may not anymore meet the Kyoto target of 5% global emissions cuts from 1990, he added, those cuts can help prevent the further buildup of greenhouse gases. Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii recorded that the global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has reached a record-breaking 400 parts per million.
The Warsaw talks should also foster the development of non-market mechanisms and a clearer framework for various approaches, including markets, Alferez also stated.
On technology transfer, while the Climate Technology Center and Network has became operational back in Doha, Aksyon Klima lamented that the emerging picture of what it can offer is only technical assistance for climate technology transfer, which can cost only up to $250,000.
###
ABOUT AKSYON KLIMA PILIPINAS
We are a network of 40 civil society organizations in the Philippines working on climate action in the international, national, and local levels. For more details, visit twitter.com/aksyonklima or facebook.com/aksyonklima.
http://www.aksyonklima.com
_______________________________________________
"It’s time to stop this madness" – Philippines plea at UN climate talks
Philippines lead negotiator Yeb Sano has just addressed the opening session of the UN climate summit in Warsaw – calling for urgent action to prevent a repeat of the devastating storm that hit parts of his country at the weekend. A copy of the speech sent to RTCC by Sano is below.
Mr. President, I have the honor to speak on behalf of the resilient people of the Republic of the Philippines.
At the onset, allow me to fully associate my delegation with the statement made by the distinguished Ambassador of the Republic of Fiji, on behalf of G77 and China as well as the statement made by Nicaragua on behalf of the Like-Minded Developing Countries.
First and foremost, the people of the Philippines, and our delegation here for the United Nations Climate Change Convention’s 19th Conference of the Parties here in Warsaw, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your expression of sympathy to my country in the face of this national difficulty.
In the midst of this tragedy, the delegation of the Philippines is comforted by the warm hospitality of Poland, with your people offering us warm smiles everywhere we go. Hotel staff and people on the streets, volunteers and personnel within the National Stadium have warmly offered us kind words of sympathy. So, thank you Poland.
The arrangements you have made for this COP is also most excellent and we highly appreciate the tremendous effort you have put into the preparations for this important gathering.
We also thank all of you, friends and colleagues in this hall and from all corners of the world as you stand beside us in this difficult time. I thank all countries and governments who have extended your solidarity and for offering assistance to the Philippines. I thank the youth present here and the billions of young people around the world who stand steadfast behind my delegation and who are watching us shape their future. I thank civil society, both who are working on the ground as we race against time in the hardest hit areas, and those who are here in Warsaw prodding us to have a sense of urgency and ambition. We are deeply moved by this manifestation of human solidarity. This outpouring of support proves to us that as a human race, we can unite; that as a species, we care.
It was barely 11 months ago in Doha when my delegation appealed to the world… to open our eyes to the stark reality that we face… as then we confronted a catastrophic storm that resulted in the costliest disaster in Philippine history. Less than a year hence, we cannot imagine that a disaster much bigger would come. With an apparent cruel twist of fate, my country is being tested by this hellstorm called Super Typhoon Haiyan, which has been described by experts as the strongest typhoon that has ever made landfall in the course of recorded human history. It was so strong that if there was a Category 6, it would have fallen squarely in that box. Up to this hour, we remain uncertain as to the full extent of the devastation, as information trickles in in an agonizingly slow manner because electricity lines and communication lines have been cut off and may take a while before these are restored.
The initial assessment show that Haiyan left a wake of massive devastation that is unprecedented, unthinkable and horrific, affecting 2/3 of the Philippines, with about half a million people now rendered homeless, and with scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of a tsunami, with a vast wasteland of mud and debris and dead bodies. According to satellite estimates, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also estimated that Haiyan achieved a minimum pressure between around 860 mbar (hPa; 25.34 inHg) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated Haiyan to have attained one-minute sustained winds of 315 km/h (195 mph) and gusts up to 378 km/h (235 mph) making it the strongest typhoon in modern recorded history. Despite the massive efforts that my country had exerted in preparing for the onslaught of this monster of a storm, it was just a force too powerful and even as a nation familiar with storms, Super Typhoon Haiyan was nothing we have ever experienced before, or perhaps nothing that any country has every experienced before.
The picture in the aftermath is ever so slowly coming into clearer focus. The devastation is colossal. And as if this is not enough, another storm is brewing again in the warm waters of the western Pacific. I shudder at the thought of another typhoon hitting the same places where people have not yet even managed to begin standing up.
To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change, I dare you to get off your ivory tower and away from the comfort of you armchair. I dare you to go to the islands of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian ocean and see the impacts of rising sea levels; to the mountainous regions of the Himalayas and the Andes to see communities confronting glacial floods, to the Arctic where communities grapple with the fast dwindling polar ice caps, to the large deltas of the Mekong, the Ganges, the Amazon, and the Nile where lives and livelihoods are drowned, to the hills of Central America that confronts similar monstrous hurricanes, to the vast savannas of Africa where climate change has likewise become a matter of life and death as food and water becomes scarce. Not to forget the massive hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard of North America. And if that is not enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now.
The science has given us a picture that has become much more in focus. The IPCC report on climate change and extreme events underscored the risks associated with changes in the patterns as well as frequency of extreme weather events. Science tells us that simply, climate change will mean more intense tropical storms. As the Earth warms up, that would include the oceans. The energy that is stored in the waters off the Philippines will increase the intensity of typhoons and the trend we now see is that more destructive storms will be the new norm.
This will have profound implications on many of our communities, especially who struggle against the twin challenges of the development crisis and the climate change crisis. Typhoons such as Yolanda (Haiyan) and its impacts represent a sobering reminder to the international community that we cannot afford to procrastinate on climate action. Warsaw must deliver on enhancing ambition and should muster the political will to address climate change.
In Doha, we asked "If not us then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?" (borrowed from Philippine student leader Ditto Sarmiento during Martial Law). It may have fell on deaf ears. But here in Warsaw, we may very well ask these same forthright questions. "If not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here in Warsaw, where?"
What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness.
We can stop this madness. Right here in Warsaw.
It is the 19th COP, but we might as well stop counting, because my country refuses to accept that a COP30 or a COP40 will be needed to solve climate change. And because it seems that despite the significant gains we have had since the UNFCCC was born, 20 years hence we continue to fail in fulfilling the ultimate objective of the Convention. Now, we find ourselves in a situation where we have to ask ourselves – can we ever attain the objective set out in Article 2 – which is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system? By failing to meet the objective the Convention, we may have ratified the doom of vulnerable countries.
And if we have failed to meet the objective of the Convention, we have to confront the issue of loss and damage. Loss and damage from climate change is a reality today across the world. Developed country emissions reductions targets are dangerously low and must be raised immediately, but even if they were in line with the demand of reducing 40-50% below 1990 levels, we would still have locked-in climate change and would still need to address the issue of loss and damage.
We find ourselves at a critical juncture and the situation is such that even the most ambitious emissions reductions by developed countries, who should have been taking the lead in combatting climate change in the past 2 decades, will not be enough to avert the crisis. It is now too late, too late to talk about the world being able to rely on Annex I countries to solve the climate crisis. We have entered a new era that demands global solidarity in order to fight climate change and ensure that pursuit of sustainable human development remains at the fore of the global community’s efforts. This is why means of implementation for developing countries is ever more crucial.
It was the Secretary general of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, 1992, Maurice Strong who said that "History reminds us that what is not possible today, may be inevitable tomorrow."
We cannot sit and stay helpless staring at this international climate stalemate. It is now time to take action. We need an emergency climate pathway.
I speak for my delegation. But more than that, I speak for the countless people who will no longer be able to speak for themselves after perishing from the storm. I also speak for those who have been orphaned by this tragedy. I also speak for the people now racing against time to save survivors and alleviate the suffering of the people affected by the disaster.
We can take drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons are a way of life. Because we refuse, as a nation, to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan become a fact of life. We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, having to count our dead, become a way of life. We simply refuse to.
We must stop calling events like these as natural disasters. It is not natural when people continue to struggle to eradicate poverty and pursue development and gets battered by the onslaught of a monster storm now considered as the strongest storm ever to hit land. It is not natural when science already tells us that global warming will induce more intense storms. It is not natural when the human species has already profoundly changed the climate.
Disasters are never natural. They are the intersection of factors other than physical. They are the accumulation of the constant breach of economic, social, and environmental thresholds. Most of the time disasters is a result of inequity and the poorest people of the world are at greatest risk because of their vulnerability and decades of maldevelopment, which I must assert is connected to the kind of pursuit of economic growth that dominates the world; the same kind of pursuit of so-called economic growth and unsustainable consumption that has altered the climate system.
Now, if you will allow me, to speak on a more personal note.
Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in my family’s hometown and the devastation is staggering. I struggle to find words even for the images that we see from the news coverage. I struggle to find words to describe how I feel about the losses and damages we have suffered from this cataclysm.
Up to this hour, I agonize while waiting for word as to the fate of my very own relatives. What gives me renewed strength and great relief was when my brother succeeded in communicating with us that he has survived the onslaught. In the last two days, he has been gathering bodies of the dead with his own two hands. He is hungry and weary as food supplies find it difficult to arrive in the hardest hit areas.
We call on this COP to pursue work until the most meaningful outcome is in sight. Until concrete pledges have been made to ensure mobilization of resources for the Green Climate Fund. Until the promise of the establishment of a loss and damage mechanism has been fulfilled; until there is assurance on finance for adaptation; until concrete pathways for reaching the committed 100 billion dollars have been made; until we see real ambition on stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations. We must put the money where our mouths are.
This process under the UNFCCC has been called many names. It has been called a farce. It has been called an annual carbon-intensive gathering of useless frequent flyers. It has been called many names. But it has also been called the Project to save the planet. It has been called "saving tomorrow today". We can fix this. We can stop this madness. Right now. Right here, in the middle of this football field.
I call on you to lead us. And let Poland be forever known as the place we truly cared to stop this madness. Can humanity rise to the occasion? I still believe we can.
Update
During his speech, Sano added an unscripted pledge to fast during the conference, until meaningful progress had been made. He said:
"In solidarity with my countrymen who are struggling to find food back home and with my brother who has not had food for the last three days, in all due respect Mr. President, and I mean no disrespect for your kind hospitality, I will now commence a voluntary fasting for the climate. This means I will voluntarily refrain from eating food during this COP until a meaningful outcome is in sight."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNaAixW95lI
Posted by DeLPhi
By Walden Bello
Hello Warsaw, this Is Haiyan calling
It seems these days that whenever Mother Nature wants to send an urgent message to humankind, it sends it via the Philippines. This year the messenger was Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Yolanda.
For the second year in a row, the world’s strongest typhoon barreled through the Philippines, Yolanda following on the footsteps steps of Pablo, a.k.a Bopha, in 2012. And for the third year in a row, a destructive storm deviated from the usual path taken by typhoons, striking communities that had not learned to live with these fearsome weather events because they were seldom hit by them in the past. Sendong in December 2011 and Bopha last year sliced Mindanao horizontally, while Yolanda drove through the Visayas, also in a horizontal direction.
