66 thoughts to “Open Thread Non-Petroleum, Feb 17, 2022”

  1. I have just put up a new post on The Fine-Tuned Universe

    This post is titled The Strange Characteristics of Dark Matter. This post, in my opinion, puts the final nail in the coffin of the case for the accidental universe. Dark matter is so very finely tuned that it could not possibly be just an accident.

    I put a lot of effort and research into this post. I hope you will check it out and perhaps comment.

    Ron

  2. Sigh.

    WORLD FUNDS OWN DESTRUCTION WITH $1.8 TN SUBSIDIES

    “Nature is declining at an alarming rate, and we have never lived on a planet with so little biodiversity,” said Christiana Figueres, head of The B Team’s climate working group. “At least $1.8 trillion is funding the destruction of nature and changing our climate, while creating huge risks for the very businesses who are receiving the subsidies.”

    https://phys.org/news/2022-02-world-funds-destruction-tn-subsidies.html

  3. Some news from the sunny side:


    Australia’s largest coal plant to close in 2025, as Origin Energy accelerates coal exit

    The announcement came ahead of Origin’s half-year results, which showed.a further deterioration of profits generated by the Eraring plant. Gross profits from Origin’s electricity business fell to $222 million for the half-year ending December 2021, down from $503 million in the same period ending December 2020.

    Calabria telling shareholders that it was clear that the emergence of low-cost renewable energy sources, and cheaper battery storage options, had made keeping ageing coal plants in the market increasingly unviable….[snip]

    “Eraring is a high-quality asset, run by a skilled and dedicated team, that has worked tirelessly to supply reliable and affordable energy in NSW for four decades. However, it has become increasingly clear over the last few years that the influx of renewables has changed the nature of demand for baseload power,” Calabria said.

    “At the same time, the cost of renewable energy and battery storage is increasingly competitive, and the penetration of renewables is growing and changing the shape of wholesale electricity prices, which means our cost of energy is expected to be more economical through a combination of renewables, storage and Origin’s fleet of peaking power stations.”

    1. Green Goblin , tks for the link .I had in an earlier post mentioned the chip problem in response to Jared ” the internet is not going down “.
      HOLE IN HEAD
      IGNORED
      02/15/2022 at 9:40 am
      Jared , the keyword is ” may be ” . This could very well be ” may be not ” . To continue “And look at what the last 50 years of technology brought us, now just imagine the next 50 years worth. ”Because you bring up a hypothetical scenario , let me give you another hypothetical scenario ” Suppose if all the semiconductors built in the last 10 years failed , would society go back 10 years or 100 years ?” Yesterday is not today and today is not tomorrow . Suggested reading ” Anti- fragile ” by Naseem Talab .
      Karl is right on the money . I haven’t followed him from sometime . His work is good but he is a PO denier and that is irritating . Tks again .

      1. We hear all sorts of shit about society continuing to function after this, that or the other hypothetical disaster.

        If anything at all happens that takes down the electrical grid and oil industry distribution system for more than a few weeks, all over the industrialized world, it’s back to the dark ages.
        All the chips failing would be the end of life as we know it.

        I spent a good bit of time explaining collapse to a highly intelligent friend who dropped out of school able to read a little and count money.

        After a little while he said what you’re telling me is that there’s no getting started again if we ever have to just STOP.

        (He’s a trucker and mechanic.) It’s like I’m going up a mountain in my truck in say fifth gear ( It has nine) and have to stop, and find out I’ve lost first and second gear. Without first and second…… I can’t get started again. I’m stuck…. Wrecker time.

        He was right. If the computer industry flat out ceases to function, we’re toast. Hardly anything would work anymore. The people we would be counting on to fix it couldn’t even GET to work.

        The machinery we used to have that machinists and operators could run by hand has been melted down in favor of cnc machines, and the people who had the necessary skills to run the old machines….. well, most of them are already dead of old age anyway.

      2. Karl is a strange cat. Super Smart and Deep detailed knowledge on lots of subjects.

        His Peak Oil Denial is because he says you can convert Coal and Natural Gas and Kerogen to Oil.

