Frederik and Mary's Work Schedule

[EIIR]

I can assure everyone here that we in the UK also pay very high taxes (until recently we had the highest marginal tax rate in the developed world) which funds a cradle to grave welfare state as well as a unique health service which is free to all at the point of use. So I think the idea that the British monarchy is a 'welfare monarchy' is nonsense. The British monarchy try to use their positions, their ability to open doors and their 'convening power' to directly improve the lives not just of people in the UK but all around the world.

No matter how good the welfare state there isn't a country in the world that doesn't suffer from serious problems.

I hope he doesn't devote too much time to wind energy since the celebrated scientist and author of several books on the environment James Lovelock described it in the Guardian just yesterday as 'useless', predicting that shale gas would make wind power obsolete. I hope Frederik and the Danes haven't put all their eggs in the wrong basket.

[Nordic]

Originally Posted by EIIR

I hope he doesn't devote too much time to wind energy since the celebrated scientist and author of several books on the environment James Lovelock described it in the Guardian just yesterday as 'useless', predicting that shale gas would make wind power obsolete. I hope Frederik and the Danes haven't put all their eggs in the wrong basket.

Frederik has for some years now attended lots of events connected to
climate/green growth/sustainability/alternative energy/cleantech etc in Denmark and on his foreign visits.

[Muhler]

Originally Posted by EIIR

I hope he doesn't devote too much time to wind energy since the celebrated scientist and author of several books on the environment James Lovelock described it in the Guardian just yesterday as 'useless', predicting that shale gas would make wind power obsolete. I hope Frederik and the Danes haven't put all their eggs in the wrong basket.

Oh, I think it would be very unwise to dismiss wind energy. Fossile fuel is efficient and reliable old technology. - That pollutes, has to be transported, will eventually dry out, is not always under the control of the most desirable people and in a world of terrorism, it's vulnerable.
Wind energy is inefficient and difficult to store - today. The wind energy technology at present is comparable to a Ford model T. In twenty years from now....
Wind energy is free, easy to harness, fairly cheap to set up, absolutely limitless and it not under the control of any despots.
By 2050 Denmark is expected to be self sufficient with energy from wind mills and by then no one can turn the tap. No 1973 again for us.
James Lovelock may live to regret his words.

The same thing about solar energy. Even in cloudy costal countries like DK solar panels are getting so cheap and so efficient that there at present is a boom for homeowners to place a panel on the roof. - In fact we are considering placing such a panel on our roof ourselves as we are to replace the tiles anyway. Even with todays fairly inefficient solar technology the investment is sound for individual families.

[UserDane]

James Lovelock dismissing wind energy fits well with his view on atomic power which he is renown for.
Am not sure I would personally feel convinced that his is an unbiased viewpoint.

[EIIR]

James Lovelock has admitted that the kind of nuclear expansion that he wanted to see is unlikely to happen now after the Japanese tsunami. He said in the interview that there's no point in extolling the virtues of nuclear anymore because it will take to long and be too costly to build the plants needed.

Wind energy is a complete and total red herring. It is so costly, so inefficient and so unreliable that the only way it's currently expanding is via enormous subsidies from governments who have finally figured out that they have no money.

I'm not convinced that climate change is caused or can be reversed by humans, or that it is as bad as some scientists say. I think the future is a mixture of nuclear, shale gas, clean coal, fossil fuels and some solar/wind energy. Putting all your eggs in any one single basket is just sheer stupidity.

Did Frederik study climate science or anything similar at university etc.?

[UserDane]

Originally Posted by EIIR

Wind energy is a complete and total red herring. It is so costly, so inefficient and so unreliable that the only way it's currently expanding is via enormous subsidies from governments who have finally figured out that they have no money..

A 'complete and total red herring' .

Originally Posted by EIIR

Putting all your eggs in any one single basket is just sheer stupidity..?

Like the countries who have based their energy solutions on oil alone? I agree; it left them way too vulnerable. That's one of the reasons I'm personally very satisfied with living in a country which is renown for its advanced technologies within areas like wind and solar energy as a means to lessen dependence on other forms of energy.

Originally Posted by EIIR

Did Frederik study climate science or anything similar at university etc.?

He has a MA degree in political science from the univeristy of Aarhus. Don't know whether climate science was part of his studies. But coming from one of the countries in the world which has worked the longest and most extensively with wind energy his interest in the subject is only natural, I think.