That it was climate change creating the super typhoons that were taking weird directions was a message from Nature not just to Filipinos but to the whole world, whose attention was transfixed on the televised digital images of a massive angry cyclone bearing down, then sweeping across the central Philippines on its way to the Asian mainland. The message that Nature was sending via Yolanda–which packed winds stronger than Superstorm Sandy, which hit New Jersey and New York last October, and Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005–was especially meant for the governments of the world that are assembling in Warsaw for the annual global climate change negotiations (COP 19) scheduled to begin on November 11.
Is it a coincidence, ask some people who are not exactly religious, that both Pablo and Yolanda arrived at the time of the global climate negotiations? Pablo smashed into Mindanao during the last stages of the Conference of Parties 18 (COP 18) in Doha last year.
To reinforce Haiyan’s message, Commissioner Naderev Sano, the top negotiator for the Philippines, in Warsaw went on a hunger strike when the talks began on November 11.
COP 19: Another Deadlock?
It is doubtful, however, that the governments assembling in Warsaw will rise to the occasion. For a time earlier this year, it appeared that Hurricane Sandy would bring climate change to the forefront of President Obama’s agenda. It did not.
While trumpeting that he was directing federal agencies to take steps to force power plants to cut carbon emissions and encourage movement toward clean energy sources, Obama will not send a delegation that will change U.S. policy of non-adherence to the Kyoto Protocol, which Washington signed but never ratified. Although 70 percent of Americans now believe in climate change, Obama does not have the courage to challenge the fanatical "climate skeptics" that fill the ranks of the Tea Party and the U.S. business establishment on this front.
It is also unlikely that China, now the world’s biggest carbon emitter, will agree to mandatory limits on its greenhouse-gas emissions, armed with the rationale that those that have contributed most to the cumulative volume of greenhouse gases like the United States must be forced to make mandatory emissions cuts. And as China goes, so will Brazil, India, and a host of the other more industrially advanced developing countries that are the most influential voices in the "Group of 77 and China" coalition. What the governments of these countries seem to be saying is that the carbon-intensive industrial development plans they are pursuing are not up for negotiation.
Dangerous Gap
According to the Durban Platform agreed on in 2011, governments are supposed to submit carbon emissions reduction plans by 2015, which will then be implemented beginning in 2020. To climate scientists, this leaves a dangerous gap of seven years where no mandatory moves of emissions reduction can be expected from the United States and many other carbon-intensive countries. It is increasingly clear that every year now counts if the world is to avoid a rise in global mean temperature beyond 2 degrees Celsius, the accepted benchmark beyond which the global climate is expected to go really haywire.
Countries like the Philippines and many other island-states are in the frontlines of climate change. Every year of massive and frequent disastrous climate events like Yolanda and Pablo reminds them of the injustice of the situation. They are among those that have contributed least to climate change, yet they are its main victims. Their interest lies not only in accessing funds for "adaptation," such as the Green Climate Fund that would funnel, beginning in 2020, $100 billion a year from rich countries to poor countries to help them adjust to climate change (contributions so far have been small and slow in coming.) With typhoons and hurricanes now on the cutting edge of extreme weather events, these frontline countries must push all major greenhouse-gas emitters to agree to radical emissions cuts immediately and not wait until 2020.
Unorthodox Tactics
During last year’s Doha negotiations, one of the leaders of the Philippine delegation cried when he pointed to the ravages inflicted on Mindanao by Pablo. It was a moment of truth for the climate talks.
This year, the delegation must convert tears into anger and denounce the big climate polluters for their continued refusal to take the steps needed to save the world from the destruction that their carbon-intensive economies have unleashed on us all. Perhaps the best role the Philippine delegation and the other island-states can play is by adopting unorthodox tactics, like disrupting the negotiations procedurally to prevent the conference from falling into the familiar alignment of the rich North versus the Group of 77 and China. Such a configuration guarantees a political deadlock even as the world hurtles toward the four-degree-plus world that the World Bank has warned will be a certainty without a massive global effort to prevent it.
Now a member of the Philippine House of Representatives representing Akbayan (Citizens’ Action Party), Walden Bello was a member of the boards of both Greenpeace International and Greenpeace Southeast Asia, which he helped set up.
10 November 2013
http://opinion.inquirer.net/65115/yolanda-the-messenger
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Philippine groups demand action on climate finance, loss and damage in Warsaw climate talks
By Aksyon Klima Pilipinas
MANILA, 11 November 2013 – The outpouring of sympathy for the countries hit by super typhoon Haiyan should translate to substantial progress in the United Nations climate change conference opening today in Warsaw, according to Filipino climate activists.
"The Philippines cannot afford low expectations and stagnant discussions toward a 2015 climate deal, set to be implemented only in 2020. The rest of the world cannot do so, either," said Voltaire Alferez, national coordinator of climate network Aksyon Klima Pilipinas.
"Climate change has stacked more odds against us, setting us up for strong typhoons such as Haiyan and already costing hundreds, if not thousands of lives of Filipinos. We demand concrete action in Warsaw, owed to us by the richer countries which are mostly responsible for global warming," he added.
Haiyan pounded central Philippines last Friday, after hitting Palau, and has already made landfall in Vietnam. It was touted as the world’s strongest typhoon this year as well as the strongest ever typhoon to have made landfall. The Philippine government has kept the official death toll to 255 (as of 6 am Monday, Manila time) while reports continue to trickle in, although Leyte’s police chief believes that 10,000 died in their province alone.
"We hope that the governments who have expressed their solidarity and sympathy for our losses become allies of the Philippines towards a climate deal for all countries, whether developing or developed," Alferez said. "There is so much we share in the Southeast Asian region, so we ask solidarity not only for ourselves but for our neighbors as well. Here we share not only the air and the seas. Even hurricanes are shared, including the pain they bring."
Climate finance, loss and damage
Aksyon Klima challenged negotiators for governments around the world to focus on substance rather than process in the upcoming climate talks, especially in the areas of climate finance and loss and damage.
Little progress has been made since developed countries agreed in the 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen to jointly mobilize $100 billion every year by 2020 to help developing countries such as the Philippines deal with climate change impacts, the network stated. Global investment in climate change last 2012 has mostly kept to the 2011 figure at almost $360 million, according to a new study of the international Climate Policy Initiative. In addition, only $7.5 million has been raised as of June for the Green Climate Fund, which was established during the 2011 Durban negotiations to be the main conduit for climate finance.
In Warsaw, negotiators will also discuss how to address loss and damage caused by the adverse effects of climate change, as agreed upon in last year’s climate conference in Doha.
Developed countries have publicly opposed setting up an international mechanism to compensate economic and non-economic losses due to the adverse effects of climate change, which developing countries, especially the Philippines and others which are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, have been pushing.
"Loss and damage due to climate change is beyond adaptation and has not been addressed yet in the negotiations. It is therefore of paramount importance that the negotiators in Warsaw agree on the establishment of an international mechanism to address losses attributed to climate change, including those caused by slow-onset events. This mechanism should enable countries to effectively and urgently recover from the impact of extreme weather events, like what happened to the Philippines in the aftermath of super typhoon Haiyan," Alferez said.
The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that intense tropical cyclone activity is "more likely than not" to rise in the Western North Pacific and North Atlantic.
Mitigation and tech transfer
Aksyon Klima also called on negotiators to set concrete targets for mitigation and technology transfer.
"Those who signified their support for a second commitment period, should clearly signify the level of ambition or the magnitude of emissions cuts that they will have to do," Alferez said on the Kyoto Protocol, the legal mandate to reduce emissions which was extended to 2013-2020.
While those cuts may not anymore meet the Kyoto target of 5% global emissions cuts from 1990, he added, those cuts can help prevent the further buildup of greenhouse gases. Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii recorded that the global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has reached a record-breaking 400 parts per million.
The Warsaw talks should also foster the development of non-market mechanisms and a clearer framework for various approaches, including markets, Alferez also stated.
On technology transfer, while the Climate Technology Center and Network has became operational back in Doha, Aksyon Klima lamented that the emerging picture of what it can offer is only technical assistance for climate technology transfer, which can cost only up to $250,000.
###
ABOUT AKSYON KLIMA PILIPINAS
We are a network of 40 civil society organizations in the Philippines working on climate action in the international, national, and local levels. For more details, visit twitter.com/aksyonklima or facebook.com/aksyonklima.
http://www.aksyonklima.com
_______________________________________________
"It’s time to stop this madness" – Philippines plea at UN climate talks
Philippines lead negotiator Yeb Sano has just addressed the opening session of the UN climate summit in Warsaw – calling for urgent action to prevent a repeat of the devastating storm that hit parts of his country at the weekend. A copy of the speech sent to RTCC by Sano is below.
Mr. President, I have the honor to speak on behalf of the resilient people of the Republic of the Philippines.
At the onset, allow me to fully associate my delegation with the statement made by the distinguished Ambassador of the Republic of Fiji, on behalf of G77 and China as well as the statement made by Nicaragua on behalf of the Like-Minded Developing Countries.
First and foremost, the people of the Philippines, and our delegation here for the United Nations Climate Change Convention’s 19th Conference of the Parties here in Warsaw, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your expression of sympathy to my country in the face of this national difficulty.
In the midst of this tragedy, the delegation of the Philippines is comforted by the warm hospitality of Poland, with your people offering us warm smiles everywhere we go. Hotel staff and people on the streets, volunteers and personnel within the National Stadium have warmly offered us kind words of sympathy. So, thank you Poland.
The arrangements you have made for this COP is also most excellent and we highly appreciate the tremendous effort you have put into the preparations for this important gathering.
We also thank all of you, friends and colleagues in this hall and from all corners of the world as you stand beside us in this difficult time. I thank all countries and governments who have extended your solidarity and for offering assistance to the Philippines. I thank the youth present here and the billions of young people around the world who stand steadfast behind my delegation and who are watching us shape their future. I thank civil society, both who are working on the ground as we race against time in the hardest hit areas, and those who are here in Warsaw prodding us to have a sense of urgency and ambition. We are deeply moved by this manifestation of human solidarity. This outpouring of support proves to us that as a human race, we can unite; that as a species, we care.
It was barely 11 months ago in Doha when my delegation appealed to the world… to open our eyes to the stark reality that we face… as then we confronted a catastrophic storm that resulted in the costliest disaster in Philippine history. Less than a year hence, we cannot imagine that a disaster much bigger would come. With an apparent cruel twist of fate, my country is being tested by this hellstorm called Super Typhoon Haiyan, which has been described by experts as the strongest typhoon that has ever made landfall in the course of recorded human history. It was so strong that if there was a Category 6, it would have fallen squarely in that box. Up to this hour, we remain uncertain as to the full extent of the devastation, as information trickles in in an agonizingly slow manner because electricity lines and communication lines have been cut off and may take a while before these are restored.