        Not because he doesn’t think we’re burning thru the good cheap stuff.

        His Climate Change denial baffles me. I think it is because he likes Finance and Driving Cars and doesn’t want to give that up. And he doesn’t like being told what to do by the Government ( he founded the Tea Party)

        1. I used to follow Karl Denninger religiously. But I quit when he became Birther. He said Obama’s birth certificate was fake. His reasoning was because all the words that had to be inserted on a blank birth certificate lined up perfectly with the lines. He said that if those names, dates, and whatever were written on a typewriter, then they would never have lined up so perfectly. Therefore, he said, it had to be a fake.

          The damn fool must have never seen anyone fill out a pre-printed form on a typewriter. I have. And I took typing in high school. I can fill out a pre-printed form and have everything line up perfectly. Every typewriter has a “carriage relief lever”. You just hit it, the card or paper can then be moved and lined up perfectly, then put the carriage relief lever back and type.

          1. Denninger is smart but extremely closed minded, inflexible, and thin skinned. Slightest disagreement with him provokes abuse and insults and you get banned from his forum. He is wrong about a lot of things including Covid, renewable energy, EVs, global warming and gold as an investment. Of course, he never admits when he is wrong. His ego is too large.
            I read his blog daily because he is right about some things such as overpriced Healthcare, refined carbohydrates as the root cause of many diseases of civilization, vulnerability of cloud infrastructure and long supply chains, our elite selling out to China, government corruption, etc.

    2. Imagine this scenario.

      1) Russia pulls its oil exports off the market.
      2) China attacks Taiwan and blows up their microchip manufacturing.

      Is this implausible??

      1. Not going to happen . Might as well play “Russian Roulette ” with all chambers loaded .

        1. I would argue it is greater than zero. But you are probably right, no one wants to see that scenario.

          China is threatening invasion of Taiwan and we all know Russia is militarily active.

          The embargo is one of the oldest military tricks in the book.

    1. I recently had a twitter discussion with Worstall about helium reserves. He claimed that we could extract it from air since it is 5 parts per million. Hope is an inexhaustible resource.

  6. In the USA energy shortage could/will be a big hit to the standard of living, and perhaps to the quality of life depending on the severity, pace and choices people make.

    But a much bigger risk to this country is the loss of civil society. Meaning a loss of many basic things we take for granted, like the ability to travel outside our home or town with a considerable measure of both security and freedom, and the loss of relatively smooth function of ‘the market’, the legal system, food distribution, utilities, education, and certainly- democracy.

    Severe dysfunction in all these areas of life is closer to the here and now than most of us are willing to imagine. We act as if these things only happen in N Korea or Somalia, or the slums of Brazil or Lagos.

    Only those who have lived under a fascist dictator, a theocratic inquisition, or on the other hand- a human trafficking warlord, know exactly what I am referring to.
    And they cherish civil society like no other.

    Civil Society is a thin, a fragile, and perhaps transitory state of existence between authoritarianism and anarchy.
    Most in America had some small measure of collective unconscious understanding of the precious status of the culture, and that we have been incredibly lucky to experience this state of grace (especially lucky if they had the white privilege of equal justice under law and equal opportunity in the market) .

    But now we have seen a strong step away from civil society undertaken by the ‘Republican voter’, the vast majority of which have eagerly embraced a set of leaders who are willing to risk the whole American experiment for the sake of what? Is it authoritarianism or anarchy that they yearn for? It is hard to tell. I do not think this question has been thought through by the voter but the leaders are clearly oriented strongly towards authoritarianism, as is always the case if they can manage it.

    Violence as a norm in the political process, the abandonment of even an attempt to seek truth, the re-writing of history, the applause for political or racial vigilantism, the wholesale demonization of opponents, of science, of immigrants, minorities, or those just over the horizon, are all examples of the mechanisms thus far displayed in the expression of severe disdain for civil society.

    It has never been even close to a perfect process or perfect achievement, but the experiment called America is now approaching a strong likelihood of failure. The stage has been set. Don’t be surprised when chapter one starts to unfold in earnest.

