Cambridge Ideas - How Many Lightbulbs?

Cambridge University physicist, David Mackay, in a passionate, personal analysis of the energy crisis in the UK, in which he comes to some surprising conclusions about the way forward. The film is based on his new book Sustainable Energy without the hot air, in which Prof Mackay has calculated the numbers involved for the alternatives to fossil fuels like coal, gas and oil.

He debunks some myths about energy saving - unplugging our phone chargers, does not make any appreciable difference. After showing us what won't work - he goes on to show what will make a difference at home, like turning your thermostat down.

But, his big point is that this will not be enough - individual efforts are not enough. Instead we need to make sweeping national changes to our energy production, and we can't reject everything available to us. If we are going to follow the advice of climate scientists, and get off fossil fuels by 2050, which currently provide 90% of our energy, Britain's main options are wind power and nuclear power. But to make this huge change in our power supply, Mackay says that we have to get building now!

This film can also be seen with French subtitles by clicking on the captions tab at the bottom of the screen.

For more information go to David Mackays website
www.withouthotair.com

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  Education

[thefrequencykenneth]

FACT: If you embraced all the negative energy expressed by chav comment on YouTube, you could power a 40ft diameter lightbulb for 22 years that shines black.

[doyle579]

Is it just me or is he always happy despite global warming

[lysared]

I understood that he was just saying they aren't allowed to build them. Or maybe I got that wrong. Actually, I liked the fact that he didn't say that a particular alternative power source is the one needed instead of fossil fuels, just that there has to be a change. That way he didn't put off the kind of people who think that everybody supporting renewable energy is a hippie.

Although I might have misunderstood something, as I am not a native speaker.

[fanthomans]

Note, no talk about global climate change in this video. That must be because it is not the problem!!! The problem is we are running out of fossil fuels.

[Peter Pan]

A very good take! He is recommending a mix of electrical energy generation types. Here we are with the lights in the UK about to either go out or to become very expensive to keep on. I first had an inkling that all was not well back in 1993 when the then Tory government began endorsing and actively encouraging the of gas turbines to generate electricity in place of existing coal fired powered electricity generating plants. You can read the rest of my article at bright-work.co.uk

[EquusFerrarius]

"There will never be the kind of nuclear build up he is recommending." Goodbye civilization, it was fun while it lasted.

[string22]

davey mackay is a legend

[Henk Daalder]

Mackay is lying about the amount of energy we need. He uses the windfall profits of fossile energy companies as reference. However, society can do without them, by generating the energy decentrally, and only hire the fossile dinosaurs only for the energy wind and solar cannot provide.

Build good looking windfarms by and for citrizens, starting NOW

[SamezXD]

They do accept that. What you need to accept is by taking this attitude nothing gets done. If EVERYONE did those things, it would make a difference. So go ahead, do nothing. I will choose to band together with everyone and try

[muhammadzahmad]

thanks for sharing this video...

[katheryncruz24]

Very informative. Thank you,

[Val Martin]

Ok:  So we go for the wind option, 600,000 1.5 mw turbines. Then we decommission all our conventional and nuclear power stations, Happy Days.

From the 15 th December 2009 to 21st January 2010 and from 2nd February to 27th February 2011 a blocking weather system happened in the eastern Atlantic which caused anti cyclonic calm conditions over Ireland and Britain. 3 out of four days in 2011 were too calm to generate wind power. So where is the power going to come from?