Are we force-feeding climate change confusion to our kids? I imagine there’s not a single kid who isn’t learning about the imminent danger of climate change in school. I wonder how many of them are permitted to dispute what they are being taught. Or how many even know there are differing opinions on the subject.
I listened to a podcast this week about the feasibility of sacrificing all fossil fuel use. It drove home the point that it is mathematically impossible to do that. I will paraphrase that position in this post, but I wholeheartedly recommend you read it in its original form on the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.
Remember, this discussion is not about whether the climate is changing. It is. It always has, and it probably always will. It will become warmer on average for a time, and then it will become colder on average for a time. There is probably little, if anything, we humans can do to stop that cycle. Remember the Ice Age and that Greenland was once ice-free. So, this post isn’t about whether the global temperature is rising. It’s about whether we should consider eliminating all fossil fuel use, as some vehemently say is necessary.
The article I’m directing you to is “Two More Contributions On The Impossibility Of Electrifying Everything Using Only Wind, Solar And Batteries” by Francis Menton. It takes Germany as the case study and uses Spain as the provider of energy. Spain has a climate most conducive to generating solar power in Europe. My paraphrase of that article starts here.
Germany uses over 15% of the electricity needs of the European Union. Keep that number in mind. If Germany’s electricity requirements were met by solar alone, 7 percent of Spain would be nothing but solar panels. Solar panels don’t last forever. They have to be replaced about every fifteen years. That would break down to using about 10 percent of the world’s production of silicon per year—just for Germany
Then there’s silver. Photovoltaic panels (PV panels) would glom up 30 percent of the silver mined throughout the world yearly. If you look at the whole EU, it would take all of the silicon produced globally in a year and three times all of the global silver mined. That’s just for replacement.
And we haven’t talked about battery storage yet. Not every day is sunny. Batteries would have to store enough of that solar energy to keep lights on (and everything else) when clouds cover the sky. The number-crunchers figured the least number of days storage would be needed was fourteen, although it was believed that 30 days is more likely. Using the fourteen-day estimate, 900 Tesla Gigafactories would have to work around the clock for a year to produce the needed storage for two weeks. To properly appreciate the magnitude of that number, the Gigafactory Nevada manufactures 500,000 battery packs per year. Four to five times more battery storage than is now produced in the whole world in a year would be needed just for Germany for two weeks!
Now for the solar panels. They are made with poisonous stuff like lead and cadmium. It can leach into the soil, so no landfills for those darlings. It is estimated that by 2050 we’re going to have to recycle about 78 million tons of them. Recycling will cost more than is paid for the materials to make them new.
Let’s not forget about the wind turbines. The fiberglass blades are worn out after about ten years. They are huge. You know that if you’ve ever stood in a wind farm and looked up at one. And though the towers will last for maybe twenty-five years, they eventually have to go, too. The Washington Times believes it would cost $500,000 per turbine to get rid of them. And if you read my book Who’s Got Dibs on Your Kids?, you might remember I quoted Warren Buffet: “[W]e get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.”
Another quote in my book, from the Stockholm Environment Institute, is mind-blowing. Here is what some see as the United States responsibility toward equity in CO2 reduction: “As shown in Table 2, even under the Low Equity setting, the U.S. would have to reduce its emissions by 90% relative to 1990 levels; under the High Equity setting, it would need more than a 200% reduction relative to 1990.”
The photo at the top of this post shows the largest solar thermal power plant in the world—and it brags about being able to provide electricity for less than 150,000 homes.
Let that sink in.
While we are to be good stewards of this earth, God is still in charge.
The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. Ecclesiastes 1:6