    1. Russian web brigades, also called Russian trolls or Russian bots are state-sponsored anonymous Internet political commentators and trolls linked to the Government of Russia.[1] Participants report that they are organized into teams and groups of commentators that participate in Russian and international political blogs and Internet forums using sockpuppets, social bots and large-scale orchestrated trolling and disinformation campaigns to promote pro-Putin and pro-Russian propaganda.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_web_brigades

      “Take your Nazi ideology and shove it up your ass.”

    2. Tony,
      I disagree with you that multiracial societies inevitably lead to violence. This may come as a surprise to you but there is very little interracial violence in the US. Most Americans who die violently are killed by members of their own ethnic group. The lawlessness you see in the American cities is the unfortunate outcome of one particular group of people having suffered from slavery and segregation. If the US had not imported slaves there would be very little violence in the American society today.

      Regarding Japan, Korea, et al the reason they have very little immigration is that they do not have a history of being colonial powers. Very few non-native people can speak their languages or read their script. It remains to be seen if they survive and prosper in the next few decades. The younger generation in these countries has to a great extent lost the will to work, earn money, get married, and reproduce.

      On the flip side societies where everyone has the same skin color are not necessarily peaceful. The Romans and then Anglo Saxon tribes brutalized the indigenous people of Britain. Later the Vikings brutalized the Anglo Saxon English who in turn brutalized the Scotts and the Irish. European powers fought two world wars in which people with the same physical appearance and who worshipped the same God killed each other on an industrial scale.

    3. I’ll be clear.
      I will leave here for good if this is a place where ethnic hatred and racism in any form is tolerated.
      For me tolerance has its hard limit on this.
      There has been enough lynching and ethnic cleansing and poisonous bullying in the last century to last 10,000 years.
      Sorry that this comes down you Dennis, but its your call.

    4. Huntington Beach, You are repeating anti-Russian propaganda that looks like anti-Semitism. The facts are completely unconfirmed. Based on speculation and conspiracy theories:

      “Russian web brigades, also called Russian trolls or Russian bots are state-sponsored anonymous Internet political commentators and trolls linked to the Government of Russia.[1] Participants report that they are organized into teams and groups of commentators that participate in Russian and international political blogs and Internet forums using sockpuppets, social bots and large-scale orchestrated trolling and disinformation campaigns to promote pro-Putin and pro-Russian propaganda.”
      —-
      In fact, Russian propaganda is limited to Propaganda in the media and is associated with a certain interpretation of known facts. “Troll Factory” is only possible for a Russian-speaking audience.
      There are no people who are in the subject of Western realities, who speak the language well enough, who are ready to conduct propaganda in commercial quantities, recruiting such people in the West would lead to inevitable failures. Something like that.
      And yet, off topic: the political correctness of Western inhabitants is killing me. Here they prefer not to write about the obvious if it does not correspond to the prevailing ideas or can be a provocation. For example: I believe that Jews for the most part are more developed intellectually and, for example, in In Russia, the number of Jews does not exceed 2%, nevertheless they make up to 30-50% of scientists and artists. (I consider this not the superiority of the nation, but a tradition for the development of my offspring). Yes, for information, I am Russian with an admixture of German blood, and my grandchildren are studying in a Jewish private school, including Hebrew (because there is quality education)
      Sincerely
      Alexander

    6. Ron and Ovi,

      I also do not tolerate racism, you are both free to ban anyone as you see fit. I cannot monitor this site 24/7.

    7. Hickory, your a person of high integrity and understanding. I have learned a lot from you and glad to see you will be continuing to comment here. Your above post is spot on and not surprising it got the push back last night it did.

      1. Thank you for the good thoughts.
        The deluge of misinformation and downright cruelty in this world can be a mighty big headwind to a person.
        And I in turn would like to give many thanks to Dennis for making the decision to take on the task of restricting racism from this site, and for setting such a construction tone.

        I am far from perfect, its a work in progress. But willing to learn.

    2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Economic_Union

      “The Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union was signed on 29 May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia”

      The first step in building a union is getting everyone on the same monetary/economic system.

