Comments not related to oil and natural gas in this thread please. Thanks.
30 thoughts to “Open Thread Non-Petroleum, Feb 27, 2021”
Excerpt from Dougs post a few days ago-
“We don’t realize how fragile the basic infrastructure of our civilization is…..Cooperation is humanity’s superpower, and the way we have enlarged our circle — from kin, to tribes, to religions, to countries, to the world — is miraculous. But the conditions under which that cooperation has taken hold are delicate,..”
Interesting. There is no guarantee that the tide of human cooperation between tribes and states continues to be a gradually higher tide. The trend could reverse. We could be at peak global cooperation at any moment. The grotesque level of sequestering of wealth by the top 1000 is one such indicator.
In a crowded world with resource constraints, rising waters, climate instability and the human propensity towards nationalism and tribalism when things get tough, the rising tide of global human cooperation could be soon a phenomena for the history books (podcasts).
What a simple statement. The ramifications are anything but simple, or pleasant.
Great points here Hickory, my 2 cents is that the initial cause of the trend reversal of cooperation would be wealth inequality.
In my opinion central banks have been playing a crucial role in maintaining and increasing the wealth inequality gap especially during the past 11 years of QE.
Worldwide, the wealth of billionaires increased by $US3.9 trillion between March 18 and December 31 (2020). oxfam
Iron Mike- if the Central Banks act to stimulate the economies during episodes of contraction via QE and other such mechanisms, do they really play a role in increasing the wealth inequality? I am under the impression that the central banks pretty much just provide the money/liquidity, but it is the decision of the political leadership (prime ministers/presidents and parliaments/congress) that decide where the money goes and who pays the taxes- in other words they pick who the winners and losers are.
Anyway, I agree with you that the wealth inequality issue is biggest powder keg, as it has usually has been.
The trump phenomena here in the states has all been about exploiting peoples worries around this issue, and this country would split right apart if there was a feasible seam.
“We don’t realize how fragile the basic infrastructure of our civilization is…..Cooperation is humanity’s superpower,
Discussed at Length – Like Alchemy of Air – a must read.
I worked in India for awhile (Bangalore – now Bangaluru). Lots of nice people, lots of ideas about life. But, I never heard of Transhumanist Globalism before nor Vandana Shiva – but, I did bring home a beautiful statue of Shiva that graces our dining room. Dr. Shiva seems well intended but a bit too esoteric for my interests.
I did read the Sapiens book when it first came out – I thought it was very interesting.
I like the idea that Monbiot wanted to arrest John Bolton.
Regarding Crytocurrency, or digital currency, the USA federal government is now contemplating and planning for a Central Bank Digital Currency [CBDC].
Kind of late to the game, but will be a big player in the global game.
Control of the global financial trade and transaction system is up for grabs.
I reiterate the original point made on this topic recently- the move towards digital currencies and blockchain transaction mechanism will consume increasingly vast amounts of energy.
2033, Feb- London. UK Central Bank has announced involuntarily suspension all financial transactions until at least Thursday when the winds over the North Sea are projected to pick back up.
That is interesting and it completely defeats the whole purpose of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, which is decentralization.
The idea of a decentralized ledger is a good one, but there is good reason to doubt that cryptocurrency will ever replace currency. It’s too expensive.
Bitcoin reminds me of the Linux desktop. for more than a decade I patiently listened to computer programmers saying that the Linux desktop was inherently better than Windows and it was just a matter of time before the whole world used it. One of the great advantages was supposed to be that if you didn’t like it you could fix it, because the source code came with the system.
Of course this was ridiculous. The Linux Desktop was clumsy and ugly and there was nobody much trying to sell it. The claimed advantage were no advantage for 99% of users, and the disadvantages were enough to put off almost all users as well.
The same thing is true of bitcoin. Who is actually supposed to profit from it other than money launderers?
It’s hopelessly inefficient for large institutions and much too clumsy for anyone else. It’s claims of inherent superiority are extremely doubtful. Its champions are unrealistic computer geeks and equally unrealistic libertarians. I just don’t see any path to world dominance for the idea.
Does money supply matter?
