Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Global Warming To Hinder Wi-Fi Signals, Claims UK Gov't

Posted by Soulskill on from the stock-up-on-tinfoil dept.

radioweather writes with news of a government report from the UK's Dept. for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which warns of global warming's harmful effect on Wi-Fi and other communication protocols. Quoting the Guardian: "Presenting the report, the secretary of state for the environment, Caroline Spelman, said that higher temperatures can reduce the range of wireless communications, rainstorms can impact the reliability of the signal, and drier summers and wetter winters may cause greater subsidence, damaging masts and underground cables. The threat posed by climate change to internet and telephone access is a rare example of when the developed world would be hit harder than developing countries, which are in general more at risk from increased floods, droughts and rising sea levels. 'If climate change threatens the quality of your signal, or you can't get it because of extreme fluctuations in temperature, then you will be disadvantaged, which is why we must address the question,' said Spelman, 'and just imagine in the height of an emergency if the communications system is down or adversely affected.'"

15 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. UK Government Hinders WiFi by gavron · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The UK Government and it's insipid reports hinders WiFi.

    E

    1. Re:UK Government Hinders WiFi by Arlet · · Score: 1, Insightful

      There's no correlation. The sun has been getting weaker since the 1980's, while global temperature has gone up.

      Compare black line here:
      http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Sunspot_Numbers.png/800px-Sunspot_Numbers.png

      With this: http://www.columbia.edu/~mhs119/Temperature/dTs_60+132mons.gif

    2. Re:UK Government Hinders WiFi by Coriolis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      At the moment, the global temperature anomaly is 0.1C BELOW the thirty year running mean (and has been for a couple of months.

      Analysing a thirty-year running mean on the timescale of months is statistical nonsense.

      --
      Rgasuya aata! : I have been coding Perl and cannot tell where my fingers are now!
  2. Wow by kpainter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    These guys must have some really good drugs.

  3. Scraping the bottom of the barrel by 0123456 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They really are getting desperate, aren't they?

    BTW, wasn't Britain supposed to get drier winters with no snow because of 'global warming', not wetter ones? When did that change?

    1. Re:Scraping the bottom of the barrel by JDAustin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sea levels have risen and sea levels have fallen in the past.

      Its just civilization has now cropped up and made these changes inconvenient. It used to be that man would migrate if his surroundings became inhospitable. Now they just try and control nature.

    2. Re:Scraping the bottom of the barrel by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Climate is always changing. It has been warmer, it has been cooler. It has been wetter, it has been drier. The issue is how much can we blame on CO2 verses everything else, like the sun solar cycle.

      Or like the one guy I heard recently talking about the tides affecting low lying areas of Japan ... trying to blame it on Global Warming and not the HUGE EARTHQUAKE the dropped the island a few feet. It is freakin religion to some of these idiots.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  4. Greentards will say anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And so will corporate interests. Too bad we can't get anyone moderate to talk about this. Either we're all already dead, or everything is great. As long as those are the only two choices, nothing worthwhile will be accomplished. *sigh*

    1. Re:Greentards will say anything by bryan1945 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That is an interesting statement. When we (the collective we) hear "We're all doomed," we assume if all humans die, well, everything just stops. How many global-level extinctions have there been, 4? If we are screwing up the biosphere, and we go kaput, seems like we deserve it. The earth won't really care that much. Bring on the crab people!

      --
      Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
  5. WiFi works in: by xMrFishx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...countries that are hotter (Southern Europe), Wetter (Hong Kong), Colder (Sweden), Dryer (Greece) and more legally obtuse (USA) than the UK. I think we'll be fine. FUD off.

  6. Inception by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Global warming will disrupt living conditions worldwide, and people won't be around to have an economy that won't be able to afford internet or phone service.

  7. Near the end of the hype? by jmorris42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If this is the best "DOOM!" Climate Change story the legacy media can whip up today maybe we are near the end of the scare.

    Then we who are sane can set about purging the defilers from the temples of Science! and setting it to rights.

    Climate Change can't possibly be science, it fails one of the most basic tenets in that it isn't falsifiable. Try it if you doubt, ask a True Believer masquarading as a scientist what test could falsify their theory. There isn't one. IT gets warmer, Global Warming. Cooler? Climate Change. Drier? Wetter? More ice? Less ice? More clouds? Less clouds? And so on. All data lead the Warmist to the exact same conclusions and more importantly the exact same policy prescriptions. And of course a real scientist wouldn't dare propose policy on such a complex question in the knowledge of his ignorance of too many other fields.

    --
    Democrat delenda est
  8. Global Dimming by Drew+M. · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If we're so worried about global warming just counteract it by increasing global dimming:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming

  9. what a breath of hot air... by sribe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, if hot air really can interfere with WiFi, perhaps shutting these guys up would be a first good step.

  10. Desperation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    This is a pathetic attempt to get people to care about global warming again I mean "climate change". Follow the money.