The initial assessment show that Haiyan left a wake of massive devastation that is unprecedented, unthinkable and horrific, affecting 2/3 of the Philippines, with about half a million people now rendered homeless, and with scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of a tsunami, with a vast wasteland of mud and debris and dead bodies. According to satellite estimates, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also estimated that Haiyan achieved a minimum pressure between around 860 mbar (hPa; 25.34 inHg) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated Haiyan to have attained one-minute sustained winds of 315 km/h (195 mph) and gusts up to 378 km/h (235 mph) making it the strongest typhoon in modern recorded history. Despite the massive efforts that my country had exerted in preparing for the onslaught of this monster of a storm, it was just a force too powerful and even as a nation familiar with storms, Super Typhoon Haiyan was nothing we have ever experienced before, or perhaps nothing that any country has every experienced before.
The picture in the aftermath is ever so slowly coming into clearer focus. The devastation is colossal. And as if this is not enough, another storm is brewing again in the warm waters of the western Pacific. I shudder at the thought of another typhoon hitting the same places where people have not yet even managed to begin standing up.
To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change, I dare you to get off your ivory tower and away from the comfort of you armchair. I dare you to go to the islands of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian ocean and see the impacts of rising sea levels; to the mountainous regions of the Himalayas and the Andes to see communities confronting glacial floods, to the Arctic where communities grapple with the fast dwindling polar ice caps, to the large deltas of the Mekong, the Ganges, the Amazon, and the Nile where lives and livelihoods are drowned, to the hills of Central America that confronts similar monstrous hurricanes, to the vast savannas of Africa where climate change has likewise become a matter of life and death as food and water becomes scarce. Not to forget the massive hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard of North America. And if that is not enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now.
The science has given us a picture that has become much more in focus. The IPCC report on climate change and extreme events underscored the risks associated with changes in the patterns as well as frequency of extreme weather events. Science tells us that simply, climate change will mean more intense tropical storms. As the Earth warms up, that would include the oceans. The energy that is stored in the waters off the Philippines will increase the intensity of typhoons and the trend we now see is that more destructive storms will be the new norm.
This will have profound implications on many of our communities, especially who struggle against the twin challenges of the development crisis and the climate change crisis. Typhoons such as Yolanda (Haiyan) and its impacts represent a sobering reminder to the international community that we cannot afford to procrastinate on climate action. Warsaw must deliver on enhancing ambition and should muster the political will to address climate change.
In Doha, we asked "If not us then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?" (borrowed from Philippine student leader Ditto Sarmiento during Martial Law). It may have fell on deaf ears. But here in Warsaw, we may very well ask these same forthright questions. "If not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here in Warsaw, where?"
What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness.
We can stop this madness. Right here in Warsaw.
It is the 19th COP, but we might as well stop counting, because my country refuses to accept that a COP30 or a COP40 will be needed to solve climate change. And because it seems that despite the significant gains we have had since the UNFCCC was born, 20 years hence we continue to fail in fulfilling the ultimate objective of the Convention. Now, we find ourselves in a situation where we have to ask ourselves – can we ever attain the objective set out in Article 2 – which is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system? By failing to meet the objective the Convention, we may have ratified the doom of vulnerable countries.
And if we have failed to meet the objective of the Convention, we have to confront the issue of loss and damage. Loss and damage from climate change is a reality today across the world. Developed country emissions reductions targets are dangerously low and must be raised immediately, but even if they were in line with the demand of reducing 40-50% below 1990 levels, we would still have locked-in climate change and would still need to address the issue of loss and damage.
We find ourselves at a critical juncture and the situation is such that even the most ambitious emissions reductions by developed countries, who should have been taking the lead in combatting climate change in the past 2 decades, will not be enough to avert the crisis. It is now too late, too late to talk about the world being able to rely on Annex I countries to solve the climate crisis. We have entered a new era that demands global solidarity in order to fight climate change and ensure that pursuit of sustainable human development remains at the fore of the global community’s efforts. This is why means of implementation for developing countries is ever more crucial.
It was the Secretary general of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, 1992, Maurice Strong who said that "History reminds us that what is not possible today, may be inevitable tomorrow."
We cannot sit and stay helpless staring at this international climate stalemate. It is now time to take action. We need an emergency climate pathway.
I speak for my delegation. But more than that, I speak for the countless people who will no longer be able to speak for themselves after perishing from the storm. I also speak for those who have been orphaned by this tragedy. I also speak for the people now racing against time to save survivors and alleviate the suffering of the people affected by the disaster.
We can take drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons are a way of life. Because we refuse, as a nation, to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan become a fact of life. We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, having to count our dead, become a way of life. We simply refuse to.
We must stop calling events like these as natural disasters. It is not natural when people continue to struggle to eradicate poverty and pursue development and gets battered by the onslaught of a monster storm now considered as the strongest storm ever to hit land. It is not natural when science already tells us that global warming will induce more intense storms. It is not natural when the human species has already profoundly changed the climate.
Disasters are never natural. They are the intersection of factors other than physical. They are the accumulation of the constant breach of economic, social, and environmental thresholds. Most of the time disasters is a result of inequity and the poorest people of the world are at greatest risk because of their vulnerability and decades of maldevelopment, which I must assert is connected to the kind of pursuit of economic growth that dominates the world; the same kind of pursuit of so-called economic growth and unsustainable consumption that has altered the climate system.
Now, if you will allow me, to speak on a more personal note.
Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in my family’s hometown and the devastation is staggering. I struggle to find words even for the images that we see from the news coverage. I struggle to find words to describe how I feel about the losses and damages we have suffered from this cataclysm.
Up to this hour, I agonize while waiting for word as to the fate of my very own relatives. What gives me renewed strength and great relief was when my brother succeeded in communicating with us that he has survived the onslaught. In the last two days, he has been gathering bodies of the dead with his own two hands. He is hungry and weary as food supplies find it difficult to arrive in the hardest hit areas.
We call on this COP to pursue work until the most meaningful outcome is in sight. Until concrete pledges have been made to ensure mobilization of resources for the Green Climate Fund. Until the promise of the establishment of a loss and damage mechanism has been fulfilled; until there is assurance on finance for adaptation; until concrete pathways for reaching the committed 100 billion dollars have been made; until we see real ambition on stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations. We must put the money where our mouths are.
This process under the UNFCCC has been called many names. It has been called a farce. It has been called an annual carbon-intensive gathering of useless frequent flyers. It has been called many names. But it has also been called the Project to save the planet. It has been called "saving tomorrow today". We can fix this. We can stop this madness. Right now. Right here, in the middle of this football field.
I call on you to lead us. And let Poland be forever known as the place we truly cared to stop this madness. Can humanity rise to the occasion? I still believe we can.
Update
During his speech, Sano added an unscripted pledge to fast during the conference, until meaningful progress had been made. He said:
"In solidarity with my countrymen who are struggling to find food back home and with my brother who has not had food for the last three days, in all due respect Mr. President, and I mean no disrespect for your kind hospitality, I will now commence a voluntary fasting for the climate. This means I will voluntarily refrain from eating food during this COP until a meaningful outcome is in sight."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNaAixW95lI
Posted by DeLPhi
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“The thermal energy content of the atmosphere, ocean, and upper crust is estimated to be more than 10,000 times that of the world's fossil fuel reserves, making it a potentially inexhaustible reservoir of green energy.” Daniel P. Sheehan University of San Diego
Sheehan has long believed this energy can produce power.
AESOP Institute is prototyping an engine designed to run on the thermal energy content of the atmosphere, a form of solar energy.
See http://www.aesopinstitute.org to learn more about this hard to believe NO FUEL ENGINE.
The inventor says: think of it as a refrigerator that generates electricity and exhausts cold air.
Skeptics might enjoy CIRCUMVENTING SECOND LAW on the same site.
We are moving toward the birth of 24/7 inexpensive power producing alternatives to radioactive and fossil fuels.
Such an engine is loudly decried by a few scientists who seem to fear experiments that would prove practical engines can run on atmospheric heat.
When validated by independent labs, the prototype will light an exciting path to other examples of new science that could slow, and possibly point to ways to reverse, Global Warming.
Imagine the positive economic implications.
Once proven, around the clock development and production can provide an often missing ingredient where rapidly superseding fossil fuels is concerned, genuine hope.
Sheehan has long believed this energy can produce power.
AESOP Institute is prototyping an engine designed to run on the thermal energy content of the atmosphere, a form of solar energy.
See http://www.aesopinstitute.org to learn more about this hard to believe NO FUEL ENGINE.
The inventor says: think of it as a refrigerator that generates electricity and exhausts cold air.
Skeptics might enjoy CIRCUMVENTING SECOND LAW on the same site.
We are moving toward the birth of 24/7 inexpensive power producing alternatives to radioactive and fossil fuels.
Such an engine is loudly decried by a few scientists who seem to fear experiments that would prove practical engines can run on atmospheric heat.
When validated by independent labs, the prototype will light an exciting path to other examples of new science that could slow, and possibly point to ways to reverse, Global Warming.
Imagine the positive economic implications.
Once proven, around the clock development and production can provide an often missing ingredient where rapidly superseding fossil fuels is concerned, genuine hope.
For more information:
http://www.aesopinstitute.org
If you want your kids to grow up with the same opportunities you had, the time for solving climate change is now. http://clmtr.lt/cb/zG50AU
Mark Goldes, starting in the mid-seventies, engaged for several years in the pretense that his company SunWind Ltd was developing a nearly production-ready, road-worthy, wind-powered "windmobile," based on the windmobile invented by James Amick; and that therefore SunWind would be a wonderful investment opportunity.
After SunWind "dried up" in 1983, Goldes embarked on the long-running pretense that his company Room Temperature Superconductors Inc was developing room-temperature superconductors; and that therefore Room Temperature Superconductors Inc would be a wonderful investment opportunity. He continues the pretense that the company developed something useful, even to this day.
And then Goldes embarked on the pretense that his company Magnetic Power Inc was developing "NO FUEL ENGINES" based on "Virtual Photon Flux;" and then, on the pretense that MPI was developing horn-powered "NO FUEL ENGINES" based on the resonance of magnetized tuning-rods; and then, on the pretense that his company Chava Energy was developing water-fueled engines based on "collapsing hydrogen orbitals" (which are ruled out by quantum physics); and then, on the pretense that he was developing ambient-heat-powered "NO FUEL ENGINES" (which are ruled out by the Second Law of Thermodynamics).
Goldes' forty-year career of "revolutionary invention" pretense has nothing to do with science, but only with pseudoscience and pseudophysics - his lifelong stock-in-trade.
I have spent months investigating the career of Mark Goldes, Aesop Institute's Perpetual Scam Machine.
1976: Goldes seeks investors with fraudulent claims to have developed a nearly production-ready, road-worthy, wind-propelled, wind-rechargeable "windmobile" that could reach 60 mph. Goldes has never developed any roadworthy windmobile.
1998: Goldes fools the gullible US Air Force with his "room temperature superconductor" scam, receiving over four hundred thousand dollars in "Innovative Research" grants. Goldes has never produced any superconductor.
2005: Goldes seeks investors with fraudulent claims that his company, MPI, is developing "Magnetic Power Modules" based on "Virtual Photon Flux."