Posted on February 26, 2021 by Opinion
GoldSwitzerland/Matthew Piepenberg/2-22-2021
“The logic that Modern Monetary Theory, for example, with its academic aura and blissful projections of deficits without tears (and money creation sans inflation) has slowly left the fringe of economics and entered its forefront as a sound, indeed ‘logical’ new path forward. Equally, ‘logical’ are the titles given to such popular policies as ‘Yield Curve Control’ or ‘Quantitative Easing,’ which, as many of us already understand, are just clever, even logically titled concepts masking the far more pernicious reality of extreme debt expansion supported by extreme money creation which leads logically to extreme currency debasement.
Speaking of cryptocurrencies (from NY Times March 1, 2021)
CHINA CHARGES AHEAD WITH A NATIONAL DIGITAL CURRENCY
“China has charged ahead with a bold effort to remake the way that government-backed money works, rolling out its own digital currency with different qualities than cash or digital deposits. The country’s central bank, which began testing eCNY last year in four cities, recently expanded those trials to bigger cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, according to government presentations…
The effort is one of several by central banks around the world to try new forms of digital money that can move faster and give even the most disadvantaged people access to online financial tools. Many countries have taken action as cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which has recently soared in value, have become more popular…
Over the last 12 months, more than 60 countries have experimented with national digital currencies, up from just over 40 a year earlier, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The countries include Sweden, which is conducting real-world trials of a digital krona, and the Bahamas, which has made a digital currency, the Sand Dollar, available to all citizens.”
Fossil CO2 emissions in the post-COVID era are published today in Nature Climate Change.
TENFOLD INCREASE IN CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS CUTS NEEDED TO STEM CLIMATE EMERGENCY
“While emissions decreased in 64 countries, they increased in 150 countries. Globally, emissions grew by 0.21 billion tonnes of CO2 per year during 2016-2019 compared to 2011-2015. Investments post-COVID continue to be overwhelmingly dominated by fossil fuels in most countries, in contradiction with climate commitments, including in the United States and China. The European Union, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland are among the few countries that have so far implemented substantial green stimulus packages with limited investments in fossil-based activities.”
“Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) developers look ready to shrug off a difficult 2020 by significantly boosting spending on major new projects this year. Following slashed capital expenditure and deferred gas project sanctioning last year, Australia’s LNG operators are set to approve gas drilling and LNG infill projects worth more than US$10 billion this year. New projects are set to help Australia to continue competing with Qatar and the United States to be among the world’s top three LNG suppliers.
This is set to change this decade, after Qatar approved last month the world’s largest LNG project in terms of capacity, North Field East Project (NFE), set to raise Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77 mmtpa to 110 mmtpa. So, Australia will be surpassed by Qatar and the U.S. in the coming decade as new liquefaction capacity is commissioned in Australia’s rival producers.”
What if I told you that the USA added [6] 1000MW nuclear reactors (standard size) in 2020?
Well its not true.
But the USA did add that much annual production capacity in the form of Wind Energy last year.
Despite the pandemic.
Despite a hostile Fed government stance-
4/3/19 Trump-
“If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer,” the president said while delivering remarks at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual spring dinner.”
If you own a house were a profitable windmill can be built. You have already loss 75 percent of its value.
Not many people understand that they’re in a doomsday machine. But those who do naturally feel a responsibility to extricate themselves and others in a way that minimizes overall damage and destruction. Remember: the sooner the machine stops, the fewer the total casualties; however, stopping the machine suddenly now would result in casualties sooner rather than later. What strategy makes the most sense?
1. Redesign and reform the machine. Theoretically, it might be possible gradually to take the machine apart from the inside, and redesign and replace each of its components with one that at least simulates the way a healthy culture functions—all while the machine is still operating. After a time, everything would have changed without anyone being seriously inconvenienced. How might this work? In industry after industry, the current linear economic model (mining to manufacture to waste disposal) could be made more circular (reuse and recycle; repeat endlessly). We could replace fossil fuels with low-carbon energy sources. We could undo the global economic arrangements that systematically and intentionally funnel wealth to some countries while intensifying poverty in others. Meanwhile, we could replace economic indicators (notably GDP) that promote growth in resource consumption with alternative indicators (such as Gross National Happiness) that promote quality of life. This strategy has been advocated most explicitly by ecological economists, but also by women’s reproductive rights advocates and campaigners for a wide range of environmental regulations.
2. Build alternatives. Some people have pursued the strategy of building communities that abide more by the principles of a healthy culture. Their hope is that, as the machine increasingly shows signs of imminent failure, people will abandon it in favor of the alternatives. The machine will still self-destruct, but there will be more survivors, who will already have developed some of the skills needed in a post-collapse situation. The folks who have advocated for this course of action include leaders of the ecovillage, permaculture, Transition, and economic localization movements.
