Simon Michaux: The Green Energy Myth
Green energy, it turns out, is something of a myth. And, given all that’s at stake, a rather dangerous myth. Welcome to this Off The Cuff podcast with Professor Simon Michaux
There is no topic more important than today’s. Everything hinges on “us” getting it right. And by us I mean the entire global population.
That topic is energy. Specifically, the energy transition away from fossil fuels generally but oil most urgently. Why? Because oil is central to everything about our current way of life. The capital markets only function while expanding, literally millions of distinct products find the headwaters of their genesis in building blocks derived from oil. 95% of everything moves from point A to point B moves because of oil.
Heck, you eat oil in the form of oil-extracted or produced fertilizers, tractor activity, pesticides, and herbicides, and the fact that the average calorie you eat first traveled 1,500 miles before landing on your plate, every mile of that enabled by oil.
If we get this transition wrong – either by failing to plan appropriately or, worse, fibbing to ourselves by selling a set of technologies that cannot do what we’ll need them to do – then massive pain awaits. Economies will crash, as will populations. Wars will be fought.
Today we’re talking with Simon Michaux, an associate professor of geo-metallurgy at the Geological Survey of Finland and a key figure in the Circular Economy Solutions Unit. Dr. Michaux has done the math. He’s taken the time to study mining and resources and then performs some simple arithmetic to determine that…uh oh…we haven’t got a chance in the world of making an easy energy transition. None. The reasons are many, but the core of the problem is we’ve put the wrong people in charge and allowed flawed narratives to take flight unchallenged.
…click on the above link to read the rest…
