Sadly, the beginning of the editorial, which you quoted, isn’t the core and importance of the story.
Here’s the important paragraphs:
If fossil-fuel power plants are to go the way of the clipper ships over the next decade, something must replace them. Going solely solar would require installing solar panels over an area of land nearly the size of West Virginia. Generating just 20 percent of U.S. energy needs from wind would require mounting turbines on an area encompassing land the size of New Hampshire and Vermont. About 900 hydroelectric plants were demolished between 1990 and 2015 owing to opposition from environmentalists outraged by harm to fish ecosystems. Nuclear plants would get similarly rough treatment at the hands of fanatics frightened by the prospect of nuclear power.
Solar and wind power flit across the landscape intermittently, requiring an alternate source, like coal or gas, to make electricity when nature takes a break. Environmentally friendly Europeans find that a lack of reliable backup when nature takes that break increases the risk of electrical grid failures. German engineering, as good as it is, has not been able to eliminate the effect of “green” politics, which would replace fossil and nuclear power with renewables. The result is 172,000 localized blackouts in Germany in 2017.
Poverty was a constant companion of humanity until modern times. The proportion of people worldwide living in poverty was cut in half between 1990 and 2010, according to the World Bank, an achievement unprecedented in human history. It was the result of a rapid boost in global energy production — up 43 percent during that period, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Nearly 81 percent of that power was generated by fossil fuels, such as oil and gas.
A billion people around the globe still suffer extreme energy poverty, with no access to electricity. Everyone gets a hint of what that means when storms knock out the power, and everything in the house stops. Fumbling occasionally for candles is a mere inconvenience, but life beyond carbon — entirely dependent on sunshine and a breeze — would be insanity.
As the reliability of the electric grid drops people will install local power sources. In the 1980s I didn't know anyone who had a whole house generator. Now they are common in New Hampshire, and a wanted feature in homes.
We may well end up with a distributed power solution, and it will probably generate way more pollution than the coal power plants did when all the local backyard diesel, propane, and natural gas generators fire up.
“but life beyond carbon — entirely dependent on sunshine and a breeze — would be insanity.” I know you must have seen some of the videos so may be familiar with the insanity that does exist among the ‘true believers’. If you look at nannie bloomers beyondcarbon. org site you’ll see it on display. He won’t suffer one iota though.