Tag: Climate Con Job

“We’re Environmental Protestors, Please!”

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Here’s my public service for the day.  I’ve been watching this clip for a few days and it never gets old.  A heartfelt belly laugh at the stupid and self-important.  The Gaia Worshippers.

Stupid hippies are blocking the road to Burning Man to protest, I guess, the other stupid hippies.  Then the tribal police bust up the blockade and arrest the stupid hippies.  When the cop pulls out his gun and starts manhandling one of the fat stupid hippies, another fat stupid hippie starts screeching that they are non-violent and environmental protestors and, I guess, in her mind therefore, sacrosanct.

But the cop puts his knee in the hippie’s fatty liver and cuffs her.  Comedy gold.  If only it could be Greta Thunberg!

 

If This Goes On … Then What? – Part 3

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So, after the rainbow crusade the next most important article of the woke faith is the climate change crusade.  And the real-world consequence that this delusion engenders is the energy crisis that we are currently suffering under.

Starting in Europe but now picking up steam here in America, the Left is attempting to criminalize the use of hydrocarbon fuels.  And especially they’re trying to take them away from private citizens.  So even though the bulk of electrical generation is powered by natural gas in this country, the federal government and states like California are legislating against the use of gasoline powered cars and other equipment like lawn mowers and at the same time, against the use of natural gas for cooking and eventually home heating.

And indicating to the oil companies that they are going to be phased out has had the predictable effect of curtailing their efforts to keep the price of gas and oil stable.  Instead, this plan has unleashed the OPEC cartel’s efforts to maximize their profits in the short term and ignore Washington’s pleas to help it along with making the transition quiet so that it becomes a fait accompli.  And even though the adoption of electric vehicles is already becoming a nightmare for the power grid in California, the feds have doubled down on making this all happen by 2030.

First a word on the technical aspects of this plan.  As a chemical engineer I can say categorically this is a stupid and wrong-headed plan.  Charging electric cars from a grid that is basically powered using fossil fuels is incredibly wasteful.  Over a third of the energy that even reaches the grid is wasted as heat during transmission.  That’s not even taking into consideration the difference in efficiency between the internal combustion engine versus the combination of the turbine electric generators and the battery charging and discharging efficiency.  It’s absurd.  And they call it “green.”

So how does this end up?  Well, you know the drill.  Let me throw out some scenarios and I’ll make my guess and then you follow up on the poll.  Here goes.

The worst-case scenario is that this whole thing is accomplished.  The people of the United States act like good little sheep and just acquiesce in this whole stupid plan.  And in order to compensate for all the inefficiencies and fallacies in the plan we all end up losing a whole lot of freedom and affluence.  With much more expensive electricity and with the supply insufficient to allow everyone to recharge their cars every day, trains and busses will become the mandated form of transportation for ordinary people.  So, forget about auto trips and vacations.  Probably car ownership will become too expensive for anybody not in the upper middle class.  Even home heating will become a real problem.  Expect that people will walk around their homes in coats and hats in the winter and insulation will become a matter of life and death.  And enjoy living in the desert southwest without air-conditioning.  And the cost of food will also increase drastically and the variety of foods will go away.  No more fresh fruits in the winter except for the very well off.  The peasants will make do with whatever can last from the fall.  No more meat.  Unless you consider crickets meat.

The middle scenario is a much slower rollout and the realization that nuclear power plants can be sold to the climate zealots as “green energy.”  Having a reliable and economical high density power source could ameliorate some of the sins that battery cars create and leaves open the scenario where hydrogen fuel for cars is affordable.  And likewise, affordable energy could prevent the other problems like expensive food and home heating

The best-case scenario would be the American people revolting against the stupidity of the green agenda and voting for a combination of fossil fuels in the here and now and research into long term energy solutions like nuclear and other more exotic sources like geothermal.

For once I’m not guessing that the middle scenario will occur.  I think the American people are sheep that will be led to the slaughter.  I’m guessing we’ll get the whole green agenda and we’ll be eating bugs and taking the train in the future.  The ultimate humiliation for a once free people.

Leave your guess below.

World Didn’t End in 2023. Greta Thunberg Exclaims, “How Dare You!”

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I think her punishment for being wrong should be for her to be put in one of those dunk tanks and let all the non-climate alarmists get five baseball pitches to try and dunk her.  With any luck she’ll drown.

Will the Internal Combustion Engine be Outlawed by 2035 and What Would be the Results?