3. Preserve cultural and natural foundational capital. Indigenous societies could survive and adapt, as long as they somehow keep from being swallowed up by global capitalism or the breakdown of the ecological systems on which they depend. Therefore, it makes sense to defend such peoples from capitalist onslaught, not just in order to safeguard their human rights but to promote human survival. At the same time, some ecosystems are still wild; they need to be protected from capitalist exploitation if they are to continue providing habitat for non-human species and indigenous humans. Conservationists and indigenous rights groups have been pursuing these strategies for decades…
Just think of all the commercial real estate waiting to be inhabited by currently homeless people or turned into crafts workshops; or the airport runways waiting to be attacked with pick and shovel and planted as community gardens. What to do with all the tons of irregular concrete chunks from torn-up streets, runways, and ugly office buildings? Call them ‘urbanite’ and use them to build paths and walls.
David Holmgren has written extensively about how lightly-inhabited suburbs could be repurposed as permaculture villages. Rob Hopkins encourages us to use our imagination to envision specific ways in which economic re-localization could make life more interesting and creative for everyone; imagination is also needed in order to get us thinking outside the capitalist box.
Why wait for collapse? Repurposing growth capital now could help unwind the doomsday machine sooner rather than later. It’s a subversive act (see strategy 4 above) as well as a regenerative one.”
Those EV’s, solar panels, Beyond Meat patties, LED light bulbs and water saving showerheads look better after all your comments. You must have stock investments in them.
No joy on the climate front from China. Maybe in their next five year plan?
“China’s five-year plan (just released) expressed Xi’s ambition to make China a high-income economy by 2025, paving the way to doubling the country’s gross domestic product in 2035 from the 2020 base. [Further], much to the chagrin of the world’s climate-change evangelists, China — the world’s largest “polluter” — confirmed little other than that a plan to reach peak emissions by 2030 would be completed this year (and net-zero emissions by 2060).”
So much for the virus helping to reduce climate warming.
METHANE EMISSIONS FROM RUSSIAN PIPELINES SURGED DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
Falling oil and gas prices often go hand in hand with an increase of flaring and venting, which involve burning methane or directly releasing the potent gas into the atmosphere, said Jonathan Banks, senior policy advisor at the US-based Clean Air Task Force. “We have seen this in south Texas.”
Methane, which is released into the atmosphere from abandoned coal mines, farming and oil and gas operations, has a global warming impact 84 times higher than CO2 over a 20-year period. It accounts for 25% of global warming emissions from human activities.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported in January that Russia is the world’s largest methane emitter. Last year the country produced 13,953 kt of methane emissions, almost 20% of the 70 Mt of methane released into the atmosphere worldwide last year. After Russia, the biggest emitters were the US, Iran and Turkmenistan. “We have no chance of meeting our climate targets or targets for decarbonisation if we don’t start to deal with methane emissions in countries that produce large amounts of oil and gas like Russia.”
MY old farmer’s perspective remains about the same, namely, that a substantial portion of our species is doomed to a hard end sometime within the next half a century or so, barring EXTREMELY good luck on all fronts from climate to energy to disease, etc.
But barring the climate going totally nuts, or bad luck extending to a flat out CNBC WWIII, some portion of us will likely survive the bottleneck and come thru more or less whole, while wearing MUCH SMALLER pants and dresses than previously, speaking figuratively.
What I mean is that survivors won’t be using resources in such a reckless manner as we do today, driving a big truck to fetch beer, but hey, beer fetched with a micro mini electric car will drink the same, lol. And beer brewed at home may drink even better!
NAYSAYERS tend to forget the power of compound arithmetic when compounding results in GOOD things happening.
Attitudes can change pretty damned fast, once you pass a tipping point. We just recently passed the tipping point on pot laws, and I missed it by ten years in my own state, not expecting Virginia to have a D controlled government for another couple of election cycles.
I’m now enjoying conversations at the country store, just listening to people who made fun of me four or five years back talking about how great an electric car can be, because they now know somebody who has one and got a ride in it, lol. Of course they’ve totally forgotten that back then they were DEAD SURE electric cars were nothing more than just another part of a libtard plot to take over their lives.
