{"id":49711,"date":"2019-11-19T09:36:24","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T14:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=49711"},"modified":"2019-11-19T09:36:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T14:36:29","slug":"it-bears-repeating-renewables-alone-wont-end-the-climate-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=49711","title":{"rendered":"It Bears Repeating: Renewables Alone Won\u2019t End the Climate Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2019\/11\/19\/Renewables-Alone-Will-Not-End-Climate-Crisis\/\">It Bears Repeating: Renewables Alone Won\u2019t End the Climate Crisis<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2018We have to look at downsizing, degrowth, using less.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2019\/11\/18\/WindTurbine.jpg\" alt=\"WindTurbine.jpg\"\/><figcaption>We\u2019ve got a ways to go if we choose to reduce emissions by simply replacing fossil fuels with wind turbines. What also matters: using less energy.Photo via Shutterstock.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although the media still portrays climate change as some vague threat to \u201cthe environment,\u201d it is really a self-made blitzkrieg that is already destabilizing a highly energy-intensive and complex human civilization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greta Thunberg&nbsp;has spoken prophetically: our civilized house is on fire.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But our collective politicians, blinded by ideology and technological illusions, refuse to panic, let alone call the community fire department.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They behave as though they can just build another house somewhere else on Mars, and then watch the conflagration on Netflix<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In that previous analysis, I quoted a Colorado professor, Roger Pielke Jr., who recently\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/rogerpielke\/2019\/09\/30\/net-zero-carbon-dioxide-emissions-by-2050-requires-a-new-nuclear-power-plant-every-day\/#6a5d163735f7\">noted<\/a>\u00a0in Forbes\u00a0that if we really wanted to reach zero carbon emissions by 2050, and we solely choose wind power as the solution, we\u2019d need to build and deploy 1,500 wind turbines on about 300 square miles every day for the next 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We can\u2019t do that, of course,&nbsp;because of physics and economics. Pielke was simply illustrating the scale of the challenge if we thought that renewables could do all the work for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But a great many readers questioned Pielke\u2019s math; others questioned his motivation. Others questioned my sanity in quoting such a fellow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Having written about energy for 30 years (and my best scribbling on the matter remains\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/greystonebooks.com\/products\/the-energy-of-slaves\"><em>The Energy of Slaves<\/em><\/a>), I thought Pielke\u2019s numbers, which can vary with wind power due to location and size of blades, were largely accurate and conveyed the enormity of the task at hand, especially if we think our energy crisis is just a substitution problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It Bears Repeating: Renewables Alone Won\u2019t End the Climate Crisis \u2018We have to look at downsizing, degrowth, using less.\u2019 Although the media still portrays climate change as some vague threat to \u201cthe environment,\u201d it is really a self-made blitzkrieg that is already destabilizing a highly energy-intensive and complex human civilization. Greta Thunberg&nbsp;has spoken prophetically: our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5549,141,9782,674,786,5499],"class_list":["post-49711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-andrew-nikiforuk","tag-climate-change","tag-human-civilization","tag-renewable-energy","tag-technology","tag-the-tyee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49712,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49711\/revisions\/49712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}