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Mandating battery driven automobiles would be an enormous change to the world we live in.  It would, in one fell swoop, destroy enormous corporations like Exxon and British Petroleum.  It would require the extraction of tremendous quantities of minerals such as lithium and nickel from the ground with devastating impact on the environment that is allegedly the reason for the change.  It would require us to sacrifice the almost limitless mobility we currently enjoy for a greatly diminished horizon.  And it would require an enormous upgrade in the electrical generation and transmission infrastructure.  And hidden in the switch is a higher level of control on your access to energy.

I posed this as a question.  But what it boils down to is a simpler question.  Are the Millennials and Generation Z so docile and bought into the Climate Change argument that they’ll just go along with this change.  My personal experience with these people says the answer is yes.  They are a completely different animal from their parents and grandparents.  They are easily led into actions that are painted as socially virtuous.  They do not possess any instincts to question authority.  And they like to move with the herd they identify with.  Put simply they’re domesticated animals, let’s say sheep.  And this is a generalization that of course has millions of exceptions but as a reflection of the majority of this cohort it is accurate.

This being the case I’ve been thinking about whether there is some combination of actions or events that could change this result.  The only thing I could think of is if some states band together and resist this mandate and because of this make owning battery driven cars unattractive.  For instance, suppose that the west coast states mandate battery cars but the rest of the west refuses.  That would mean that people in the gas vehicle areas would continue to have enormous freedom to travel where they wish but the coastal state people wouldn’t have that advantage.  I guess they could rent gas vehicles at the borders of their state and use these cars to travel for business or vacation.  And even this would reinforce for these people just how pathetic battery cars are in comparison.  In the east, with the smaller size of the states, gas vehicles could quite often pass right through a battery only state without running out of gas.  For instance, let’s say that Illinois was a battery state.  Someone in Indiana could drive right through Illinois and reach Iowa or Missouri without running out of gas.

So, the west coast, the Great Lakes and the northeast would become dead zones for gas cars and enclaves for battery cars.  And the enclaves would put up restrictive laws.  They would restrict or forbid gas cars from entering their territory, much in the way they restrict gun transport.  Maybe the gas car states would retaliate to punish the battery car states with similar bans.  That might be an interesting way to start driving wedges between the red and blue states.

But the funny part of all this is that freight hauling trucks would probably still be running on fuel.  Specifically, diesel fuel but probably there won’t be any battery-powered 18-wheelers.  Will these battery car states dispense with trucks?  Will they start building railway spurs everywhere and use only electrified tracks?  I guess it’s possible.  But what’s more likely is that they’ll leave diesel trucks as an anomaly, since private citizens won’t be able to have diesel powered cars.  After all inconsistency isn’t a problem for them.  It’s a feature of a quasi-religious approach to life.

Now, this is all spit-balling.  But you can see that this push to eliminate gas powered cars could have unexpected results.  And even if the whole country goes along with it, there could be strong reactions to the problems of mandating an inferior technology over an existing superior one.  Eliminating gas cars might have the outcome of making hydrogen fueled cars suddenly attractive.  These aren’t as convenient as gas cars but they eliminate the refueling time problem inherent in the battery cars.  Trade-offs will be weighed and people will gravitate to what makes their lives easier.  Even the sheep will choose between the bad options they’ve accepted to minimize the pain they have to endure.

I love the freedom that modern automobiles give us.  Being able to pack my bags and drive five hundred miles and go camping or attend an event has become a feature of American life.  The fact that the young would let this go to “save Gaia” is extremely depressing in my mind.  But I think it’s accurate.  Once again, we will witness soon whether the American dream will be sacrificed by our descendants or whether the will to resist still exists.

Latest Green Fiasco, Offshore Windmills Killing Whales

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You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.

“A New Jersey congressman is demanding an investigation into whether offshore wind projects are killing whales off the coast of the Garden State and the state of New York.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., announced on Friday that he would be calling for an investigation into the increasing number of dead whales that have washed up off the coast of New Jersey over the last month once committee assignments for the 118th Congress are finalized.

In less than two months, seven dead whales have washed up along the New Jersey-New York coastline, local media have reported.”

I have to admit I don’t see how offshore wind turbines are killing whales.  Sea birds yes but unless these are flying whales I don’t get the connection between the turbines and the dead whales.  But based on the track record of the geniuses in the green clown show I wouldn’t bet against it being so.

Well I guess the whales are just going to have to suck it up to save the planet.  Maybe next time it can be the polar bears’ turn.  Or the pandas.  Thanks Gaia.

The ZMan Has a Bit to Say About Energy

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He runs through the ins and outs of how our whole world runs on cheap energy.  My favorite thought is, “The real reserve currency of the world is the BTU and the dollar is the physical manifestation of it. The war on Russia, like the war on Iran, is as much about protecting the control of energy as it is ideology. What we are seeing is that the countries with vast energy wealth are starting to figure out that they are better off as partners rather than as competitors.”