      The Eurasian Economic Union (Don’t say SOVIET …ssshh) is centred in Moscow

      Putin has been planning this for years. He just couldn’t be sure when Peak Oil would strike.

      (PS: I also think this is why he wanted Trump in office….He knew that dumb dumb would put USA in worse position)

  8. Storms all across Northern Europe today. Wind is over 60% of electricity production in Germany. Gas is below 5%, even less than solar, and solar doesn’t do well in February. In fact all fossil fuels put together are under 20%.

    1. Alim , get back to this blog on Tuesday ( actually I would say Monday ) but just as a cushion . Understand there are 365 days in a year . Real life observation . I drove down from Antwerp to Lille today at ” peak wind ” . Wind speed anything between 150 Kph to 180 Kph . I saw many windmills that were not rotating ( sorry I was not counting as I was at 115 Kph ) . Until you realize that intermentacy and storage are the problems for renewables you will continue to get surprised as Island boy . The problem is you don’t understand the 24/7 industrial civilization we have configured ourselves in because of cheap energy . Anything 24/7 minus 1 is death for JIT . I know what I am talking about because I have customers ready to pay Euro 100 to get a Euro 10 component at 1 AM to destination . Suggested reading ” Anti Fragile ” . We are sleepwalking into the future .
      P.S ; In case you don’t know I work as a courier for SOS basis which includes carrying life saving medicines , human sperms , embryos , refrigeration components for food stores . I know what I am talking about . Sign off quote ” One swallow does not the summer make ” . That is what you are doing .

  9. https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/toyota-and-yamaha-to-develop-a-hydrogen-powered-v8-engine/ar-AAU2h0G?ocid=msedgntp

    It’s enough to make a preacher cuss his mama to read this link and the comments.
    I can see a hydrogen v8 possibly being a commercial success, and a hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine might even be USEFUL at some future time for some purposes…… if and when we eventually have enough renewable electricity to manufacture hydrogen gas on the grand scale via the electrolysis of water.

    The thing that makes me want to rip my hair out is that not a single one of the people who posted a comment has even the foggiest idea of the problems involved. Not even the FOGGIEST idea.

    1. This has to be a stunt. There’s no way they can be seriously considering investing real money in a project like this.

  10. The Vogtle nuclear project in Georgia has been delayed again, and is expected to cost $30bn.

    https://www.eenews.net/articles/plant-vogtle-hits-new-delays-costs-surge-near-30b/

    The capacity is planned to be 2.5 GW.

    By comparison, utility scale solar costs less than $1/W in the US these days. So you could build 30GW for the same money. And you would save operating costs. If Vogtle ever does get built, it will have to shut down during daylight hours, something it isn’t designed to do.

    The only thing keeping this project alive is anti-green fanaticism, which is looking like a more and more expensive hobby.

    1. And as they used to say on television westerns, ” In the meantime, back at the ranch”

      https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17022022/inside-clean-energy-texas-clean-energy-leader/

      The oil and gas industry will continue to control Texas politics indefinitely, and for at least another decade or two for dead sure.

      But in terms of the general welfare of the country and the world, the sure thing continued ramp up of renewable energy in Texas is a really great thing for everybody.

      The bigger the industrial base, the bigger and faster an industry can grow in the future.

      Growth has a way of feeding on itself. In ten years wind and solar power are going to be no brainer propositions in a lot of places where the economics are marginal as of now.

      1. It will be very interesting to watch the switch in attitude occur, as the rural Texan is overwhelmingly republican, and thus has been extremely hostile to the domestic wind and solar industry, as well as electric vehicles.
        At some point this will change as more and more begin to benefit or profit from these ‘leftist’ technologies.
        How will they be able to look at themselves in the mirror?

        I can imagine the discussions when the first dude pulls up to the rural bar in his electric pickup.
        Flash forward to the next decade and Texas will be an undeniable reneweable energy powerhouse in its toddler phase.

        1. Florida has a 60% higher death rate than California.

          Was that at a cost to the economy? No. In 2021, California’s economy grew at 11.7%, more than 50% above Florida’s rate.

