Monday, August 31, 2020
Yeah, well, math is racist!
These numbers are sobering, obviously. But Minnesota consumes only 1/71 of the electricity in the U.S. If we extrapolate Minnesota’s numbers to the U.S. as a whole, a rough conclusion is that getting all of our electricity from wind, solar and batteries would consume around 70% of all of the copper currently mined in the world, 337% of global nickel production, 3,053% of the world’s total cobalt production, 355% of the U.S.’s iron output, and 284% of U.S. steel production. Along with unfathomable quantities of concrete–which, by the way, off-gases CO2.
Thus, at a minimum, implementing just this one part of the Democratic Party’s Green New Deal would require an expansion of mining, world-wide, that would dwarf anything in human history. Whether the world contains enough of these metals to support a transition to solar, wind and batteries in the U.S.–and if so, for how long–I have no idea. And that mining, along with the infrastructure needed to support it and the transportation of vast quantities of metals around the world, would itself have inevitable environmental impacts.
Further, if the goal of this whole exercise is to combat global warming, there is little point in talking about American electricity production. If one accepts the calculations of the global warming alarmists, the impact of anything we do on global temperatures is risibly small. To have perceptible effect, China, India, Brazil and the rest of the developing world would have to get all of their electricity from wind and solar, too. That would increase the above demand for materials by something like 15 to 20 times.
It would be great if someone would ask one of the "green" energy true believers about this analysis and its implications.
Labels: party of science
LeBron? Any comment?
Choose Better Heroes
Yeah, well, the laws of physics are racist!
More at the link, but the conclusion is obvious: “green” energy is a joke. We would be crazy to rely on it. I don’t want to be one of those riding an elevator 50 stories in the air when the wind stops blowing and the power goes out. You can name your own nightmare scenario. We all need reliable energy, which comes from coal, natural gas, nuclear and hydropower. Wind and solar are ridiculously expensive add-ons that add zero to our reliable supply of electricity. They do nothing for the environment; their main purpose is to enrich politically-connected investors who trade on the credulity of people who vote for the likes of Joe Biden.
Labels: party of science
Toward Societal Collapse
But we rely on the police to maintain order on our streets. If suspects simply ignore officers who are called to the scene of a crime or disturbance, if they refuse to obey the officers’ orders and drive away, how can the police do the job we expect from them? The social contract is fragile. It assumes, among many other things, that in the heat of the moment, people will do as police officers direct so that order and a modicum of peace can be preserved. If police officers across the country are told to simply let suspects drive away if they prefer not to cooperate, the result will be chaos and more violence.
Party of Science
After 48 Years, Democrats Endorse Nuclear Energy in Platform. But...
The less-than-good news is that the Democratic Party platform pledges to deploy outlandish quantities of new solar and wind capacity and do so in just five years. Further, the platform ignores the amount of land needed for that effort and how it would end up driving up the cost of electricity for low- and middle-income consumers.
Labels: party of science
