[Closed] New Danny Mac film

That wind turbine better be rotating, else I won't be much impressed.

Is he riding his carbon fibre bike that was custom made for him whilst talking about getting to Net Zero?

Suspect it'll be a great video, but the volume of climate improvement videos by people selling the ideas whilst appearing to be missing the points themselves seems to be on the rise.

I'm hoping to be proved completely wrong, but also looking forward to the video...

Its currently being promoted by Dale Vince, so it's not a 100% Danny Mac production, rather something he's taking part in, hense the Obama mention.

The whole 'people selling the ideas whilst appearing to be missing the points themselves' is a personal excuse and a bit short sighted imo. A way of saying "well they aren't doing it, so I don't have to either".

Climate change doesn't need one or two people with 100% perfect eco credentials, it needs millions / billions of us reducing our climate footprint by small amounts. Any promotion of cilmate change, ways we can help and improve the environment we live in can only be a good thing.

Suspect it’ll be a great video, but the volume of climate improvement videos by people selling the ideas whilst appearing to be missing the points themselves seems to be on the rise.

Yup as end consumers there is actually not much we can do - it relies on those in power & large corporations worldwide to do their bit

Absolutely agree...everyone can do things to make improvements - some will be small and others could be much bigger and everyone can help make improvements.

Edit - my reply was to monkeyboyjc's reply to mine...someone posted whilst I was typing and it looks like I'm agreeing with that, but I wasn't.

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Yup as end consumers there is actually not much we can do

– it relies on those in power & large corporations worldwide to do their bit

Of course there is.

I would be more concerned about the rampant and largely unnecessary rise of e-bikes than one off carbon trials bike...

I don't think that the vid will be about bikes or their global impact on anything. Rather they've used / employed Danny to gain interest in the vid, for promo shots like the above etc.- will be interesting if there are any other YouTube stars in there from other sports or interests.

I told my son that wind turbines generated wind, like massive fans. I might have then forgotten to tell him the truth. He is now learning about energy at school and it only clicked yesterday.

I might have also mentioned something about growing solar panels in solar farms.

I told my son that wind turbines generated wind, like massive fans. I might have then forgotten to tell him the truth. He is now learning about energy at school and it only clicked yesterday.

I might have also mentioned something about growing solar panels in solar farms.

I still love both those ideas, and I'm 52. Any ride near a wind farm usually results in someone saying it would be better if they turned the fans off/around.

🙈

For my A-Level Physics I made a (very small and fairly ineffective) wind turbine - then used an electric fan to provide the wind. Still, it got me a B 🙂

Someone at work did his degree project investigating wind turbines, energy to produce vs energy generated.
The conclusion was they don't actually generate more energy than it takes to produce them.
Would like to think things have moved on.

And to the poster commenting on Danny on a custom carbon frame, he's also stood on a massive composite wind turbine blade which I think has a bigger impact at end of life of the product.

The conclusion was they don’t actually generate more energy than it takes to produce them.
Would like to think things have moved on.

Isn't that the same for other forms of energy production like Solar Panels or Nuclear Power Stations?

@franksinatra

I'm just wondering how my Son is going to think clouds are made now that all the cloud factories are getting knocked down...

Climate change doesn’t need one or two people with 100% perfect eco credentials, it needs millions / billions of us reducing our climate footprint by small amounts. Any promotion of cilmate change, ways we can help and improve the environment we live in can only be a good thing.

this.....
Perfect is the enemy of progress.

Also a how it was made.....

Not his best work and the sort of people who watch it may not need to be told but a good intent anyway.

Agreed, none of the riding is new, but it was a good message. Was a good watch...I'd guessed 25% so glad to see it is more than that...

Was expecting a BASE jump off the blade 🤣

Interesting message and more good riding.

I agree not his best but the drops to flat from that gantry and mezz roof/floor to gantry to concrete are impressive if painful looking.

Carbon bike frame ??

Oh… pretty. Didn’t quite get the message myself at first. Good to see it was an onshore unit at the end though… the (UK) government neutered this industry just as it was getting going, to appeal to their NIMBY voters. It’s great what has been achieved off shore, but we need to be expanding all our renewables, not constantly focussing on one.

Carbon bike frame ??

Wait ‘till you hear how wind turbine blades are going to be made in future…

Hahaha, yeah, all the messages are great...until you do some digging to find out what is involved in making all this renewable energy producing kit...

"The concept of net energy must also be applied to renewable sources of energy, such as windmills and photovoltaics. A two-megawatt windmill contains 260 tonnes of steel requiring 170 tonnes of coking coal and 300 tonnes of iron ore, all mined, transported and produced by hydrocarbons. The question is: how long must a windmill generate energy before it creates more energy than it took to build it? At a good wind site, the energy payback day could be in three years or less; in a poor location, energy payback may be never. That is, a windmill could spin until it falls apart and never generate as much energy as was invested in building it."

The key part is 'at a poor location' it may never generate enough.  I would be very surprised if people are paying to put these up in poor locations

The UK has lots of good locations for wind turbines so even those in less than ideal locations such as the Reading M4 one still get enough wind for a quick energy payback. There are probably some countries which might struggle to find enough good locations, but there are other renewable sources available.

