NOW IS THE TIME! BLOG #16
Lets get real! Re The Climate/Energy Emergency!
BIG Oil , ELECTRIC SUVS, TRUCKS, CARS & WINDMILLS
Advanced Release 3/6/23.
Lets get real!
Why do the BIG OIL companies openly support the switch to electric SUVs, Trucks, Cars and Windmills? How are these odd bedfellows misleading the general public?
With a blink of an eye BIG OIL now embraces the idea of drivers pulling up to a Fast Food window for a hamburg, fries and soda in an electric SUV or pick up truck that can accelerate to 100 kph faster than a Formula One race car ….all the while claiming to be reducing GHG emissions with Carbon Capture Technology that has not yet been commercialized …all for the good of our environment! What is wrong with this picture? The Global Fleet of personal transportation is getting heavier ..not just in North America. Most new vehicle sales are now SUVs,Vans & Trucks not Cars. Unless we have discovered a new magical source of energy…. it takes more fossil fuels to manufacture these heavier vehicles than the ones they replace and an electric vehicle even more…. and more energy to run them once sold because of the added weight. Simply put it takes energy to move mass. So this Energy Transition to electric vehicles leads to an important question.. Is there any chance that the global move to electric vehicles has any chance of reducing GHG emissions between now and 2050? BIG OIL the UN, and National Governments are all complicit!
Lets get real! BIG OIL supports electric SUVs, trucks, cars and commercial wind because it is good for their business, generating higher prices and much greater profits for oil and natural gas at least through to 2050. Why? Because it takes much more fossil fuel energy to build out the global fleet with electric SUVs, trucks and cars than it would to continue replacing them all with fossil fuel vehicles … and fossil fuel cars can’t realistically be phased out entirely until ten years after new car production phases out around 2035 … trucks even later.
Lets get real! The United Nations led focus by the IPCC has allowed their financiers including the G20 Nations and BIG Oil to green-wash sustainable development goals providing cover for rising GHG emissions. However, three of the big four leading global GHG polluting nations namely China, Russia and India have already announced that they will not achieve Net Zero GHG Emissions until 2060 or beyond. The USA remains under the illusion that it can grow its economy, support BIG OIL and reduce GHG emissions to Net Zero by 2050.
Lets get real ! National Governments everywhere are committed to economic growth to keep employment high and stay in power …and electric vehicles and windmills can fuel that growth along with the promise of Hi Tech to eventually solve the GHG emissions problem caused by fossil fuels.
Lets get real! Hi Tech is not a solution for reducing energy consumption. 5G takes more energy than 4G and 6G and 7G even more. And the beat goes on …Artificial Intelligence will take enormous amounts of energy and we will not be able to control its usage. Eventually its cost of energy will have to be priced into its usage in the same way that the internet itself is now facing ….and by the way there is no such thing as free shipping! Carbon Capture technology tied into the reduction of GHG emissions is at the proof of concept phase with little chance of full commercialization …why not reduce GHG emissions through photosynthesis …how about re-greening the acreage now used for feeding cattle for human consumption. You have to wonder why real solutions receive so little support after so many years of
tracking rising global GHG emissions only interrupted by economic recession. And, if you appreciate the enormous amount of energy (mostly fossil fuels) that goes into building a single commercial wind mill that only generates electric power intermittently you will begin to appreciate the very low return on energy generated by commercial windmills and why BIG OIL supports them with open arms.
None of this means that we should try to stop the shift to electric SUVs ,TRUCKS, CARS or building commercial windmills for high return applications. However what it does mean is that we have to get a lot smarter on a local basis and a lot more selective very quickly about how we spend our resources between emissions reduction and adaptation to the Climate/Energy Emergency.
We can have more impact at the local community level if we get on with creating and celebrating projects that lead to Energy Descent …that is reducing our collective community reliance on all forms of energy and switching that lower energy requirement to locally produced renewable energy including small scale
wind where it is viable.
Municipalities such as Peterborough, Ontario, Canada where I live have the community wealth to move the Community to much greater resilience and greater social and economic equity. What is lacking is understanding the Leadership and Command Structure required to deal with the Climate/Energy Emergency; or seemingly any of the financial expertise that it will take to mobilize its own citizens to re-invest in their own community for their own benefit.
Further, what doesn’t seem to be clear at least in Peterborough, Ontario Canada is that the public have to lead local municipal governments to do the right things, to get their priorities straight to focus on what needs to be done now not to reduce GHG emissions but rather to reduce community energy consumption as the Number 1 priority to combat the Climate/Energy Emergency now enveloping us.
Lets get real ..this is no easy task ….but it can be done! “In some respects the energy transition (away from fossil fuels) is analogous to redesigning and rebuilding an airplane while its in flight” Richard Heinberg 2023.
Fred Irwin
NOW IS THE TIME!
Reference Blog#5 Lets get off the fossil fuel Merry- Go -Round
With Local Energy Descent!
www.fredirwinauthor.com