2008: Goldes seeks investors with fraudulent claims that "MPI is also developing breakthrough magnetic energy technologies including POWERGENIE (Power Generation of Electricity by Nondestructive Interference of Energy)." The basic idea of POWERGENIE is to generate electricity from sound energy, by blowing a horn at a magnetized tuning rod. Goldes claims to have "run an electric car for more than 4,800 miles with no need to plug-in." According to Goldes, "[MPI] Revenues from licenses and Joint Ventures are conservatively projected to exceed $1 billion annually by 2012."
2009: Goldes seeks investors with fraudulent claims that his latest scamporation, Chava Energy, "has been developing enhanced theoretical and practical paths that lead towards commercialization of energy conversion systems that utilize hydrinos." He now claims to be "developing a Self Powered Internal Combustion Engine – SPICE(tm) powered by hydrinos." ("Hydrinos" are pure fiction and do not exist.)
"For over 20 years Mark Goldes has claimed his company MPI has been developing machines that generate energy for free. In over 20 years his company has not presented one shred of evidence that they can build such machines...
"For the past five years Mark Goldes has been promising generators 'next year.' He has never delivered. Like 'Alice in Wonderland' there will always be jam tomorrow, but never jam today."
- Penny Gruber, December 2008
- Gruber's comment was written almost five years ago - but it's just as true today - except that MPI, Goldes' corporation that he claimed would bring in one billion dollars in revenue from his horn-powered generator in 2012, is now defunct, having never produced any "Magnetic Power Modules" - just as his company called "Room Temperature Superconductors Inc" is also now defunct, having never produced any "room temperature superconductors." Evidently there's a limit to how many years in a row the same company can claim it will finally have something to demonstrate "next year." Now Goldes has a new scamporation, Chava Energy.
Goldes' current favorite scam is an engine that would run on ambient heat only - which is ruled out by the Second Law of Thermodynamics. But of course, the laws of physics always make an exception for the scams of Mark Goldes.
Mark Goldes is a textbook-ready example of a highly talented con artist who clearly takes pleasure in fooling people with his ludicrous claims, artfully peppered with pseudoscientific rubbish.
Make no mistake: Mark Goldes' scamtastic Aesop Institute is a ZERO-STAR nonprofit.
Let's look at just one example of Goldes' offerings in "revolutionary new technology:"
Most Ludicrous Scamvention: Mark Goldes' "POWERGENIE"
One of the most laughable of Mark Goldes' many invention scams is his "POWERGENIE" horn-powered generator. The brilliant idea of this revolutionary breakthrough is to blow a horn at a magnetized tuning rod, designed to resonate at the frequency of the horn, and then collect the electromotive energy produced by the vibrations of the rod.
We're not making this up.
POWERGENIE tuning rod engine explained - from the patent:
[The device incorporates] "an energy transfer and multiplier element being constructed of a ferromagnetic substance... having a natural resonance, due to a physical structure whose dimensions are directly proportional to the wavelength of the resonance frequency..."
"In this resonant condition, the rod material functions as a tuned waveguide, or longitudinal resonator, for acoustic energy."
"Ferrite rod 800 is driven to acoustic resonance at the second harmonic of its fundamental resonant frequency by acoustic horn 811, resulting in acoustic wave 816 within the rod having two nodal points... Bias magnet 801 produces magnetic flux 802 extending axially through both nodal points developed within rod 800... The sum electromotive force of coils 820 and 821 develops electrical current and power in resistive load 830."
- But the patent doesn't tell us who is going to volunteer to blow the horn at the rod all day. Perhaps it will come with an elephant.
Goldes claimed in 2008 that this wonderful triumph of human genius would bring his company, Magnetic Power Inc, one billion dollars in annual revenue by 2012. Magnetic Power Inc is now defunct, having never produced any "Magnetic Power Modules" - just as his company called "Room Temperature Superconductors Inc" is also now defunct, having never produced any "room temperature superconductors."
Mark Goldes' proofless claims regarding his make-believe strictly ambient heat engine do not represent any new technology, or even a new pretense - they merely represent a rather old pretense.
"Before the establishment of the Second Law, many people who were interested in inventing a perpetual motion machine had tried to circumvent the restrictions of First Law of Thermodynamics by extracting the massive internal energy of the environment as the power of the machine. Such a machine is called a "perpetual motion machine of the second kind". The second law declared the impossibility of such machines."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics#Perpetual_motion_of_the_second_kind
"A perpetual motion machine of the second kind is a machine which spontaneously converts thermal energy into mechanical work. When the thermal energy is equivalent to the work done, this does not violate the law of conservation of energy. However it does violate the more subtle second law of thermodynamics (see also entropy). The signature of a perpetual motion machine of the second kind is that there is only one heat reservoir involved, which is being spontaneously cooled without involving a transfer of heat to a cooler reservoir. This conversion of heat into useful work, without any side effect, is impossible, according to the second law of thermodynamics."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_motion#Classification
Goldes' make-believe strictly ambient heat engine would be a perpetual motion machine of the second kind, as defined above. Goldes is not developing any such engine; he is merely developing a pretense - as usual.
http://physicsreviewboard.wordpress.com/aesop-institute-s-purely-ambient-heat-engine-is-pure-fraud/
http://physicsreviewboard.wordpress.com/aesop-institute/
After SunWind "dried up" in 1983, Goldes embarked on the long-running pretense that his company Room Temperature Superconductors Inc was developing room-temperature superconductors; and that therefore Room Temperature Superconductors Inc would be a wonderful investment opportunity. He continues the pretense that the company developed something useful, even to this day.
And then Goldes embarked on the pretense that his company Magnetic Power Inc was developing "NO FUEL ENGINES" based on "Virtual Photon Flux;" and then, on the pretense that MPI was developing horn-powered "NO FUEL ENGINES" based on the resonance of magnetized tuning-rods; and then, on the pretense that his company Chava Energy was developing water-fueled engines based on "collapsing hydrogen orbitals" (which are ruled out by quantum physics); and then, on the pretense that he was developing ambient-heat-powered "NO FUEL ENGINES" (which are ruled out by the Second Law of Thermodynamics).
Goldes' forty-year career of "revolutionary invention" pretense has nothing to do with science, but only with pseudoscience and pseudophysics - his lifelong stock-in-trade.
I have spent months investigating the career of Mark Goldes, Aesop Institute's Perpetual Scam Machine.
1976: Goldes seeks investors with fraudulent claims to have developed a nearly production-ready, road-worthy, wind-propelled, wind-rechargeable "windmobile" that could reach 60 mph. Goldes has never developed any roadworthy windmobile.
1998: Goldes fools the gullible US Air Force with his "room temperature superconductor" scam, receiving over four hundred thousand dollars in "Innovative Research" grants. Goldes has never produced any superconductor.
2005: Goldes seeks investors with fraudulent claims that his company, MPI, is developing "Magnetic Power Modules" based on "Virtual Photon Flux."
2008: Goldes seeks investors with fraudulent claims that "MPI is also developing breakthrough magnetic energy technologies including POWERGENIE (Power Generation of Electricity by Nondestructive Interference of Energy)." The basic idea of POWERGENIE is to generate electricity from sound energy, by blowing a horn at a magnetized tuning rod. Goldes claims to have "run an electric car for more than 4,800 miles with no need to plug-in." According to Goldes, "[MPI] Revenues from licenses and Joint Ventures are conservatively projected to exceed $1 billion annually by 2012."
2009: Goldes seeks investors with fraudulent claims that his latest scamporation, Chava Energy, "has been developing enhanced theoretical and practical paths that lead towards commercialization of energy conversion systems that utilize hydrinos." He now claims to be "developing a Self Powered Internal Combustion Engine – SPICE(tm) powered by hydrinos." ("Hydrinos" are pure fiction and do not exist.)
"For over 20 years Mark Goldes has claimed his company MPI has been developing machines that generate energy for free. In over 20 years his company has not presented one shred of evidence that they can build such machines...
"For the past five years Mark Goldes has been promising generators 'next year.' He has never delivered. Like 'Alice in Wonderland' there will always be jam tomorrow, but never jam today."
- Penny Gruber, December 2008
- Gruber's comment was written almost five years ago - but it's just as true today - except that MPI, Goldes' corporation that he claimed would bring in one billion dollars in revenue from his horn-powered generator in 2012, is now defunct, having never produced any "Magnetic Power Modules" - just as his company called "Room Temperature Superconductors Inc" is also now defunct, having never produced any "room temperature superconductors." Evidently there's a limit to how many years in a row the same company can claim it will finally have something to demonstrate "next year." Now Goldes has a new scamporation, Chava Energy.
Goldes' current favorite scam is an engine that would run on ambient heat only - which is ruled out by the Second Law of Thermodynamics. But of course, the laws of physics always make an exception for the scams of Mark Goldes.
Mark Goldes is a textbook-ready example of a highly talented con artist who clearly takes pleasure in fooling people with his ludicrous claims, artfully peppered with pseudoscientific rubbish.
Make no mistake: Mark Goldes' scamtastic Aesop Institute is a ZERO-STAR nonprofit.
Let's look at just one example of Goldes' offerings in "revolutionary new technology:"
Most Ludicrous Scamvention: Mark Goldes' "POWERGENIE"
One of the most laughable of Mark Goldes' many invention scams is his "POWERGENIE" horn-powered generator. The brilliant idea of this revolutionary breakthrough is to blow a horn at a magnetized tuning rod, designed to resonate at the frequency of the horn, and then collect the electromotive energy produced by the vibrations of the rod.
We're not making this up.
POWERGENIE tuning rod engine explained - from the patent:
[The device incorporates] "an energy transfer and multiplier element being constructed of a ferromagnetic substance... having a natural resonance, due to a physical structure whose dimensions are directly proportional to the wavelength of the resonance frequency..."
"In this resonant condition, the rod material functions as a tuned waveguide, or longitudinal resonator, for acoustic energy."
"Ferrite rod 800 is driven to acoustic resonance at the second harmonic of its fundamental resonant frequency by acoustic horn 811, resulting in acoustic wave 816 within the rod having two nodal points... Bias magnet 801 produces magnetic flux 802 extending axially through both nodal points developed within rod 800... The sum electromotive force of coils 820 and 821 develops electrical current and power in resistive load 830."
- But the patent doesn't tell us who is going to volunteer to blow the horn at the rod all day. Perhaps it will come with an elephant.
Goldes claimed in 2008 that this wonderful triumph of human genius would bring his company, Magnetic Power Inc, one billion dollars in annual revenue by 2012. Magnetic Power Inc is now defunct, having never produced any "Magnetic Power Modules" - just as his company called "Room Temperature Superconductors Inc" is also now defunct, having never produced any "room temperature superconductors."
Mark Goldes' proofless claims regarding his make-believe strictly ambient heat engine do not represent any new technology, or even a new pretense - they merely represent a rather old pretense.