Ah, the British Thermal Unit.  Metric units be damned.

It’s about time Westerners figured out that windmills and solar panels mean poverty for them and their descendants and start figuring out where the energy source for the year 2200 is going to be.  The Germans are pretty smart maybe they’ll start taking those nuke plants out of mothballs after they freeze their own balls off this winter.

I have a hunch geothermal energy and hydrogen as a vehicle fuel is the way things will go but you never know.  Funny things can happen.  But windmills it won’t be.

Let’s go Brandon!

 

 

 

Both Nord Stream Pipelines Have Been Sabotaged

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Apparently underwater sabotage has rendered both Russian Nord Stream gas pipelines inoperable for the foreseeable future.  This is going to make the current energy situation in Germany and Central Europe untenable.

Theories on who is responsible range from the Russians to the Ukrainians to the German Greens to the CIA.  You know, I can begin to see how this crisis is beginning to spin out of control.

I am reminded of the Obama era operative who said “Never let a crisis go to waste.”  It looks like someone has decided to push this thing into the crisis range.  Maybe it will force Germany to reactivate their nuclear power plants.  Or maybe it will cause a humanitarian crisis of mammoth proportions that will plunge the people of the European Union into revolt against their elites.  But either way they’re about to find out how windmills and solar panels work in a European winter.

We shall see.

Tucker Carlson Tells America That Europe Will Freeze This Winter

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Tucker reviews the disaster that is energy policy in Europe.  Between the embargo of Russia and the “Green Energy” initiatives like Germany shutting down its nuclear power plants, Europe will be freezing in the dark this winter.  The fact that the price of natural gas has gone up 700% and Germans are scouring their forests for scrap wood to turn into wood chips to heat their homes this winter is somewhat shocking.

Carlson makes a very good point when he says clearly that wind and solar were never going to be even close to a replacement for coal, oil and gas for heating and electricity.  But the Russian embargos are happening just at the right moment to create a perfect storm.

And so far, the Russians are still selling some gas to Europe (about 20% of what they could be sending).  If they cut off the supply altogether it will shut down German industry altogether.  So far the politicians are maintaining their stance on the Ukrainian war.  But it’s still summer.  We’ll have a better idea how things will go in January.

Now, we’re in better shape than Europe.  We produce a lot of fossil fuels.  But our energy prices have skyrocketed and they will increase again this winter.  This should have some effect on the November elections I think.

Tax Time and Other Painful Realities

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Today is the day.  This afternoon I’ll bundle up my wretched documentary evidence and head off to the tax accountant for another government mandated pummeling.  It’s like heading for the dentist with a toothache.  You know there will be pain and annoyance.  But what choice do you have?  Well painful realities seem to be the order of the day.

This morning I was listening to an interview Tucker Carlson had with a farmer about what the cost increases on fertilizers will do to the price of food.  The numbers were staggering.  He said that fertilizer prices had skyrocketed already and that natural gas prices were driving it.  Part of this increase in natural gas prices stem from the Biden administration’s shutting down of coal powered electrical plants.  Add to this the decision by the Europeans to shut down their nuclear power plants and you see the perfect storm that is driving energy and food prices to unsustainable levels.

You know, I’m starting to believe there is a chance that Biden will be forced to make an about face on his stupid “green energy” policies.  When people start suffering extreme hardship, actual hunger, that amount of anger might drive a revolt on both sides of the political street.  November might be more than just a “bloodbath.”  If we see blue states flipping their congressional delegations, I have no doubt that Dopey Joe will flip his script and discover his inner conservative.

I know this sounds far fetched but there is currently a perfect storm of economic conditions that will hammer home how delusional green energy really is.  Wind and solar power generators provide single digit percentages of our electrical capacity and even these low percentages are of low quality and necessitate additional gas turbine capacity to jump in when these green utilities inevitably peter out.

And as much as this is hammering the American people, I think it could be an even bigger catastrophe for the Germans.  They’ve buckled under the pressure from the Biden administration and agreed to the sanctions against the Russians and cancelling the start up of the Nord Stream 2.  What happens if the Russians stop sending them gas?  They’ll be buying it from the Saudis.  And it will not be cheap.  Add in the likelihood of a recession associated with all of this sticker shock for energy and food and you’ll see a manufacturing country like Germany experiencing extreme economic pain.

