Here is what a reasonably objective study from the Geological Survey of Finland concludes on just how much more electricity generation will be required to retire natural gas and coal…
The answer: a stink load!
But you need batteries to provide power when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. Here is an indication of just how much materials would be required to produce all these batteries:
We won’t hold these estimates against the author as there are a number of variables involved. But you get the basic point: there aren’t enough materials on the planet to achieve this dream. It’s a grand absurd delusion!
We wouldn’t worry about natural gas and coal being phased out just yet.
The Net Zero is Just Plain Virtue Signaling.
What is virtue signaling? A form of moral grandstanding in which a viewpoint or answer is calculated to “look good,” thereby making the object or speaker appear virtuous to others, rather than being chosen because it is strictly honest.
The 2050 net zero narrative is virtue signaling in its purest sense. Here is a small excerpt from Kopernik Global Investors’ recent report:
“It seems like virtually everyone from cities to countries to corporations is setting targets to reach “net-zero” emissions. Over 3,000 companies and countries representing 89% of global emissions have “committed” to reaching net-zero.
We put the word “committed” in quotes because that commitment can mean very different things to different people. Even the United Arab Emirates recently declared a net-zero pledge for the year 2050, but not before they increase oil and gas production by 20% first. Let me be green…but not yet.
It is easy to make a pledge for somebody else to fulfill 30 years from now. That is why virtually everyone is doing it. These are low barrier to entry virtues. If everyone can do it, it can’t be that hard. Unfortunately, the problem is much more difficult to solve, and we might say, it is near impossible.
We can see how someone looking at the headlines might assume that oil and gas are going away soon. Virtually any newspaper, magazine or news service has stories daily about climate change and the necessary energy transition. Anyone with a Bloomberg terminal is treated to an endless stream of articles proselytizing for the new energy economy. Most treat the subject as a fait accompli, that because it needs to happen, that it will happen.
The problem with this is that it leads to starting with a conclusion and then building models and forecasts on how that must happen, ignoring how unlikely or difficult it might be.”
Ah, such poetry!
Call us in 2050, and we’ll see what opinions are. Heck, by 2030, after inflation ripped folks’ lives apart, we’re willing to bet that the appetite for this nonsense will be gone. Farmers will have ripped these stupid cow burping (for saving us from climate change) muzzles off, and anyone who champions such idiocy will be treated with the contempt and scorn they’ve always deserved.
Until then… well, we’ve a bull market in inflation to deal with.
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