"Before the establishment of the Second Law, many people who were interested in inventing a perpetual motion machine had tried to circumvent the restrictions of First Law of Thermodynamics by extracting the massive internal energy of the environment as the power of the machine. Such a machine is called a "perpetual motion machine of the second kind". The second law declared the impossibility of such machines."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics#Perpetual_motion_of_the_second_kind
"A perpetual motion machine of the second kind is a machine which spontaneously converts thermal energy into mechanical work. When the thermal energy is equivalent to the work done, this does not violate the law of conservation of energy. However it does violate the more subtle second law of thermodynamics (see also entropy). The signature of a perpetual motion machine of the second kind is that there is only one heat reservoir involved, which is being spontaneously cooled without involving a transfer of heat to a cooler reservoir. This conversion of heat into useful work, without any side effect, is impossible, according to the second law of thermodynamics."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_motion#Classification
Goldes' make-believe strictly ambient heat engine would be a perpetual motion machine of the second kind, as defined above. Goldes is not developing any such engine; he is merely developing a pretense - as usual.
http://physicsreviewboard.wordpress.com/aesop-institute-s-purely-ambient-heat-engine-is-pure-fraud/
http://physicsreviewboard.wordpress.com/aesop-institute/
A block of ice just below the freezing point is far above absolute zero, so it actually contains plenty of heat. Can we take advantage of this to boil a pot of water, by setting it down on a block of ice?
Expecting an ambient heat engine to do any work, with only one heat reservoir, is exactly equivalent to expecting a teapot to boil water by absorbing heat from a block of ice.
Both processes are ruled out by the very same law - the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
An ambient heat engine, with only one heat reservoir, would not merely "circumvent" the Second Law of Thermodynamics - it would actually DISPROVE the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
An engine that only uses ambient heat would need to be able to DECREASE the entropy of the universe. The Second Law tells us that we can never decrease the entropy of the universe, or of an isolated system.
As a consequence of this law:
"It is impossible for any device operating on a cycle to produce net work from a single temperature reservoir; the production of net work requires flow of heat from a hotter reservoir to a colder reservoir."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy#Second_law_of_thermodynamics
In a strictly ambient heat engine there are not two heat reservoirs at different temperatures; no reservoir would be available at any temperature other than the ambient temperature. No matter what cycle we design with this constraint, we will find that the cycle would have to be able to decrease the entropy of the universe in order to do any work.
The Second Law tells us that we can never build an engine that does some work with heat taken from a heat reservoir, without also transferring some heat to another reservoir at a lower temperature.
An equivalent statement is that we can't decrease the total entropy of an isolated system.
The entropy change differential due to heat transfer to or from a reservoir is inversely related to the temperature at which the transfer occurs. The consequence is that transferring heat INTO a cold reservoir produces a larger GAIN in entropy, than the LOSS of entropy that occurs due to transfer of the same amount of heat FROM a hot reservoir. This noteworthy and remarkable inequality enables a heat engine to use some heat to do some work without violating the Second Law - as long as it can make use of two different heat reservoirs, at different temperatures. The ambient-heat-powered engine only involves a single reservoir, at a single temperature (at any given moment). Use of heat from the single reservoir would reduce the entropy of the reservoir, and with no colder reservoir, the engine has no way to compensate by increasing the entropy anywhere else. Therefore we know for certain that the engine will disappoint us. It will never be able to do any work.
Flow of heat from a block of ice to lukewarm water would also result in a DECREASE of the total entropy. To repeat, this is because the entropy change differential due to heat transfer to or from a reservoir is inversely related to the temperature at which the transfer occurs. Therefore the LOSS of entropy by the ice would be greater than the GAIN in entropy by the warm water, resulting in an overall decrease in entropy.
Once again: Expecting an ambient heat engine to do any work, with only one heat reservoir, is exactly equivalent to expecting a teapot to boil water by absorbing heat from a block of ice. Anyone who claims to be developing a "prototype" of such an engine is only developing a pretense, and nothing more.
Mark Goldes' proofless claims regarding his Aesop Institute's make-believe strictly ambient heat engine do not represent any new technology, or even a new pretense - they merely represent a rather old pretense.
"Before the establishment of the Second Law, many people who were interested in inventing a perpetual motion machine had tried to circumvent the restrictions of First Law of Thermodynamics by extracting the massive internal energy of the environment as the power of the machine. Such a machine is called a "perpetual motion machine of the second kind". The second law declared the impossibility of such machines."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics#Perpetual_motion_of_the_second_kind
"A perpetual motion machine of the second kind is a machine which spontaneously converts thermal energy into mechanical work. When the thermal energy is equivalent to the work done, this does not violate the law of conservation of energy. However it does violate the more subtle second law of thermodynamics (see also entropy). The signature of a perpetual motion machine of the second kind is that there is only one heat reservoir involved, which is being spontaneously cooled without involving a transfer of heat to a cooler reservoir. This conversion of heat into useful work, without any side effect, is impossible, according to the second law of thermodynamics."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_motion#Classification
Goldes' make-believe strictly ambient heat engine would be a perpetual motion machine of the second kind, as defined above. Goldes is not developing any such engine; he is merely developing a pretense - as usual.
Goldes' strictly ambient heat engine would not merely "circumvent" the Second Law of Thermodynamics - it would actually DISPROVE the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
An engine that only uses ambient heat would need to be able to DECREASE the entropy of the universe. The Second Law tells us that we can never decrease the entropy of the universe, or of an isolated system.
As a consequence of this law:
"It is impossible for any device operating on a cycle to produce net work from a single temperature reservoir; the production of net work requires flow of heat from a hotter reservoir to a colder reservoir."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy#Second_law_of_thermodynamics
In the make-believe strictly ambient heat engine there are not two heat reservoirs at different temperatures; no reservoir would be available at any temperature other than the ambient temperature. No matter what cycle we design with this constraint, we will find that the cycle would have to be able to decrease the entropy of the universe in order to do any work.
The formulation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics as a constraint on entropy change is one of the most beautifully simple, and well-established, laws of physics.
The Second Law tells us that we can never build an engine that does some work with heat taken from a heat reservoir, without also transferring some heat to another reservoir at a lower temperature.
An equivalent statement is that we can't decrease the total entropy of an isolated system.
The entropy change differential due to heat transfer to or from a reservoir is inversely related to the temperature at which the transfer occurs. The consequence is that transferring heat INTO a cold reservoir produces a larger GAIN in entropy, than the LOSS of entropy that occurs due to transfer of the same amount of heat FROM a hot reservoir. This noteworthy and remarkable inequality enables a heat engine to use some heat to do some work without violating the Second Law - as long as it can make use of two different heat reservoirs, at different temperatures. The ambient-heat-powered engine only involves a single reservoir, at a single temperature (at any given moment). Use of heat from the single reservoir would reduce the entropy of the reservoir, and with no colder reservoir, the engine has no way to compensate by increasing the entropy anywhere else. Therefore we know for certain that the engine will disappoint us. It will never be able to do any work.
In Mark Goldes' patent application for his "POWERGENIE" horn-powered tuning-rod engine, he described the tuning-rod as "an energy transfer and multiplier element."
But of course, for the tuning-rod to "multiply" energy, it would need to disprove the law of conservation of energy. (Obviously the Patent Office should never have allowed such a description.)
Goldes' use of the term "energy multiplier element" reflects his pretense that the "revolutionary breakthrough" of the amazing "POWERGENIE" could disprove the law of conservation of energy, by presenting the world with a working "energy multiplier."
Goldes even claimed in 2008 that the POWERGENIE had been demonstrated already in an electric car, driven 4800 miles by his energy-multiplying horn-powered tuning-rod.
But it seems that most people, for some reason, had difficulty accepting the notion that the law of conservation of energy could be proven false.
And Goldes no doubt noticed that the Second Law of Thermodynamics - that "the entropy of an isolated system tends to increase with time and can never decrease" - is much less clear to most people than the conservation of energy.
So now, after leaving aside the pretense that he could somehow "multiply energy" with a magnetized tuning-rod, Goldes has chosen to focus, instead, on the pretense that he can disprove the Second Law with an engine powered by ambient heat.
There is no "new science" in any of Goldes' "revolutionary breakthroughs." There is only pseudoscience and pretense - and nothing new, at all.
http://physicsreviewboard.wordpress.com/aesop-institute-s-purely-ambient-heat-engine-is-pure-fraud/
Expecting an ambient heat engine to do any work, with only one heat reservoir, is exactly equivalent to expecting a teapot to boil water by absorbing heat from a block of ice.
Both processes are ruled out by the very same law - the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
An ambient heat engine, with only one heat reservoir, would not merely "circumvent" the Second Law of Thermodynamics - it would actually DISPROVE the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
An engine that only uses ambient heat would need to be able to DECREASE the entropy of the universe. The Second Law tells us that we can never decrease the entropy of the universe, or of an isolated system.
As a consequence of this law:
"It is impossible for any device operating on a cycle to produce net work from a single temperature reservoir; the production of net work requires flow of heat from a hotter reservoir to a colder reservoir."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy#Second_law_of_thermodynamics
In a strictly ambient heat engine there are not two heat reservoirs at different temperatures; no reservoir would be available at any temperature other than the ambient temperature. No matter what cycle we design with this constraint, we will find that the cycle would have to be able to decrease the entropy of the universe in order to do any work.
The Second Law tells us that we can never build an engine that does some work with heat taken from a heat reservoir, without also transferring some heat to another reservoir at a lower temperature.
An equivalent statement is that we can't decrease the total entropy of an isolated system.
The entropy change differential due to heat transfer to or from a reservoir is inversely related to the temperature at which the transfer occurs. The consequence is that transferring heat INTO a cold reservoir produces a larger GAIN in entropy, than the LOSS of entropy that occurs due to transfer of the same amount of heat FROM a hot reservoir. This noteworthy and remarkable inequality enables a heat engine to use some heat to do some work without violating the Second Law - as long as it can make use of two different heat reservoirs, at different temperatures. The ambient-heat-powered engine only involves a single reservoir, at a single temperature (at any given moment). Use of heat from the single reservoir would reduce the entropy of the reservoir, and with no colder reservoir, the engine has no way to compensate by increasing the entropy anywhere else. Therefore we know for certain that the engine will disappoint us. It will never be able to do any work.
Flow of heat from a block of ice to lukewarm water would also result in a DECREASE of the total entropy. To repeat, this is because the entropy change differential due to heat transfer to or from a reservoir is inversely related to the temperature at which the transfer occurs. Therefore the LOSS of entropy by the ice would be greater than the GAIN in entropy by the warm water, resulting in an overall decrease in entropy.
Once again: Expecting an ambient heat engine to do any work, with only one heat reservoir, is exactly equivalent to expecting a teapot to boil water by absorbing heat from a block of ice. Anyone who claims to be developing a "prototype" of such an engine is only developing a pretense, and nothing more.
Mark Goldes' proofless claims regarding his Aesop Institute's make-believe strictly ambient heat engine do not represent any new technology, or even a new pretense - they merely represent a rather old pretense.