Of course, there won’t be any joy in my heart as I too suffer the consequences of Biden’s madness.  We’ll all be reeling from the effects of inflation on our lives.  But if any good can come from this it should be the realization by young people that idealistic and simplistic approaches to complex and deadly serious aspects of life are disastrous.  Powering an industrial economy can’t be achieved by wishful thinking and good intentions.  It’s the work of engineers and industrialists who have to work within the constraints of available resources and real-world tradeoffs between costs, environmental damage and reliability.

Maybe it will take an actual economic depression to pound home to these idiots the real world we live in.  We never seem to make any permanent progress.  Why are they called progressives anyway?  Because they grow progressively more stupid?

 

Update:

Chemist – “The most dangerous myth is the demagoguery that business can be made to pay a larger share, thus relieving the individual. Politicians preaching this are either deliberately dishonest, or economically illiterate, and either one should scare us… Only people pay taxes, and people pay as consumers every tax that is assessed against a business.” -Ronald Reagan

 

 

Energy Equates to Wealth

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Something that Environmentalists don’t want to admit is that fossil fuel has produced the modern world.  Without coal, oil and gas as fuels (and much, much else) we would still be living like the peasants in medieval Europe did in the 1300’s.  Coal was the fuel that made steam power possible which produced locomotives and steam ships.  Oil became the default fuel for electrical generation, automobiles, modern trains and also the basis for the myriad petrochemical products that make possible everything from pharmaceuticals and clothing to building materials and every other thing that’s made of what we call polymers.  Natural gas is the fuel for most of the modern electrical generation installations built in the United States over the last forty years or more.  And it heats a large percentage of homes and businesses.   Without these fuels we would literally be poor, cold, hungry and sitting in the dark.

And the Left knows that.  Now Jeff Bezos and the rest of the plutocrats are fine with this.  They know that they would still be able to reap the benefits of energy even if they denied it to the rest of us.  Bezos could have his own private solar collecting system and wind turbines with battery back-ups that could allow him to enjoy all of the modern comforts that would be denied to us.  His jet and helicopter and cars would mysteriously be able to use fuel while we would only be able to purchase a battery car that could only go a short distance and would be hard pressed to recharge by the next morning when we had to commute back to work.  Impoverishing and disenfranchising us is actually the goal of this whole exercise.  A new feudalism would replace a free country and the aristocracy and their minions would lord it over the rest of us deplorables.

Of course, we may not be happy about letting them do this.  Right now, $3.50/gallon gas and the inflation that causes in our economy is making Dementia Joe awfully unpopular.  When it reaches $5.00/gallon he may get tarred and feathered.  And that would be a wonderful thing.  Impoverishing the American people should be considered treason.  So hopefully the environmental insanity being pushed should create a strong reaction to the progressive agenda.  That would be a good outcome.

But there is something that needs to be faced.  There is a finite amount of hydrocarbon fuels in the Earth.  I’m not saying we’re close to the end.  I’m only saying there is an end.  And now is the time to be doing the basic research to find the next energy source for the modern world.  Maybe it’ll be nuclear fission plants, safer versions of the ones currently in place, maybe it’ll be better applications of solar power, perhaps solar collectors outside the atmosphere beaming microwave energy down to collection stations on earth.  Maybe it’ll be geothermal hot spots.

An inexhaustible energy supply solves one of our problems.  With it we can produce electricity to run our factories and if it is truly inexhaustible, we can even heat our homes with it.  But whatever it turns out to be we will still need a fuel for our cars and planes.

Airplanes will never be able to run on batteries.  The power density is too low.  And as we’ve seen battery powered cars are very limited in their range.  Unless there are large gains to be made in battery technology which is unlikely, the best solution is a synthetic fuel.

Maybe it will be hydrogen.  Hydrogen is highly energetic and when it is burned with oxygen its  combustion product is water.  It doesn’t get cleaner than that.  But hydrogen is a small molecule gas and it leaks easily and it blows up mightily.  So extremely fail-safe equipment will be a necessity if it becomes the fuel, we run our automobiles and planes on.  But hydrogen is not the only option.  With unlimited electrical energy engineers could very easily produce synthetic methane (natural gas).  Or with a little more work they could make longer hydrocarbons.  Octane is the optimal component of gasoline.  That could be the main product we produce as our global fuel.  Of course, we would be using water and carbon dioxide as our starting materials so at that point we would have a carbon neutral effect on the environment which unfortunately would make the environmentalists happy.  I wouldn’t feel so good about that but I guess it will have to be.

So, the exhaustion of supplies of natural hydrocarbon fuels is something we should be anticipating.  But instead of giving up the modern lifestyle we’ve gained from these energy treasures we need to use our ingenuity to invent replacements that enhance our ability to control our environment and improve our way of life.  And that’s my version of following the science.