Continuing the discussion from Planet of the Humans:
Great article on the censorship this film faced
H/T brooks at the other place
Continuing the discussion from Planet of the Humans:
Great article on the censorship this film faced
H/T brooks at the other place
Surprisingly little mention in the Grayzone piece about the ‘renewables’ fatal Achilles Heel: the fact, already well-established in practice by Germany’s big balls-up with wind and solar, whereby, in order to deal with the intermittency, and the continuing absence of any - actually-credible - way to store large quantities of electrical energy, it becomes essential, once the ‘renewables’ input to the grid reaches a crucial threshold level, to build ruinously-costly extra stand-by generating sets, all powered by standard fossil hydrocarbons, to cope with the wildly-oscillating inputs from the wind and solar plants and keep the grid supply/demand balance steady. As Dmitry Orlov points out succinctly, this has made German export industry uncompetitive because its electricity costs are now too high. (Also dissected in detail by Gail Tverberg at ‘Our Finite World’.)
The unfortunate fact seems to be that wind and solar are only ever going to be niche applications for electricity generation. They will never be the engines of a true green revolution. Indeed, the limits to growth are a much likelier cause of a serious green healing of the world, simply by enforcing - without any other option - a much more modest, much less demanding life-style for all who manage to survive the Long Descemt.
Apparently self-deluders like Josh Fox have no inkling of these awkward realities.
Hi RG
100% agree with this excellent comment. I saw an interview with Fox after watching the film and I agree, he was delusional.
Intermittency, storage and of course the perennial question of EROEI, all ignored. Add to that the mining of rare earth minerals.
And even ignoring these very real and hard to solve problems, the underlying economics system can’t cope. Remember when electricity prices in Germany went negative in the middle of summer, causing all the electricity suppliers in Germany to freak out and demand an end to solar subsidies? The market cannot regulate any of this.
As the film suggests, what has to change is our entire way of life, not our energy supply. If we don’t grasp that nettle we’re just not going anywhere…
Actually, the nettle, like a triffid, is coming to get us. We will grasp it. Behind the mythic-pink haze of techno-narcissism, in hard reality we have no other option.
When life gives you nettles, make nettle tea. (I’ll get me coat.)
Soup - with a nice bouillon flavouring - tastes better…
An excerpt from Dmitry Orlov’s bi-weekly essay (on SubscribeStar, so can’t copy/paste all of it) concerning the ludicrous Navalnychok bollocks. This passage appears in his discussion of what might lie behind the chok-scam, particularly the Anglozionist empire’s efforts to get Nordstream2 stopped:
“Germany has shut down its coal and nuclear power generation facilities in favor of intermittent and unreliable wind and solar, driving up its electricity rates to six times what they are in Russia, making Germany utterly dependent on Russian natural gas-based power generation to stabilize its electrical grid.”
One would think that a country so dependent on another for it’s energy budget might tread a bit more diplomatically.
Although the way that the UK seems to be determined to sabotage the relationship with it’s own primary trading partner shows that hubris and delusion trumps rationality most days.
Ever the sense that we’re in a barrel risky approaching the edge of Niagara falls?