And at least two or three construction guys from the neighborhood are living out of suitcases on the road helping build solar farms and transmission lines. They likewise insisted a few years back that these things were libtard plots designed to let them there dimrats take over our lives.
Pretty soon they more mechanically inclined ones who know how to count their money will be talking about putting in a personal pv system……. on the basis of dollars in versus dollars out, or saved. That won’t be more than two or three more years happening with costs falling and purchased juice going up.
Under the Inverter owned Utility model, Imported PV energy is many times more expensive than PV energy generated from you own roof. The battle is who owns it?
Excerpt from Dougs post a few days ago-
“We don’t realize how fragile the basic infrastructure of our civilization is…..Cooperation is humanity’s superpower, and the way we have enlarged our circle — from kin, to tribes, to religions, to countries, to the world — is miraculous. But the conditions under which that cooperation has taken hold are delicate,..”
Interesting. There is no guarantee that the tide of human cooperation between tribes and states continues to be a gradually higher tide. The trend could reverse. We could be at peak global cooperation at any moment. The grotesque level of sequestering of wealth by the top 1000 is one such indicator.
In a crowded world with resource constraints, rising waters, climate instability and the human propensity towards nationalism and tribalism when things get tough, the rising tide of global human cooperation could be soon a phenomena for the history books (podcasts).
What a simple statement. The ramifications are anything but simple, or pleasant.
Great points here Hickory, my 2 cents is that the initial cause of the trend reversal of cooperation would be wealth inequality.
In my opinion central banks have been playing a crucial role in maintaining and increasing the wealth inequality gap especially during the past 11 years of QE.
Worldwide, the wealth of billionaires increased by $US3.9 trillion between March 18 and December 31 (2020). oxfam
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-25/covid-19-pandemic-exacerbating-wealth-inequality/13089128
Iron Mike- if the Central Banks act to stimulate the economies during episodes of contraction via QE and other such mechanisms, do they really play a role in increasing the wealth inequality? I am under the impression that the central banks pretty much just provide the money/liquidity, but it is the decision of the political leadership (prime ministers/presidents and parliaments/congress) that decide where the money goes and who pays the taxes- in other words they pick who the winners and losers are.
Anyway, I agree with you that the wealth inequality issue is biggest powder keg, as it has usually has been.
The trump phenomena here in the states has all been about exploiting peoples worries around this issue, and this country would split right apart if there was a feasible seam.
Read these two articles if you get time:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4302470-is-how-central-banks-compounded-wealth-inequality
https://www.aier.org/article/central-banks-contribute-to-inequality/
Your country was split prior to Trump. And it will continue that way.
And this one:
https://fortune.com/2019/05/02/fed-interest-rates-income-inequality/
“We don’t realize how fragile the basic infrastructure of our civilization is…..Cooperation is humanity’s superpower,
Discussed at Length – Like Alchemy of Air – a must read.
Excellent read
https://youtu.be/b5_W2ecr0r4
Short version of the book
Thanks Dave, so is it fair to say all the anarchist are want to be chimpanzees? Or is that disrespectful to the chimpanzees?
Chimpanzees certainly deserve more respect!
Dr. Vandana Shiva on Yuval Noah Harari [George Monbiot] and transhumanist globalism
I worked in India for awhile (Bangalore – now Bangaluru). Lots of nice people, lots of ideas about life. But, I never heard of Transhumanist Globalism before nor Vandana Shiva – but, I did bring home a beautiful statue of Shiva that graces our dining room. Dr. Shiva seems well intended but a bit too esoteric for my interests.
I did read the Sapiens book when it first came out – I thought it was very interesting.
I like the idea that Monbiot wanted to arrest John Bolton.
Regarding Crytocurrency, or digital currency, the USA federal government is now contemplating and planning for a Central Bank Digital Currency [CBDC].
Kind of late to the game, but will be a big player in the global game.
Control of the global financial trade and transaction system is up for grabs.
I reiterate the original point made on this topic recently- the move towards digital currencies and blockchain transaction mechanism will consume increasingly vast amounts of energy.
2033, Feb- London. UK Central Bank has announced involuntarily suspension all financial transactions until at least Thursday when the winds over the North Sea are projected to pick back up.
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/econographics/the-rise-of-central-bank-digital-currencies/
That is interesting and it completely defeats the whole purpose of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, which is decentralization.
The idea of a decentralized ledger is a good one, but there is good reason to doubt that cryptocurrency will ever replace currency. It’s too expensive.