"Before the establishment of the Second Law, many people who were interested in inventing a perpetual motion machine had tried to circumvent the restrictions of First Law of Thermodynamics by extracting the massive internal energy of the environment as the power of the machine. Such a machine is called a "perpetual motion machine of the second kind". The second law declared the impossibility of such machines."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics#Perpetual_motion_of_the_second_kind
"A perpetual motion machine of the second kind is a machine which spontaneously converts thermal energy into mechanical work. When the thermal energy is equivalent to the work done, this does not violate the law of conservation of energy. However it does violate the more subtle second law of thermodynamics (see also entropy). The signature of a perpetual motion machine of the second kind is that there is only one heat reservoir involved, which is being spontaneously cooled without involving a transfer of heat to a cooler reservoir. This conversion of heat into useful work, without any side effect, is impossible, according to the second law of thermodynamics."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_motion#Classification
Goldes' make-believe strictly ambient heat engine would be a perpetual motion machine of the second kind, as defined above. Goldes is not developing any such engine; he is merely developing a pretense - as usual.
Goldes' strictly ambient heat engine would not merely "circumvent" the Second Law of Thermodynamics - it would actually DISPROVE the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
An engine that only uses ambient heat would need to be able to DECREASE the entropy of the universe. The Second Law tells us that we can never decrease the entropy of the universe, or of an isolated system.
As a consequence of this law:
"It is impossible for any device operating on a cycle to produce net work from a single temperature reservoir; the production of net work requires flow of heat from a hotter reservoir to a colder reservoir."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy#Second_law_of_thermodynamics
In the make-believe strictly ambient heat engine there are not two heat reservoirs at different temperatures; no reservoir would be available at any temperature other than the ambient temperature. No matter what cycle we design with this constraint, we will find that the cycle would have to be able to decrease the entropy of the universe in order to do any work.
The formulation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics as a constraint on entropy change is one of the most beautifully simple, and well-established, laws of physics.
The Second Law tells us that we can never build an engine that does some work with heat taken from a heat reservoir, without also transferring some heat to another reservoir at a lower temperature.
An equivalent statement is that we can't decrease the total entropy of an isolated system.
The entropy change differential due to heat transfer to or from a reservoir is inversely related to the temperature at which the transfer occurs. The consequence is that transferring heat INTO a cold reservoir produces a larger GAIN in entropy, than the LOSS of entropy that occurs due to transfer of the same amount of heat FROM a hot reservoir. This noteworthy and remarkable inequality enables a heat engine to use some heat to do some work without violating the Second Law - as long as it can make use of two different heat reservoirs, at different temperatures. The ambient-heat-powered engine only involves a single reservoir, at a single temperature (at any given moment). Use of heat from the single reservoir would reduce the entropy of the reservoir, and with no colder reservoir, the engine has no way to compensate by increasing the entropy anywhere else. Therefore we know for certain that the engine will disappoint us. It will never be able to do any work.
In Mark Goldes' patent application for his "POWERGENIE" horn-powered tuning-rod engine, he described the tuning-rod as "an energy transfer and multiplier element."
But of course, for the tuning-rod to "multiply" energy, it would need to disprove the law of conservation of energy. (Obviously the Patent Office should never have allowed such a description.)
Goldes' use of the term "energy multiplier element" reflects his pretense that the "revolutionary breakthrough" of the amazing "POWERGENIE" could disprove the law of conservation of energy, by presenting the world with a working "energy multiplier."
Goldes even claimed in 2008 that the POWERGENIE had been demonstrated already in an electric car, driven 4800 miles by his energy-multiplying horn-powered tuning-rod.
But it seems that most people, for some reason, had difficulty accepting the notion that the law of conservation of energy could be proven false.
And Goldes no doubt noticed that the Second Law of Thermodynamics - that "the entropy of an isolated system tends to increase with time and can never decrease" - is much less clear to most people than the conservation of energy.
So now, after leaving aside the pretense that he could somehow "multiply energy" with a magnetized tuning-rod, Goldes has chosen to focus, instead, on the pretense that he can disprove the Second Law with an engine powered by ambient heat.
There is no "new science" in any of Goldes' "revolutionary breakthroughs." There is only pseudoscience and pretense - and nothing new, at all.
http://physicsreviewboard.wordpress.com/aesop-institute-s-purely-ambient-heat-engine-is-pure-fraud/
Abstract.
After founding Magnetic Power Inc in the mid-eighties, Mark Goldes and MPI proceeded to develop most of the fraudcraftings which would serve as Goldes’ offerings in fraudcraft for the next thirty years, not only at MPI, but also at Chava Energy LLC, and at his so-called “Aesop Institute.” Goldes’ partnership with Hagen Ruff, the other Co-founder (as well as CEO) of Chava Energy LLC, gave the Goldes-MPI fraudcraft a new lease on life, and accordingly it may now be termed most properly the “Goldes-Ruff Fraudcraft.” For the past five years or more, while serving as a Co-founder and a Chief Officer of Chava Energy LLC, Goldes used his mgoldes @ chavaenergy.com email address as his Aesop Institute email address as well, at least until his very recent ejection from Chava Energy. In practice, Goldes made continual use of Aesop Institute to bring investors to Chava Energy, which for five years has based its pretenses on nearly all the same fraudcraft used by Goldes at Aesop Institute. The common fraudcraft included the fraudcraftings of pretended development of water-fueled “Fractional Hydrogen” engines, of generators supposedly powered by Zero Point Energy, of “Ultraconductor” wire and “Ultraconductor” energy storage systems, and of strictly ambient heat engines – along with endless false claims that these concepts were currently being “prototyped,” and would soon provide wonderful alternatives to fossil fuels.
1. Introduction.
The Goldes-Ruff fraudcraft has included no less than seven major fraudcraftings, as we have chosen to call them. All but one of them – Aesop Institute’s so-called “Fuel-Free Turbine” – were already in use by Goldes’ company MPI at the time Goldes and Ruff co-founded Chava Energy LLC.
We will first provide a list of the seven fraudcraftings, and then discuss each of them in detail.
Here then is a list of the seven Goldes-Ruff Fraudcraftings used by MPI, Chava Energy LLC, and Aesop Institute:
1. The “Fractional Hydrogen” “SPICE” Engine Fraudcrafting
2. The First And Second “MagGen” ZPE Generator Fraudcrafting
3. The Ambient Temperature Thermionic Converter Fraudcrafting
4. The Strictly Ambient Heat Engine Fraudcrafting
5. The “Fuel Free Turbine” Fraudcrafting
6. The “Ultraconductor” Fraudcrafting
7. The “UMES” Fraudcrafting
2. The Goldes-Ruff Fraudcraftings
2.1. The “Fractional Hydrogen” “SPICE” Engine Fraudcrafting
“Energy from Collapsing Hydrogen Orbits – ECHO™ makes possible a Self Powered Internal Combustion Engine – SPICE™
“Chava uses the terms f/H for fractional Hydrogen and for commercial purposes ECHO™ – Energy from Collapsing Hydrogen Orbits. Converting Hydrogen to f/H releases hundreds of times the power of Hydrogen combustion with oxygen.
“The energy released from the conversion of one barrel of Hydrogen to fractional Hydrogen is equal to the energy from burning 200 barrels of oil.
“Conversion of Hydrogen to fractional Hydrogen releases hundreds of times more energy than achievable by burning Hydrogen, though not as much energy from a nuclear reaction. However the energy released by conversion to fractional hydrogen is completely safe and does not generate any radioactive products or other hazards from nuclear reactions. Furthermore, the cost will be far lower than from fossil fueled or nuclear plants. ECHO systems may dramatically accelerate independence from fossil fuels.
“Chava work with fractional quantum states of Hydrogen has opened a path to a new concept we call SPICE — Self Powered Internal Combustion Engine.
“A Self Powered Internal Combustion Engine – SPICE, will open a cost-competitive alternative to fossil fuels and nuclear power. Importantly, it can be sized for use in automotive applications. By implementing a revolutionary clean technology as a retrofit for current car engines we can make a very large impact quickly – eliminating pollution from burning fuel in cars and producing a lot of clean energy cheaply. With engines able to run using small amounts of water in a clean and safe way, we can now leave cars running when appropriately parked, as mobile power plants delivering electricity to the grid. Owners with SPICE powered cars would produce far more power than they need to run their homes. SPICE powered cars and trucks could also power places where we work.
“A SPICE in a hybrid car is expected to have a fuel requirement of only one gallon of water for each 1,000 miles of driving… Imagine the positive impact on the economy and the environment of future cars, trucks and buses that need no conventional fuel or recharge, and can pay for themselves over time. This can become a near-term and less expensive alternative to building new coal burning or nuclear power plants.”
Here is what the physicist Andreas Rathke had to say in 2005 about Mills’ theory of “Classical Quantum Mechanics,” on which both Mills’ “hydrinos” and Goldes’ “fractional hydrogen” are supposedly based:
“In this paper, we have considered the theoretical foundations of the hydrino hypothesis, both within the theoretical framework of CQM, in which hydrinos were originally suggested, and within standard quantum mechanics. We found that CQM is inconsistent and has several serious deficiencies. Amongst these are the failure to reproduce the energy levels of the excited states of the hydrogen atom, and the absence of Lorentz invariance. Most importantly, we found that CQM does not predict the existence of hydrino states! Also, standard quantum mechanics cannot encompass hydrino states, with the properties currently attributed to them. Hence there remains no theoretical support of the hydrino hypothesis.”
2.2. The First And Second “MagGen” ZPE Generator Fraudcrafting
let’s look at some of the flimflam Chava Energy previously posted on their website regarding the “MagGen” devices, until its very recent removal:
“Our MagGen™ magnetic generators convert abundant, ambient and renewable energy sources that exist everywhere in the universe. Power Units can be small and lightweight, and made from non-toxic materials.”
“MagGen™: The Chava Magnetic Generator (MagGen™) breakthroughs offer several alternate routes to tapping the energy of quantum noise (Zero Point Energy) via the magnetic spin moment.”
“Chava has two U.S. Patents patents aimed at commercialization under the trademark of MagGen™. Patents #7,830,065 and #8,093,869 cover solid-state (no moving parts) magnetic generators. An early prototype produced an output, at a very low power level, of more than 100 times the input.
“The first patent titled ‘Solid State Electric Generator,’ was issued Nov 9,2010. The second titled ‘Apparatus for Generating Electricity…’ issued January 10,2012. Several prototypes of more advanced devices have been built and an additional, very broad, patent application has also been filed. All power generation modules can be combined, in a manner similar to solar cells, to provide larger amounts of power. We expect to file an additional thirty (30) patents over the next three (3) years for various magnetic power device designs.”
“Chava expects, within three years, of creating prototype Chava Energy™ conversion systems to provide power for automobiles.”
“Several prototypes of more advanced devices have been built and thirty (30) additional patents are expected to be filed over the next thirty-six (36) months for various families of magnetic power devices.”
“RESIDENTIAL GENERATORS for off-grid customers will be an early market product. Today, generators are typically powered by gasoline. In the aftermath of disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and typhoons, power is often unavailable; such early devices, without requiring fuel, will make a crucial difference. Mobile power generators will be a key resource for government emergency agencies and rural communities.
“Chava expects, within three years, of creating prototype Chava Energy™ conversion systems to provide power for automobiles. This eliminates the need for large batteries and for electrical recharging stations. That goal may be reached faster if our engineering development teams work on a 24/7 basis. The conversion systems will open a path to mass production of entirely new varieties of automotive power plants. Other industries will follow soon after the key markets of residential and automotive power.“
2.3. The Ambient Temperature Thermionic Converter Fraudcrafting
The most minimal of the Goldes-Ruff fraudcraftings, their Ambient Temperature Thermionic Converter apparently never included much more than a few sentences on the Chava Energy website, based on a brief Proposal by Cyril Smith:
“Chava’s thermionic converter design extracts ambient heat from the environment and converts this into useable electrical energy.”