Leffeboy might want to check his 'facts' see https://factcheck.afp.com/false-memes-target-wind-turbines

Leffeboy might want to check his ‘facts'

I think we have both looked at the same thing (or versions of it). I agree with you, I think wind turbines are effective over their life time and probably much faster than that.

Can't stand them being called 'windmills'...... They aren't milling anything.... I just have visions of windy miller grinding away electricity and selling it in bags to the villagers....

Calling them windmills signals you probably don't know what you are talking about.

The net energy thing has been disproven has it not. It regularly does the rounds still.

There are a lot of problems with renewables. One alone doesn't give the complete solution and they have their environmental drawbacks. It still amazes me that people pick up on these as a reason to not go with it. As someone above said, perfect is the enemy of progress.

As a comparison. I've had some involvement in Arctic LNG 1 and 2. Go do some reading.
I bet that isn't energy neutral. Modules built in China/Korea. Sailed to the Yamal peninsula on massive ships using nuclear ice breakers. Installed on remote arctic tundra. The LNG is the put in Tankers and sailed to its destination before being burned.

One last one on the need for big corporations and China to reduce its emissions. By and large both of those are making stuff for the general consumer. Change our actions and force a change in theirs. Many developing nations are trying to bring themselves up to our standard of living. We are setting the example, let's set a good one! You don't need to live in a mud hut with no technology. Just try to reduce your impact and get the message out there to create the change.

Caution...I'm about to say the unsayable..

2 ways to save the planet. Birth control and nuclear fission.

^^ In part I agree, but it's not about saving the planet. It's about saving Humanity. Planet Earth will be spinning long after our demise, just with a different apex predator.

Birth control (possibly) and new energy forms have a role to play but a system that ultimately values the environment from an economic standpoint and doesn't rely on rampant consumerism is where we need to head. Pity, as I fancy a new bike without the pangs of guilt.

Calling them windmills signals you probably don’t know what you are talking about

Or just not that bothered about being 100% correct all of the time, maybe a bit lazy, but not a pedant.

So Danny was paid to travel to a site to ride a custom made carbon bike to promote saving the planet? Am I missing something or is this just how the green lobby roll with the do as I say, not as I do agenda

So how do you promote a green agenda? Let's be honest any bike designed for leisure is not environmentally friendly, however trek have done studies that say a a top end carbon road frames carbon impact can be offset with 500miles ridden rather than driven.

Looking at the small picture and whining about carbon franes whilst the bigger picture of the environment crisis falls around us is a huge part of the problem.

From a climate point of view e-bikes are pretty much about the last our problems and possibly part of the solution.

There were over 200,000 new cars sold & put on the roads in September (and that’s a low year). Between 6 and 35 tonnes embedded CO2 in each and then the ones not electric will be adding a tonne or two a year.

If you get an ebike instead you’re using a teeny fraction of the CO2. Bikes are good.

however trek have done studies that say a a top end carbon road frames carbon impact can be offset with 500miles ridden rather than driven.

which in reality will never happen. Top end frames don’t get used as commuters

but it’s not about saving the planet. It’s about saving Humanity. Planet Earth will be spinning long after our demise, just with a different apex predator.

This. The problem with the whole climate change agenda is it assumes that the planet should stay in its current state for ever because that suits us as the current apex predator. Why should that be the case? The climate has changed all the time for the last several million years and will no doubt continue to do so. Are humans making that happen much quicker than it would? Of course we are but it’s clear that in reality no one wants to actually do anything about it, and that includes most of the protestors who happily travel round the country or world to make their point.

But the rate of anthropogenic climate change is pretty bloody quick compared to those recorded by the geological timescale. The changes that we face in terms of climate, including extremes in weather, drought flooding, sea level rise and the consequential famines, mass migrations and wars will not be affecting some faceless being, yet to be born, or nation other than our own. Our kids and grand kids and possibly even ourselves should expect to suffer, physically or economically, if we and our leaders don’t pull our finger out sharpish.

It’s pretty f scary to think about this in the context of who are making decisions on our behalf (nationally and globally) and the massive steps that we need to take.

So hats off to Danny for trying to spread the word.

Or just not that bothered about being 100% correct all of the time, maybe a bit lazy, but not a pedant.

Referring to a Turbine as a Mill is pretty fundamental and not just a bit lazy.

Or just not that bothered about being 100% correct all of the time, maybe a bit lazy, but not a pedant.

Referring to a Turbine as a Mill is pretty fundamental and not just a bit lazy.

which in reality will never happen. Top end frames don’t get used as commuters

I think your missing the point - 500miles is a pretty small amount of miles to ride to offset a bike made with non recyclable and high carbon materials. Concentrating on the bike rather the the message is exactly what climate deniers want people to do.

Also I used to use my top end carbon MTB as a commuter? Was I wrong to so so in some way, used to see lots of nice carbon bikes going p and down the cycle paths around Bristol when I lived there.

Climate advocates are asking the government to make rapid changes to how we generate electricity, heat and insulate our houses and transport ourselves around. There are many easy wins within these issues which have no equivalence to Danny Mac using specialist equipment for his job. Just the same as they don't for any of our jobs either. Perfection can come later, right now we just need some sort of tangible action.