          Pretending the pandemic doesn’t exist isn’t a working strategy.

      2. The cost of both wind and solar powered infrastructure has risen substantially over the past two years. Wind turbines require about twenty times as much steel per average MW compared to a coal or nuclear power plant. For solar, the difference is almost two orders of magnitude. Both of these systems have the problem of requiring a lot of embodied energy, which is implicit in their materials budget. The relatively low cost of wind and solar power plants over the past decade has been driven largely by Chinese industries exploiting enormous scale economies, very cheap coal based energy, export subsidies and very cheap credit at both the manufacturing and consumer end. Cheap coal and huge scale economies have resulted in very cheap steel, silicon, glass and aluminium. And cheap oil have allowed these commodities and their products to be transported all over the world.

        It isn’t going to continue. Wind and solar power have become relatively cheap over the past decade only because of a short term nadir allowed by cheap Chinese coal and monetary inflation. Taking away those things, why would you expect something with 10-100x the embodied energy and materials budget to still be dirt cheap? In one way, you may end up being correct about the dominance of wind power in Texas. With Texas’ oil & gas reserves depleted and nuclear power rendered ineffective by ruinous overregulation; wind and solar power end up being all that you have left. But it would be naive to assume that this implies anything good in terms of prosperity and living standards.

        I generally advocate an approach to wind power that involves the use of low embodied energy materials, like wood, carbon steel and stone; mechanically simple systems, the direct use of energy without storage and where possible, direct use of mechanical power without electricity generation. The reason I advocate these things is that they all mitigate the inherently poor EROI of this low power density energy source.

        I fear that the recent cost trends in wind and solar powered systems, have lulled a lot of gullible people into a false sense of security, in terms of the sustainable capabilities of these systems when fossil fuel extraction starts to experience steep declines. They are part of the solution, certainly. But it would be unrealistic to expect these systems to deliver the abundance of energy that fossil fuels have so easily provided.

  12. This would seem to indicate Game Over.

    (U.S. coastline to see up to a foot of sea level rise by 2050)

    I am so goddamned tired of hearing the phrase “global wakeup call” in articles like this one.

  13. Some news on La Nina .
    https://www.australianmining.com.au/news/la-nina-to-bring-more-heavy-rain-to-mining-areas/
    From comments ;
    La Nina has hit Argentina’s soy and corn production. The Horn of Africa has been hit with the worst drought in 30 years and reduced crop yields by half while 2 million live stock have died which have left millions of people to face famine.

    On top of high energy, fertilizer and food prices, drought might lead to failed crop yields and cause a new spike in food prices. The same conditions that sparked the Arab Spring. And just like then, the Fed was doing QE and ZIRP.

    The Fed will have to taper and rase rates to bring commodity prices down…which might cause a liquidity problem and cause bankruptcies and financial crises around the world…

    1. Thanks for that great link OFM!
      I posted it on a ‘doomer’ site and unfortunately 2 members in Canada and Australia said that they got the message: “Not available in your area.”

  15. I am glad last night’s unpleasantness was deleted. Thanks Dennis. It was an upsetting experience.

    1. My apologies as I had not been online while it occurred. Ron and Ovi have been given the power to ban people as they see fit, though there will be occasions where none of us sees this stuff. If there is a problem give a shout on the other thread as I spend more time there (this may be true of Ovi and Ron as well) and am more likely to see that.

      Also I deleted comments and the replies to those comments also get deleted automatically. In some cases where there were comments that were replies to deleted comments that remained, I chose to delete them because no longer made sense.

      1. No need to apologize, Dennis. I think you and others are doing a great job with this blog. Thanks again.

  16. I have just put up a new post on The Fine-Tuned Universe.com You will love this one. It’s titled “A Little Humor: The Immaculate Conception“.

    Did you know that the Immaculate Conception had nothing to do with the conception of Jesus? If you are Catholic, you probably knew that. But if you are not Catholic, there is at least 90% chance that you did not. It is all about the conception of Mary, the mother of Jesus. You see sex is sinning, dirty nasty sinning. Therefore the Mother of Jesus could not have been consumed by sinning. So the humping that fertilized the egg that created Mary was the only humping in the history of the world that was not sinning. It was clean, in fact, it was immaculate. Check it out.