Bitcoin reminds me of the Linux desktop. for more than a decade I patiently listened to computer programmers saying that the Linux desktop was inherently better than Windows and it was just a matter of time before the whole world used it. One of the great advantages was supposed to be that if you didn’t like it you could fix it, because the source code came with the system.
Of course this was ridiculous. The Linux Desktop was clumsy and ugly and there was nobody much trying to sell it. The claimed advantage were no advantage for 99% of users, and the disadvantages were enough to put off almost all users as well.
The same thing is true of bitcoin. Who is actually supposed to profit from it other than money launderers?
It’s hopelessly inefficient for large institutions and much too clumsy for anyone else. It’s claims of inherent superiority are extremely doubtful. Its champions are unrealistic computer geeks and equally unrealistic libertarians. I just don’t see any path to world dominance for the idea.
Does money supply matter?
Posted on February 26, 2021 by Opinion
GoldSwitzerland/Matthew Piepenberg/2-22-2021
“The logic that Modern Monetary Theory, for example, with its academic aura and blissful projections of deficits without tears (and money creation sans inflation) has slowly left the fringe of economics and entered its forefront as a sound, indeed ‘logical’ new path forward. Equally, ‘logical’ are the titles given to such popular policies as ‘Yield Curve Control’ or ‘Quantitative Easing,’ which, as many of us already understand, are just clever, even logically titled concepts masking the far more pernicious reality of extreme debt expansion supported by extreme money creation which leads logically to extreme currency debasement.
Speaking of cryptocurrencies (from NY Times March 1, 2021)
CHINA CHARGES AHEAD WITH A NATIONAL DIGITAL CURRENCY
“China has charged ahead with a bold effort to remake the way that government-backed money works, rolling out its own digital currency with different qualities than cash or digital deposits. The country’s central bank, which began testing eCNY last year in four cities, recently expanded those trials to bigger cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, according to government presentations…
The effort is one of several by central banks around the world to try new forms of digital money that can move faster and give even the most disadvantaged people access to online financial tools. Many countries have taken action as cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which has recently soared in value, have become more popular…
Over the last 12 months, more than 60 countries have experimented with national digital currencies, up from just over 40 a year earlier, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The countries include Sweden, which is conducting real-world trials of a digital krona, and the Bahamas, which has made a digital currency, the Sand Dollar, available to all citizens.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/technology/china-national-digital-currency.html
Fossil CO2 emissions in the post-COVID era are published today in Nature Climate Change.
TENFOLD INCREASE IN CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS CUTS NEEDED TO STEM CLIMATE EMERGENCY
“While emissions decreased in 64 countries, they increased in 150 countries. Globally, emissions grew by 0.21 billion tonnes of CO2 per year during 2016-2019 compared to 2011-2015. Investments post-COVID continue to be overwhelmingly dominated by fossil fuels in most countries, in contradiction with climate commitments, including in the United States and China. The European Union, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland are among the few countries that have so far implemented substantial green stimulus packages with limited investments in fossil-based activities.”
https://phys.org/news/2021-03-tenfold-carbon-dioxide-emissions-stem.html
Meanwhile,
AUSTRALIA BOOSTS LNG SPENDING
“Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) developers look ready to shrug off a difficult 2020 by significantly boosting spending on major new projects this year. Following slashed capital expenditure and deferred gas project sanctioning last year, Australia’s LNG operators are set to approve gas drilling and LNG infill projects worth more than US$10 billion this year. New projects are set to help Australia to continue competing with Qatar and the United States to be among the world’s top three LNG suppliers.
This is set to change this decade, after Qatar approved last month the world’s largest LNG project in terms of capacity, North Field East Project (NFE), set to raise Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77 mmtpa to 110 mmtpa. So, Australia will be surpassed by Qatar and the U.S. in the coming decade as new liquefaction capacity is commissioned in Australia’s rival producers.”
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Australia-Boosts-LNG-Spending-To-Compete-With-Qatar.html
I’ll take Move Fast & Break Things for $500 Alex
Facebook is deleting evidence of war crimes, researchers say
https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/25/21664951/facebook-ban-stolen-artifacts-aids-criminal-organizations
What if I told you that the USA added [6] 1000MW nuclear reactors (standard size) in 2020?
Well its not true.
But the USA did add that much annual production capacity in the form of Wind Energy last year.
Despite the pandemic.