“Chava is planning to introduce a thermionic converter which will extract ambient heat from the environment and efficiently convert this heat into electrical energy.
“At first sight it appears that this system is prohibited by the laws of physics. No power is supplied but, as if by magic, the system pumps heat and transfers it into an electrical load.
“Recent work supports this idea. Xin Yong Fu and Zi Tao Fu at Jiao Tong University, in Shanghai, performed an experiment described in their paper: Realization of Maxwell’s Hypothesis.
“With no magnetic field present, although electrons thermally emitted from one electrode can reach the other, by symmetry the reverse reaction is true and no detectable current flows. However when a magnetic field was applied current flow from one electrode to the other was observed.
“But, where the Chinese device produced only tiny current from the thermal emissions, the Chava AHE Thermionic device is expected to produce significantly higher current, hence much greater power levels.”
The fraudcrafting above – recently removed from chavaenergy.com – quotes a sentence from a certain Proposal by Cyril Smith that leaves the impression that Chava had already created this magical device. In fact, Cyril Smith later wrote a Critique of his own proposal, and it was never “developed” at all.
2.4. The Srictly Ambient Heat Engine Fraudcrafting
Mark Goldes claims that “Patent pending desktop piston engines that will run 24/7 on the thermal energy in atmospheric heat are being prototyped.”
In fact, the worthless ambient heat engine concept at the center of Goldes’ flimflam is a certain utterly ludicrous exercise in silliness, produced by Kenneth Rauen, that does not have any “patent pending” and never will. It consists of nothing more than several cylinders containing pistons connected to a crankshaft, with various open channels between some of the cylinders. There is nothing to make the pistons move or the crankshaft turn. Rauen has written many pages of tedious nonsense attempting to argue that the engine would work. It certainly will not work, and Rauen certainly knows that it will not work, and so does Goldes.
Kenneth Rauen's Ambient Heat "Engine"
At any given time and place, the atmosphere only provides a single heat reservoir at a single temperature. In order for a cyclic heat engine to do any work, it must be provided not merely with a single heat reservoir, but with two heat reservoirs, at different temperatures. This is an inescapable consequence of one of the most well-established principles in all of physics: the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
To people who have never studied thermodynamics, it might seem that nothing more should be needed to power a heat engine than a reservoir of heat. However, that is not so. In order to do any work, a cyclic heat engine must utilize not just one, but two heat reservoirs, at different temperatures. This has been understood at least since 1824, when Sadi Carnot presented an equation relating the maximum possible efficiency of a heat engine to the temperatures of the two reservoirs. When the two reservoirs are both at the same temperature, the maximum possible efficiency is zero percent: the engine can do no work at all.
Goldes falsely claims that “Two decades of physics research indicate not only that this [single-reservoir atmospheric heat engine] may be possible, but that there exist exploitable exceptions to the current interpretation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.”
2.5. The “Fuel Free Turbine” Fraudcrafting
Mark Goldes’ latest adventure in flimflam is to declare that a “FUEL-FREE TURBINE invented by a Russian scientist runs on atmospheric pressure.”
But when we read the patent application, we find that actually the turbine does NOT run on atmospheric pressure – it requires compressed air. This is clearly indicated even in the article by Kondrashov posted by Goldes on his flimflam website. Kondrashov says:
“To create a sample of such an engine, you can use ready-made devices, such as a load-bearing element – a low-power turbine module turboshaft turbine engine, and to compress the air… any type of compressor…”
Kondrashov filed his patent application in 2003. No patent was awarded.
Mark Goldes assures us in his note prefacing Kondrashov’s article that “We understand the science behind this jet engine.” But since he incorrectly describes it as an engine powered by “atmospheric pressure” – which it certainly is not – in fact he shows that he doesn’t even understand that the engine requires a supply of compressed air in order to spin at all.
Although Kondrashov does pretend in some of his statements that the turbine will be powered by “atmospheric pressure,” in fact it is evident from his application that the proposed turbine is made to spin only by the use of compressed air.
In his patent application, Kondrashov states:
“To set the above engine in operation, it is necessary to create pressure of working medium (e.g. air) in pneumatic accumulator 18. The compressed air is fed through check valve 19 and/or 20.”
Thus, Kondrashov indicates that an external compressor must be used to fill the turbine’s compressed air tank before the turbine can be started. But he tries to pretend that once the turbine starts to spin, there will be no further reliance on the external compressor – the spinning turbine itself will compress the air that is making the turbine spin. So despite his own false description of the turbine as making use of “low-grade atmospheric energy,” what Kondrashov actually presents in his patent application is a perpetual motion machine in the form of a self-powered air compressor. This is probably the reason why no patent was awarded. It is exactly analogous to trying to use a generator to power a motor to spin the generator to power the motor to spin the generator. It doesn’t work.
For more information on the “FUEL-FREE TURBINE,” please see the Notes.
2.6. The “Ultraconductor” Fraudcrafting
“Our patented Ultraconductor™ technology provides revolutionary zero resistivity conductive at room temperature polymer materials. Their behavior is identical to that of superconductors, but without the need for cryogenic cooling. “
“ULTRACONDUCTOR™ defined: An electrical conductor, similar to present-day superconductors, having zero measurable electrical resistance in one dimension. They consist of organic polymers that exhibit electrical resistance much lower than the best metallic conductors and are considered a novel state of matter.
“Ultraconductors™ are patented materials being developed for commercial applications with the support of Chava Energy and are the subject of a landmark U.S. Patent 5,777,292, U.S. Patent 6,804,105 and equivalent patents pending worldwide.
“Ultraconductors™ are the result of more than 16 years of prior scientific research, peer-reviewed publication, independent laboratory testing, and 8 years of engineering development. From an engineering perspective, Ultraconductors™ are a fundamentally new and enabling technology, a ‘re lightweight, flexible, transparent medium possessing magnetic, electric, and electronic properties with exceptionally high commercial value. This technology was independently reproduced for the United States Air Force. Chava Energy continues to develop and improve upon wire and cable using room temperature polymer superconductive materials.
“Ultraconductor™ polymers are the only known materials of their kind and our proprietary technology includes the materials, means of fabrication, and application types. Ultimately, Ultraconductors™ offer unprecedented high performance and energy efficiency across a very broad range of products. They are made by the sequential processing of amorphous polar dielectric elastomers.
“Ultraconductors™ exhibit a set of anomalous magnetic and electric properties, including: very high electrical conductivity (> 1011 S/cm -1) and current densities (> 5 x 108 A/cm2), over a wide temperature range (1.8 to 700 K).
“The Ultraconductor™ properties are measured in discrete macromolecular structures which form over time after the processing. In present thin films (1 – 100 micron thickness) these structures, called ‘channels’, are typically 1 – 2 microns in diameter and 10 – 1000 microns apart.
“Using Ultraconductors™ for chip connectors solve a major technical issue for the semiconductor industry – one that still relies upon solder bumps to connect chips, further limiting chip size reduction. Our approach will promote the ability to create smaller chip designs that generate less heat.
“Ultraconductor Wire™ can be made by extending a channel to indefinite length. The technique has been demonstrated in principle. Connections between conducting structures is done with a metal electrode: when two channels are brought together they connect.
“From an engineering point of view, in many applications Ultraconductors can replace copper wire and current high temperature superconductors (which still require liquid nitrogen for cooling) . “
The great high points of Chava Co-founder Mark Goldes’ career in fraudcraft were the obtaining of four Small Business Innovative Research grants from the Unites States Air Force, which cost taxpayers roughly a half million dollars. In the fourteen years since the conclusion of the fourth project, MPI and Chava Energy have evidently made no further progress in this area, at all – but that has not stopped Goldes from pretending that Magnetic Power Inc, or Chava Energy LLC, or “Aesop Institute” will be making Revolutionary Breakthroughs involving “Ultraconductors” as soon as you give them your money. In fact, MPI’s own reports on the Ultraconductor grant projects consist of a succession of rosy and wonderful claims and predictions which went entirely unfulfilled by following projects, and remain unfulfilled today. It is necessary to understand that the “Ulraconductor” film was only claimed to be “ultraconductive” to current across the thin dimension of the film – and not along the extensive dimensions. MPI asserted that they would develop a way to make the thin “ultraconductive” film thicker – and never did so. MPI asserted that they would develop a way to make “ultraconductive” wire – and never did so. MPI asserted that their enrichment method would become the key to making thicker film and wire – but the method never did so. MPI asserted that their “Ultraconductor” film would surely prove wonderfully useful for making thermoelectric devices – but once again, the rosy claims went unfulfilled. MPI asserted that they would obtain “ultraconductivity” along the plane of the film, instead of merely across the thin dimension, by repositioning the supposedly “ultraconductive” channels. They never did so.
2.7. The “UMES” Fraudcrafting
Even though neither MPI nor Chava Energy ever presented the slightest fulfillment of their endless claims to be on the verge of creating an Ultraconductor wire, and even though the creation of Ultraconductor wire would be a prerequisite for developing any Ultraconductor Magnetic Energy Storage (UMES) system , that didn’t stop Chava Energy from pretending that they were already developing the UMES system. After all, if they could develop a “Fractional Hydrogen” engine utilizing a type of hydrogen that doesn’t exist, and cannot exist, why shouldn’t they be able to develop an energy storage system utilizing a type of wire that doesn’t exist?
“Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems store energy in the magnetic field of a superconducting coil. Direct Current flow in a superconducting coil creates the magnetic field and will last forever while the coil is cryogenically cooled to a temperature below its superconductive critical temperature.
“A typical SMES system includes three parts: superconducting coil; power conditioning system; and cryogenically cooled refrigerator. Once the superconducting coil is charged, the current will not decay and the magnetic energy can be stored indefinitely.
“The stored energy can be released by discharging the coil. Because of its superconductive ability, SMES systems are highly efficient with the least amount of electricity loss in the transfer process compared to other currently known or utilized methods of energy storage.
“However, the requirement for cryogenic cooling makes SMES systems very expensive and often impracticable.
“Chava’s Ultraconductor technology eliminates the need for cryogenic cooling since our proprietary conductive polymer material is superconductive at room temperature.
“Chava’s is working towards achieving greater lengths of Ultraconductor Wire™ from which a room temperature Ultraconductor Magnetic Energy Storage (UMES™) system can be made.
“UMES™ systems could be stacked and linked together to provide major utilities and industrial plant sites with efficient and cost effective energy storage. This allows for better planning for energy uses during the day and night without impacting present day power generation processes and would have substantial positive impact on lowering carbon footprints.
“In time, it is anticipated that UMES systems could be made small enough to be usable in numerous applications where peak energy demands are unpredictable or sporadic, such as in transportation systems like trains, marine vessels, automobiles, air transport.”