    There is also a second, more serious part of the post. But you will have to go there to get that.

  17. Will the adoption of EV’s be able to offset the depletion of oil?
    (interesting question from the other thread)

    It is not likely and not even desirable. The whole notion of sustainability is not really obtainable. To drain resources in a low carbon society that can last without degrading too much for more than a hundred years is enough motivation for me (at least) and a lot of others to promote it as a goal.

    IMO the idea of a low carbon society is the best one can strive for and that includes usage of all fossil fuels. At least for the countries that is so called “rich” as of now (in consumption). Oil is the most flexible fossil fuel resource we have, and what it can be used for is in high demand and will be even more in the future.

    Usages of oil for personal transportation is going to get under attack due to other more critical usages of oil. The scenarios that IEA make for production of 80 million electric cars a year by 2040 is not even a good aim.

    I would say 300 million electric cars in total (max 30 million cars a year?) including mini cars and even scooters (three wheeled?) would be enough to transition at first 1.2 billion people in the industrial world to a future world that keeps up mobility to a reasonable standard. Not quite the same as before, but a massive reduction in energy required for light transportation. E.g less vehicles overall (x2) less size of vehicles (x2) energy efficiency of electric transportation (x 2.5) less driving distance in total (x 1.5) = 15 times less energy usage. Then it makes more sense that renewable electricity can fuel all the consumption pretty easily. Unfortunately renewable energy is more costly to get to densely populated areas or areas with low renewable energy generating potential. That is something to be worked on; people will move if that is the best option.

    To think that energy (mostly fossil based) usage per capita is just going to grow and that to replace that with renewables is not going to work is a very common belief. It is much more nuanced than that.

  18. The Russians are apparently moving, or will within the next few hours will be moving into some parts of Ukraine.

    1. That isn’t the Ukraine, that’s two newly independent countries Russia just recognized LOL

      Now you understand why Putin backed Brexit. Divide and conquer.

      1. “Now you understand why Putin backed Brexit. Divide and conquer.”
        And why he supported the weakest hand/mind in American politics- Trump.

    1. Yesterday I saw my first Rivian in the parking lot sitting right outside the front door of LA Fitness. Almost everyone going in and out didn’t even notice, except one older gentleman not being myself.

      Conclusions of the study

      “The study finds that all states and regions can maintain grid
      stability (avoid blackouts), despite variable and extreme weather,
      while providing 100% of their all-purpose energy with WWS. The
      advantage of avoiding both air pollution and carbon is the elimination of about 53,200 U S. air-pollution-related deaths and millions more illnesses per year (Table S21) in 2050.

      The private energy costs per unit energy in California, New York,
      and Texas are lower, but the costs in Florida are slightly higher,
      when these states are interconnected with the West, Northeast,
      Midwest, and Southeast grids, respectively, than when they are
      islanded.”

    2. Stephen,
      Thanks for sharing this recent interview with Dennis Meadows. A short and elegant valediction, summarizing our predicament and his life’s work. He is so impressive, not just for his profound intellectual work, but also his freedom from animosity or bitterness over how his work has been misrepresented and often mocked over the decades. It could easily have been an “I told you so!” tirade, but instead shows this deep concern for people far away and future generations. I hope we have him around for a couple of more decades.

      1. Brian , ” It could easily have been an “I told you so!” . I must remember this because this is what I indulge in the recent days . Thanks for the wake up call . To be humble and correct costs nothing . Dennis is great , so intelligent and yet so humble . Merci, dank u well , shukriya, meherbani for this post and rectifying my attitude .

      2. Thanks for your thoughts Brian, I thought the same thing. Bitterness would be such an easy path to take but Mr Meadows holds his head high with integrity. Inspiring in these times for sure.

  21. Just when it became essential (in my naïve hope) for the world to finally come together and work towards finally fighting climate change seriously.