Despite a hostile Fed government stance-
4/3/19 Trump-
“If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer,” the president said while delivering remarks at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual spring dinner.”
If you own a house were a profitable windmill can be built. You have already loss 75 percent of its value.
Capitalism, the Doomsday Machine (or, How to Repurpose Growth Capital)
A healthy society recognizes that unrestrained growth is suicidal.
Those EV’s, solar panels, Beyond Meat patties, LED light bulbs and water saving showerheads look better after all your comments. You must have stock investments in them.
No joy on the climate front from China. Maybe in their next five year plan?
“China’s five-year plan (just released) expressed Xi’s ambition to make China a high-income economy by 2025, paving the way to doubling the country’s gross domestic product in 2035 from the 2020 base. [Further], much to the chagrin of the world’s climate-change evangelists, China — the world’s largest “polluter” — confirmed little other than that a plan to reach peak emissions by 2030 would be completed this year (and net-zero emissions by 2060).”
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/china-cuts-growth-outlook-increases-military-spend-shrugged-climate-change-latest-five
So much for the virus helping to reduce climate warming.
METHANE EMISSIONS FROM RUSSIAN PIPELINES SURGED DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
Falling oil and gas prices often go hand in hand with an increase of flaring and venting, which involve burning methane or directly releasing the potent gas into the atmosphere, said Jonathan Banks, senior policy advisor at the US-based Clean Air Task Force. “We have seen this in south Texas.”
Methane, which is released into the atmosphere from abandoned coal mines, farming and oil and gas operations, has a global warming impact 84 times higher than CO2 over a 20-year period. It accounts for 25% of global warming emissions from human activities.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported in January that Russia is the world’s largest methane emitter. Last year the country produced 13,953 kt of methane emissions, almost 20% of the 70 Mt of methane released into the atmosphere worldwide last year. After Russia, the biggest emitters were the US, Iran and Turkmenistan. “We have no chance of meeting our climate targets or targets for decarbonisation if we don’t start to deal with methane emissions in countries that produce large amounts of oil and gas like Russia.”
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/03/04/methane-emissions-russian-pipelines-surged-coronavirus-pandemic/
The increase in CH4 in recent months is among the highest ever recorded. See chart below.
The latest datum is November 2020, from Makiko Sato & James Hansen data page:
http://www.columbia.edu/~mhs119/
Meanwhile, not willing to be left behind ?
Daily CO2
Mar. 5, 2021 = 418.21 ppm
Mar. 5, 2020 = 413.5 ppm
https://cleantechnica.com/2021/03/04/texas-florida-had-large-small-scale-solar-capacity-increases-in-2020/
MY old farmer’s perspective remains about the same, namely, that a substantial portion of our species is doomed to a hard end sometime within the next half a century or so, barring EXTREMELY good luck on all fronts from climate to energy to disease, etc.
But barring the climate going totally nuts, or bad luck extending to a flat out CNBC WWIII, some portion of us will likely survive the bottleneck and come thru more or less whole, while wearing MUCH SMALLER pants and dresses than previously, speaking figuratively.
What I mean is that survivors won’t be using resources in such a reckless manner as we do today, driving a big truck to fetch beer, but hey, beer fetched with a micro mini electric car will drink the same, lol. And beer brewed at home may drink even better!
NAYSAYERS tend to forget the power of compound arithmetic when compounding results in GOOD things happening.
Attitudes can change pretty damned fast, once you pass a tipping point. We just recently passed the tipping point on pot laws, and I missed it by ten years in my own state, not expecting Virginia to have a D controlled government for another couple of election cycles.
I’m now enjoying conversations at the country store, just listening to people who made fun of me four or five years back talking about how great an electric car can be, because they now know somebody who has one and got a ride in it, lol. Of course they’ve totally forgotten that back then they were DEAD SURE electric cars were nothing more than just another part of a libtard plot to take over their lives.
And at least two or three construction guys from the neighborhood are living out of suitcases on the road helping build solar farms and transmission lines. They likewise insisted a few years back that these things were libtard plots designed to let them there dimrats take over our lives.
Pretty soon they more mechanically inclined ones who know how to count their money will be talking about putting in a personal pv system……. on the basis of dollars in versus dollars out, or saved. That won’t be more than two or three more years happening with costs falling and purchased juice going up.
Under the Inverter owned Utility model, Imported PV energy is many times more expensive than PV energy generated from you own roof. The battle is who owns it?