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!

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

Category:

Education

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• David Mackay
• Physicist
• Energy
• Crisis
• Sustainable
• Fossil Fuels
• Climate
• Control
• Power
• Wave
• Wind
• Science
• Tips
• Stephen
• Fry
• lightbulbs
• physics
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• oil
• myths
• wind turbines
• heat

[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.

[ciaran3707]

I think the most important message in this video is that it shows how individual changes wont make a significant difference. Environmentalists who think that the way forward is through teaching people to reduce their carbon footprint by not leaving electrical appliances on standby and doing their shopping in a "bag for life" need to accept this.

[SamezXD]

@ciaran3707 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,

[ValMartinIreland]

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?

[echoplex89]

@Dimy761

not is you are poor. When I was 12 my mother lost her job and couldn't afford to use her car, so she sold it. We haven't owned a car since, we don't use heat in the winter, and we use public transportation for just about everything.

Internal usage of electricity, well that's another matter altogether.

[Blacky2604]

@RuFuosD This guy is the government's advisor for climate change and he's a member of the Royal Society. I'm pretty sure he knows what he's talking about and it's in our best interests to listen to what he says. If you actually read his book, he does advocate 100% nuclear power, but rather a mix of different sources with nuclear being the main constituent simply because the energy density is so much higher than other renewable sources.

[etbadaboum]

@jimmyrich1 20% of world electricity is consumed in lightning. 40% of food is wasted in the Western world. We can do better than that.

[PilgrimBeart]

A modern lightbulb uses only 18W, so I reckon that each individual consumes total (primary) power of about 260 lightbulbs. That's inflation for you!

[tf8252]

David the people who control the politicians DONT WANT us to figure it out. They want us to deindustrialize and depopulate by 90%. Its in their own writings. Do the research. And for God's sake you're a physicist...please do your research and you'll see that "Climate Change" is a fraud. 95% of the green house gases is water vapor.

[Dimy761]

There is no technology existing that is capable to replace fossil fuels within decades. The only way is to reduce your personal consumption, that's hurts.