In regards to the whole climate change thingy and the left's narrative on renewable energy.... I thought I would arm you guys with some general FACTS on energy consumption so that you can politely swat away your friends and family that are totally ignorant on the subject. The point of the plots below is that no matter how good large scale investment in renewables may sound, the fact is, renewables will never, EVER, be able to meet energy demand (that is only increasing). Most of you may already understand that concept but the actual numbers below should help give you perspective on the scale needed (this is US energy consumption only). Full disclosure: I am a 15 year petroleum engineer---I work for a private company and we always try and inform ownership of the facts. The below plots utilize EIA data.
A good lead off question since most people generally feel like the US and the world have steadily been increasing renewable energy investment in the last 20 years...What % of US energy consumption, today, comes from wind and solar? Keep in mind that we are talking about TOTAL ENERGY, not just electricity (this is an important point b/c some ignorants only think in terms of electricity---remember, you can't mine electricity and there are many more things in our world that don't run on just electricity!)
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Just visually looking at this plot above, looks like there is a generously large amount of energy demand being supported by wind and solar....but when you add it to scale on total consumption....
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That's right, ~4% currently. So how much of the total consumption above comes from just oil and gas?
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~70% of energy consumption is oil and gas. Note that the other mix is comprised of coal (fossil fuel), nuclear, geothermal, and biomass. Coal makes up about 10% on it's own. So, to repeat, when you look at total energy consumption in the US alone, fossil fuels make up ~80% of that supply. What does the total energy supply mix look like?
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Renewables is the white section at the top. About 10%. 10% after how many years and how many billions in investment (mostly subsidized by our tax dollars)? How many more billions do we need to get to 50%, 75%, 100% AOC?
Of that 10%, wind and solar are about 4%. The other 5% comes from biomass. What is biomass? It is a 'renewable' source of organic material that can be converted into energy. The two main sources of this organic material are wood and crops. How do you create most of this energy? You burn it. So just making sure you understand, they literally cut down forests and burn the wood to create energy. It's technically renewable b/c forests and crops grow back. But not very environmentally friendly is it? How are they cutting down trees again? electric machines??? It's no different than mining for battery material---most of the mining operations are with heavy machinery fueled by....
Another takeaway from the plot above. Notice how coal has been steadily declining? Want to know why our CO2 emissions are at 1990 levels? FRACING & NATURAL GAS BABY. Much cleaner and just as abundant as coal in this blessed country of ours. What was Xi saying about the environment today at the World Economic Forum?
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Don't fall for the propaganda.
What else is important apart from CO2 emissions? How important are fossil fuels? What else comes from a barrel of crude oil?
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Apart from all of the essential products made from crude oil and its refined products, what else does oil represent? National security. How vital is jet fuel and diesel to our military? To China? How much can the US refine vs it's enemies?
The whole renewable energy industry isn't all what it seems btw. Don't just take my word for it. Even some honest environmentalists are waking up to the facts.
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This is a good TED talk by Michael Shellenberger. You should watch it and send it to other folks. This is someone who is honest about the facts. Now, to be fair, he makes the point that nuclear is the only clean way and he is right. Unfortunately, it's very hard to get approval to build a new nuclear power plant these days...
Switching from carbon based energy sources to so-called “renewables," even if it was possible, INCREASES our dependency on, and consumption of, non-renewable resources, hastening the demise of industrial civilization. The sun will keep shining and the wind will keep blowing long after our futile attempt to harvest them with hundreds of thousands of square miles of “green” technology collapses. There will never be “green” technological energy and fantasizing there could be says something about our desperation. And keep in mind that the majority of what’s defined as, and gets subsidized as “green” energy, are biofuel and biomass — burning what remains of the living planet to fuel our lifestyles. Jeff Gibbs, 8/16/2020, la Citta futura