3. Recapitulation.
To summarize, we will now recapitulate more concisely the seven major fraudulent pretenses of the Goldes-Ruff fraudcraft.
3.1. The “Fractional Hydrogen” “SPICE” Engine Fraudcrafting
Like every other “revolutionary development” pretense by Chava Energy, Chava’s claims to be developing a water-fueled “Fractional Hydrogen” engine were fraudulent first of all because Chava never even attempted to develop any such thing. Their pretended belief and interest in the possibility of the nonexistent state of hydrogen they called “Fractional Hydrogen” was merely part of a futile effort to copy the appalling success of Randell Mills’ fraudulent use of his “hydrino” flimflam at Blacklight Power.
3.2. The First And Second “MagGen” ZPE Generator Fraudcrafting
To avoid confusion, we will refer to the first “MagGen” as Gunderson-20060163971, and the second “MagGen” as Gunderson-8093869.
Chava Energy for five years referred to the two Gunderson devices as “MagGen” magnetic generators, falsely and fraudulently claiming that they would provide electric power by “tapping Zero Point Energy,” and that Chava Energy would create “MagGen” prototypes “to provide power for automobiles” “within three years.”
3.3. The Ambient Temperature Thermionic Converter Fraudcrafting
Just as with every other “revolutionary energy breakthrough” claimed by Chava Energy since 2009, we have precisely zero evidence that Chava Energy ever even attempted actually to build the Ambient Temperature Thermionic Converter described in the 2008 Proposal by Cyril Smith. Smith’s Proposal came to Chava Energy by way of Goldes’ previous company, Magnetic Power Inc – along with every other “revolutionary breakthrough” ever claimed by Chava Energy. As Chava Energy knew very well, it would never have worked as a power source as claimed. It was only useful as a pretense.
3.4. The Strictly Ambient Heat Engine Fraudcrafting
Although Hagen Ruff chose not to utilize the “NO FUEL PISTON ENGINE” idiocy from Kenneth Rauen at Chava Energy, for five years he allowed Mark Goldes to make continual use of his Chava Energy email address while making fraudulent use of it at Aesop Institute to obtain loans and donations. In fact, Goldes made a practice of using his activities at Aesop Institute to bring investors to Chava Energy. Therefore we find that Hagen Ruff and Chava Energy incurred a degree of involvement in the fraudulence of Goldes’ countless false claims regarding the “NO FUEL PISTON ENGINE,” even though it was not directly advertised by Chava Energy.
3.5. The “Fuel Free Turbine” Fraudcrafting
Alhough the Kondrashov “Fuel Free Turbine,” like the Rauen ambient heat engine idiocy, was never included among Chava Energy’s “breakthroughs,” we find once again that Hagen Ruff and Chava Energy incurred a degree of involvement in the “Fuel Free Turbine” fraud by allowing Mark Goldes to solicit loans to Aesop Institute and investments in Chava Energy simultaneously, using his Chava Energy email address for both.
3.6. The “Ultraconductor” Fraudcrafting
Chava Energy’s “Ultraconductor” fraudcraft was fraudulent first of all because Chava Energy has never done any development work with the so-called “Ultraconductor” film and therefore has never “continued to develop” the film at all, even though they pretended otherwise for five years. Just as Goldes had done at MPI, Chava Energy misrepresented the true prospects of the “Ultraconductor” material, which had never been found or made useful for any purpose, despite the substantial research funding that MPI had received in the nineties.
3.7. The “UMES” Fraudcrafting
Chava Energy’s claims regarding “Ultraconductor” Magnetic Energy Storage (“UMES”) were fraudulent first of all because Chava Energy had never been “working towards achieving greater lengths of Ultraconductor Wire,” at all. They have only falsely claimed to be doing so, without ever actually doing any such work. The reference to “greater lengths of Ultraconductor Wire” misrepesents the true status of the “Ultraconductor” by giving the impression that at least a short “Ultraconductor” wire had already been developed – which is not true. Goldes’ company MPI had worked with a film which they claimed to be “ultraconductive” to current across the thin dimension, but had never succeeded in making any “ultraconductive” wire, at all.
4. Exploiting Concerns Over Climate Change.
5. Findings regarding Mark Goldes.
Mark Goldes’ “Aesop Institute” is simply an elaborate fraud. After founding Magnetic Power Inc in the mid-eighties, Mark Goldes and MPI soon developed most of the fraudcraftings which would serve as Goldes’ offerings in fraudcraft for the next thirty years, not only at MPI, but also at Chava Energy LLC, and at his so-called “Aesop Institute.” Goldes’ partnership with Hagen Ruff, the other Co-founder (as well as CEO) of Chava Energy LLC, gave the Goldes-MPI fraudcraft a new lease on life, and accordingly it may be most properly termed the “Goldes-Ruff Fraudcraft.” For the past five years or more, while serving as a Co-founder and a Chief Officer of Chava Energy LLC, Goldes used his chavaenergy.com email address as his Aesop Institute email address as well, at least until his very recent ejection from Chava Energy. In practice, Goldes made continual use of Aesop Institute to bring investors to Chava Energy, which for five years has based its pretenses on nearly all the same fraudcraft used by Goldes at Aesop Institute. The common fraudcraft has included the same fraudcraftings of water-fueled “Fractional Hydrogen” engines, generators powered by Zero Point Energy, “Ultraconductor” wire, “Ultraconductor” energy storage systems, and strictly ambient heat engines – along with the same false claims that “prototypes” of all these concepts were being developed, and would soon provide wonderful alternatives to fossil fuels.
6. Findings regarding Hagen Ruff.
For five years, Hagen Ruff allowed Mark Goldes, a Co-founder as well as a Chief Officer of Chava Energy, not only to use his mgoldes @ chavaenergy.com email address to solicit loans to Goldes’ so-called “Aesop Institute,” but simultaneously to solicit loans to Aesop Institute and investments in Chava Energy in the course of discussions and communications with prospects who had reached Goldes by way of aesopinstitute. In effect, Ruff allowed Aesop Institute to become a fund-raising extension of Chava Energy. Starting in 2009, if not before, Goldes posted thousands of fraudulent comments advertising the aesopinstitute website and promoting the Goldes-Ruff fraudcraftings on dozens of different websites. On Huffington Post alone, as the user “Overtone,” he posted over three thousand such comments. When people contacted Goldes after visiting the aesopinstitute website, they would learn from Goldes not only about Aesop Institute but also about Chava Energy, and Goldes would solicit loans to Aesop Institute or investment in Chava Energy, whichever the prospect preferred, at the same time. This was his standard practice for years. By allowing this entangling of Aesop Institute with Chava Energy LLC, Ruff has incurred responsibility not only for the false and fraudulent pretenses of Chava Energy, but for those of Mark Goldes’ “Aesop Institute” as well. For this reason, although neither the Kenneth Rauen strictly ambient heat engine pretense nor the Boris Kondrashov self-powered turbine pretense have been directly used or presented by Chava Energy, as they have by Aesop Institute, they still deserve full recognition within the ensemble of Goldes-Ruff fraudcraftings.
For five years since it was founded, Chava Energy LLC tried to promote itself chiefly by means of false and fraudulent claims and pretenses, that it was developing “revolutionary energy breakthroughs,” including “Fractional Hydrogen” engines utilizing nonexistent states of hydrogen, magical Ambient Temperature Thermionic Converters, and magnetic generators supposedly harnessing Zero Point Energy. Recently, most of the material containing these false and ludicrous claims was suddenly removed from the Chava Energy website, although much of the flimflam related to Zero Point Energy still remains.
In addition, Hagen Ruff quietly ejecting Chava Energy’s Co-founder and Chief “Market Research” Officer, Mark Goldes.
And then came the lies.
Despite the fact that Chava Energy itself for five years had described Mark Goldes on the Chava Energy website as a Co-founder and Chief Officer, and despite the fact that hundreds of people all over the world have received mgoldes [at] chavaenergy.com emails in which Goldes describes himself as Co-founder of Chava Energy, and despite the fact that dozens of web pages still cached by Google show beyond question that Chava Energy regarded Goldes as a Co-founder and employed him as an active Chief Officer from the very start until recently, we are now told by the other Co-founder of Chava Energy, Hagen Ruff, that far from being any Co-founder or Chief Officer of Chava Energy, Mark Goldes was not even part of it, at all!
In fact, although Chava Energy LLC did not file as an LLC until May 2010, the Chava Energy website was presented in April 2009, and both Hagen Ruff and Mark Goldes were already in 2009 referring to Chava Energy as a new business entity. From the outset until his very recent ejection from Chava Energy LLC, Mark Goldes was listed and described on Chava Energy’s “Team Members” page as “Co-founder” as well as “Chief Market Research Officer.” But in fact Goldes’ true role was not to conduct “Market Research,” but to attract investors and solicit investments. Accordingly, Mark Goldes made continual use for five years, until his recent ejection, of his Chava Energy email address (mgoldes [at] chavaenergy.com) to communicate with prospective investors, many of whom had no doubt learned of Chava Energy from one of Goldes’ countless internet postings claiming “revolutionary energy breakthroughs.”
7. Conclusion.
If Chava Energy’s claims regarding their pretended Revolutionary Breakthrough development of “Fractional Hydrogen” “SPICE” engines, Ambient Temperature Thermionic Converters, “Ultraconductor” wire, “Ultraconductor Energy Storage Systems,” and Zero Point Energy harvesting “MagGen” generators were not false and fraudulent, why did Hagen Ruff suddenly remove those claims from Chava’s website?
In fact, all of those fraudulent claims came originally from the very same source: Chava Energy Co-founder and Chief Market Research Officer Mark Goldes, and Goldes’ previous company, Magnetic Power Inc.
We do find and state that Hagen Ruff’s Chava Energy LLC has made a great many utterly false and fraudulent claims and statements, showing very unscrupulous dishonesty, on the matters of “Fractional Hydrogen” engines, Ambient Temperature Thermionic Converters, and “MagGen” generators that supposedly harness Zero Point Energy. Chava Energy’s claims and statements regarding “Ultraconductor” wire and “Ultraconductor Energy Storage Systems” were also false and dishonest to some degree, in various ways.
The relentless and pervasive dishonesty, fraudulence, and unscrupulousness, that characterized Mark Goldes’ use of his company Magnetic Power Inc for over twenty years prior to the founding of Chava LLC and Chava Energy LLC, has also characterized Mark Goldes’ and Hagen Ruff’s use of Chava Energy LLC and Aesop Institute since 2009.
If there had ever been any chance at all that Chava Energy LLC could be transformed into an honest and honorable company despite its five-year specialization in fraudcraft, that chance was wiped out by Hagen Ruff’s most recent communications, in which he embarked on some brand new pretenses, no less ludicrous than his fraudcraft of “Fractional Hydrogen.” He now wants to pretend that his very active Co-founder, Mark Goldes, the very same person who has been his Chief Liar for five years, was actually never a part of Chava Energy, at all! And he also now wants to pretend that none of Chava Energy’s fraudcraftings came from Mark Goldes or MPI – even though, in fact, they all did – every one of them.
For more information:
http://physicsreviewboard.wordpress.com/ca...
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