Mick’s Musings 3 – The net zero debate

There is something about the way of the world with the “green revolution” that continues to be remorselessly pushed by governments and elites globally. It gets a little bit of oxygen occasionally and then is pushed aside. That something is the sheer hypocrisy of the agenda.

Here in Australia the push to renewables, reducing carbon footprints, saving the environment, and all the other stuff we are endlessly told is essential to save the planet are doubled down on by the new government in power.

We have an energy crisis, and the solution apparently is to increase the change from fossil fuels to green energy. That is despite the simple reality that green energy is still decades away from being viable due to the limits of energy generation, energy storage, distribution, and reliability.

Don’t get me wrong on this subject. I’ve been a fan of alternate energy since the late 1980’s when solar power was still something for space travel to use. The technology back then was still rather rustic and very expensive. Storing the energy required lead acid batteries and a back-up generator was needed here on planet Earth for when the wheels fell off due to the weather. I came from a generation that wasted very little in the household as times were tough and money was tight so this really appealed to me as a way of not just sticking it to the man, but also as a way of being energy independent and environmentally less damaging than the technology of the day which was coal fired generators which were horrible polluters compared with today due to the advances in reducing the emissions from these power stations. Fact not fiction for those old enough to remember the pollution of the 70’s

As the impacts on populations around the world because of the green initiatives being inflicted on the “little people” increases in a multitude of ways, the elites and officials are deaf and blind to their plight. Sri Lanka has experienced the joy of green initiatives as they found that they couldn’t grow enough food due to the government policy of banning chemical fertilisers, herbicides, and pesticides. The people revolted and the boss bloke has done a runner. The Dutch are facing a similar problem with the ruling on farmland and the rumblings from that may explode in due course. Parts of Europe are facing a massive energy crisis because in the desire to go green they ditched their energy production to buy their energy from Russia. That isn’t working out to well for them currently as they bring their traditional power generators back online. America is “enjoying” the impacts of the policies of their government over the past 18 months and it is biting them on multiple levels despite the claims it is all down to the last guy, Putin, and Covid. Oh, and the official reports that everyone is fully onboard with the new green deal despite reality.

A couple of years ago Australia had a bit of a problem with their recycling push. We have different coloured bins for different types of waste, as do many places now. The only problem with the stuff from the recycling bin is that it was not actually recycling all the stuff. It turned out that the recycling centres took the easy stuff and then shipped the rest to other countries in containers. Out of sight, out of mind is the adage for this. It worked a treat until these countries got the shits and told us to get stuffed. Then the problem was quietly dropped as it exposed the dirty side of the green revolution of recycling waste.

A nice lead into the hypocrisy that is prevalent in the green revolution. Make no mistake the hypocrisy is multi-layered and not confined to one side in this argument.

The current trend in recent years is exactly one of out of sight is out of mind. We live in a society that is massively disposable and little consideration is given to the reality of de-carboning our country. Everything is wonderful if we don’t have it in our backyard and our lives are not impacted in any way is the mentality of the masses. It’s nothing new for humanity except that in this case when it is every country on this planet involved that the hypocrisy is exposed. We have countries that are “developing” so they get a pass on de-carboning and are heavily into using all those evil fossil fuels that we are told we have to eradicate to be good global citizens and save the world. Somehow this will allow them to go green at an unspecified date somewhere around 2050 maybe because they will then be “developed”.

Can someone explain the logic in that to me because it makes no sense.

The reality of going net zero for Australia is potentially economic destruction, hardship and death for so many people. You may say that is sensationalism but consider that right now people are making choices about where to spend their money. Do you buy food or heat your home? Do you put fuel in the car or simply don’t? Do you get medical attention or just go without? These are the realities that used to impact so very few but is now becoming a reality for more and more people due entirely to the decisions of our leaders who are now just spineless puppets pandering to screaming minorities.

Naturally the official response is different to the public response as the people who make the decisions are largely unimpacted by their decisions while the rest of us are just pawns in a game. There are so many historical precedents of this double standard down through history it is amazing that the masses have failed to learn what happens when those who rule no longer care about those they are meant to represent and protect in the pursuit of their own indolence and pandered lifestyles. Think jetsetting “voices” telling us that we are the problem and they are “justified” in their carbon footprints as they are the bastions of good against the evil of humanity.

A recent finding on the state of green energy was sort of alarming in that it spelt out how things would work if the radicals in society had their way by stopping all fossil fuels this very minute and going 100 percent green.

Given the current technology calculated on a global scale, the entire planet would have two minutes of power from all the current battery storage. That the current technology cannot provide abundant green energy using current technology and that storage technology for energy was not anticipated to be capable for decades. Also, that the cost currently would bankrupt the world if they tried to create everything needed to go green.

But hey! Let’s get cracking with saving the planet so we can all live the utopian dream. To put that finding into perspective. In perfect energy creation conditions, the lights would go out and everything would stop once the sun went down and wouldn’t start again until the sun came up. You can forget about your EV’s as they are part of the problem despite our prime minister telling us we can just simply charge our EV’s of a night using solar power.

Protecting the environment is not just putting all your eggs in one basket. Protection is seeing the problem in all its glory and solving the parts that can be solved without casting human civilisation into the dark ages. Going green on energy has a negative impact in other areas of environmental protection which is comfortably ignored in the current debate. Following the current human mindset of consumption and destruction is another great problem but a problem that no-one wants to acknowledge as no-one wants to give up the toys we all enjoy and use right now. It’s far better to virtue signal than to formulate any real solutions as those solutions would impact every single person on this planet without exception and that reality is unacceptable to those who have the loudest voices or sit in the most comfortable positions in society.

The environmentalists of the 60’s and 70’s had a better grasp on what we needed to do than the mob that exists currently. The current crop is blind to anything that might mean they have to give something up or perhaps to make unpleasant decisions about how they live their lives. Far better to leave that reality to the masses as they just don’t matter in the pursuit of purity. Some things never change.