Posted on 04/19/2023 9:39:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Earth Day is Saturday! Hooray?
“Saving humanity from the climate crisis,” says EarthDay.org, requires us to “push away from the dirty fossil fuel economy.”
Sounds logical.
But my latest video explains why doing that is cruel to poor people.
“Three billion people in the world still use less electricity than a typical refrigerator,” explains Alex Epstein, author of “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.” If they’re going to have “their first well-paying jobs … their first consistent supply of clean water … a modern life … that’s going to depend on fossil fuels.”
But the greens say we have a better replacement: wind and solar power.
So I push back at Epstein: “Solar is getting cheaper all the time. It’s already cheaper than fossil fuels.”
“When we look at solar and wind around the world,” he answers, “it always correlates to rising prices and declining reliability. Why? Because solar and wind are intermittent. At any time, they can go near zero.”
That means wind turbines and solar farms don’t replace fossil fuel plants. You have to build them in addition to fossil fuel plants.
“We spent trillions of dollars in subsidies and mandates putting solar panels and wind turbines everywhere,” Epstein points out, “Yet we’re still having shortages of fossil fuels.”
Germany invested heavily in solar and wind power. Elites around the world praised German politicians for creating record renewable power. But that didn’t work so well when the winds slowed and clouds appeared.
Germans now pay much more for electricity, triple what Americans pay.
Germany has even turned to coal for energy. Coal! Coal is the filthiest fuel. Yet Germany now imports coal from Russia and America.
OK, say the activists, even if renewables have problems, soon we’ll have better batteries so we can bank wind and solar energy and store it until it’s needed!
Batteries are “getting continually better and cheaper,” I say to Epstein.
Backing up all solar and wind with batteries would cost “multiples of global GDP,” responds Epstein. “This is a total fantasy.”
“You say unaffordable,” I push back, “but who’s to determine what that is?”
“The general narrative is we’re destroying the planet with fossil fuels, so who cares how much energy costs?” Epstein says. “The truth is, the planet is only livable because of low-cost, reliable energy from fossil fuels.”
Before fossil fuels, “Life expectancy was below 30. Income was basically nonexistent. The population was stagnant because people had such a high death rate. The basic reason is that nature is not a very livable place for human beings.”
By contrast, thanks to cheap fossil fuels, “We make it unnaturally safe by producing all forms of climate protection. We produce drought relief … sturdy buildings. We produce heat when it’s cold, we produce cold when it’s hot. We have this amazing, productive ability. That’s the only reason we experience the planet as livable.”
Unfortunately, because of today’s foolish hysteria over fossil fuels, energy prices will climb. “When you threaten an industry, you scare investors and producers. Massive threats to industry have definitely cut down production.”
America’s affluent protesters can afford the higher prices. But poor people will suffer. Allowing billions of the world’s poor to live a modern life requires energy from gas, oil and even coal.
The United Nations now puts pressure on countries to stop using fossil fuels. Governments in poor countries, eager for UN handouts, often listen.
“Their whole population is going to suffer,” warns Epstein. “People who have by far the least in the world (are) most subject to today’s international pressure against fossil fuels.”
If we want more of the poorest people to have decent lives, we need to invest in both fossil fuels and nuclear power.
Erf Day? Where do I do a bonfire?
We are playing a gig Saturday night and I believe I will use 2 amplifiers instead of 1 in thanks for muvver erf affording us the means to use electricty. 😁👍🎸🔊🔊🎤
No matter what source of energy is used, there is always a byproduct.
Marko
The planet continues to build up its fossil fuel sources.
That ‘fossil’ fuel did not come from ‘fossils’. Oil and gas and coal, are not ‘fossil’ fuels. Those fuels are generated by all kinds of living forms.
If that ‘fossil’ fuel is not spent or used up, the planet will find a different way to ‘burn’ it.
Solar and wind save the planet about as much as feeding Stacey Abrams saves your grocery budget.
There is no such a thing as a fossil fuel
If you believe it's made of fossils, you must believe it's renewable. Unless you think that nothing had died in the last 300 million years...
RE: Fossil Fuel is Renewable Energy
Can you share with us, a reliable article that explains to us how traditional sources of energy ( I won’t use the term fossil fuels ) like oil or gas are renewable? Thanks.
Can you share with us, a reliable article that explains to us how traditional sources of energy ( I won’t use the term fossil fuels ) like oil or gas are renewable? Thanks.
Fracking occurs a mile or more below the surface of the Earth.
Do you seriously believe there were dinosaurs down there that got turned into petroleum?
The Earth’s mantle is a cauldron of chemicals heated by the core. More oil is being produced all the time, and not from dinosaurs.
Waiting for someone to wheel out their Tesla with a supercharged Hemi in if for earth day.
If we don’t have fossil fuels, how will all the enviroloonies get down to the South Pole to count the penguins when they’re not tied up on “spring break”?
I said that there is no such a thing as a fossil fuel.
I have proven this mathematically.
That’s why math is racist.
RE: I have proven this mathematically.
Fascinating. Have you published it? It would be interesting reading.
Energy resents being stored and will escape confinement whenever and wherever possible, often with disastrous consequences (= the Tesla rolling BBQ grill). That’s why fossil fuels are such a wonder. Because Nature already has taken energy created in the sun’s fusion reactor, snatched it out of the sky, buried it in the ground, and then in a process that takes millennia, transformed it into a (relatively) stable and easy to transport form that’s free to anyone possessed of the enterprise to dig it up.
Because of the efficiency inherent in sourcing your energy in a stable and transportable pre-packaged form (done at zero cost to you), you will never surpass its economy except through processes that create energy on a scale orders of magnitude greater than fossil fuels, and there’s nothing currently known to man that fits that bill except nuclear.
Fossil fuels, or nuclear. Anything else is a waste of time, money, and effort.
Got some crappy tires? Set fire to them in your back yard. If interfered with, claim that you were sacrificing them.
I have a Saturday drive planned in honor of Earth Day.
Burn about 150 miles of petroleum distillate.
Mostly prosperity. During WW II we were tied to Eagle Picher mining power grid and it was 25 cycle, that limited what we could use on their grid which was ok because most people only had light bulbs and maybe a radio. Electric bills were rarely more than a couple dollars.
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