    AS RUSSIA AND CHINA GROW CLOSER IN ENERGY, AMERICA UNILATERALLY DISARMS

    “As the US continues to tie its hands with regard to the transportation of natural gas, a fuel that has actually led to a large decrease in CO2 emissions over coal, Russia and China reached an agreement under which Russia will supply 100 million tons of coal to China so that China can continue to open up new coal-fired power plants – in effect, thwarting whatever benefits may come from American policies increasingly tightening the noose on the use and transport of natural gas in this country and elsewhere.

    China is by far the world’s largest emitter of CO2 emissions, to the point where its emissions exceed that of the US and the EU combined. As pollution knows no geographic boundaries, without China being on board to cut its CO2 emissions, all moves by the US, the EU, and the rest of the world will be undermined, and even negated, in an effort to combat any man-made aspects to planetary climate change. According to the Paris Climate Accords, China will be permitted to keep increasing its CO2 emissions until approximately 2030. This remarkably flawed treaty, combined with China and Russia’s seeming indifference to the fight against man-made climate change altogether, make it highly unlikely that any actions taken by the west in the coming years will have real effect on the struggle.”

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielmarkind/2022/02/23/as-russia-and-china-grow-closer-in-energy-america-unilaterally-disarms/?sh=2fee618a3b52

    1. Meanwhile,

      AUSSIE COAL READY FOR A BIG 2022

      “Now that the dust has just about settled on the COP26 debate in Glasgow – which essentially had to recognise the role coal would continue to play in the global energy mix until 2030 and probably beyond that – the time for histrionics and cheap media stunts are over. All the protests and theatre at the convention were just background noise to the Australian coal industry. Instead, it has maintained its focus on operating productively and within the ESG boundaries set by respective state and federal governments. The successful first export of coal from Bravus Mining and Resources’ [formerly Adani Group] Carmichael coal mine from the North Queensland Export Terminal in Bowen is a triumph of the industry’s determination to establish viable coal mining operations that adhere to world’s best practice.”

      https://www.miningmonthly.com/hogsback/news/1424956/aussie-coal-ready-for-big-2022

  22. Not good (but not surprising).

    ACTUAL GREENHOUSE GAS VOLUMES EXCEED OFFICIAL REPORTS

    The satellite flaring volumes calculated by the Howard Center, with the guidance of scientists who pioneered and used the methodology, far exceed the total reported to regulatory agencies in the 13 states designated by the U.S. Energy Department as having significant ongoing or potentially increasing flaring activity. They also far surpassed the total published by the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. Energy Department analytics agency that says it gets its data from the states.

    “There’s almost been a kind of tacit agreement that we’ll accept estimates,” said Barry Rabe, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies public and environmental policy. “Until such time that there’s political or public pressure to make those numbers more accurate, it’s easier just to look the other way.”

    https://phys.org/news/2022-02-actual-greenhouse-gas-volumes.html

  23. Here’s an important new website, partly set up by Tom Murphy: https://planetarylimits.net. If you go to the ‘Resource’ section the top paper is a lot like the recent one from Prof. Rees. The message is gradually getting louder that we are in overshoot and climate change is just one aspect.

    1. Ever hear of limiting the population of an area, or a country? Planting more vegetation is the best way to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. But that can’t happen as the number of people increases, because more people leads to more forests turned into homes, shopping areas, parking lots, and highways. People need to drive, so there will be ever increasing cars on the roads, then they will keep adding more lanes to try dealing with the increasing cars. So, overall, pollution increases. That’s why it’s so crazy to me that so many countries are deciding to increase populations with immigration (legal or otherwise) while not even realizing that this will be a burden on all natural resources and create even more global climate change.

      1. Henry I agree with your assessment and it is that simple. However it’s a predicament to be lived and not a problem to be solved. Why? Because as others have said it’s human nature; actually, all living things are compelled to reproduce. Instead of using our ability to think to address the issue decades ago, we have continued to ignore what was then a problem. I’m going to get one of two wells on solar pump and the above ground pump for the storage tanks also (separate rain collection system). Do whatever you can. Within two decades, in my opinion, the shitshow will be well under way for the good ole USA.

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