This is not entirely new but it is a very concise and compelling overview of the way things are going as climate and RE lunacy rule the western world at present. See the story in the file attached.
Six fallacies
One: There is a ‘green’ energy transition
Two: Energy is like other commodities
Three: Energy efficiency will bring nett reductions
Four: Renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels
Five: You can legislate around the laws of thermodynamics
Six: The UK has shown world-leading decarbonisation
Recalling the work of Jevons on the coal question. In 1865, the English economist William Stanley Jevons observed that technological improvements that increased the efficiency of coal-use led to the increased consumption of coal in a wide range of industries. He argued that, contrary to common intuition, technological progress could not be relied upon to reduce fuel consumption.
Jevons broke off his studies of the natural sciences in London in 1854 to work as an assayer in Sydney, where he acquired an interest in political economy. Returning to the UK in 1859, he published General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy in 1862, outlining the marginal utility theory of value, and A Serious Fall in the Value of Gold in 1863. For Jevons, the utility or value to a consumer of an additional unit of a product is inversely related to the number of units of that product he already owns, at least beyond some critical quantity.
Which makes a lot of sense if you know business and profit. Lower the cost of inputs and you therefore can afford to use more energy, make more stuff and sell it at a profit even at a lower price. The British Empire was built on it, which is why bedding and curtains and such like are known as Manchester. Cheap energy means prosperity.
Of course Greens are closely based on Marxism, and reject such ideas. It is a tell that the US Left is starting to say that people must learn to live with less. Very Soviet, that is.
Tucker: Lower Your Expectations, Folks, This Is Joe Biden’s America (20 Oct)
Rafe,
I have just finished reading this. I am writing a piece for later in the week for the IPA, on China, Russia, etc., so this is very timely.
It is outstanding – and should be compulsory reading for every political and bureaucratic leader.
I wouldn’t call it self-destruction, just propaganda on propaganda and lie upon lie from the usual suspects. Nobody, simply nobody would vote for too little electricity.
“I wouldn’t call it self-destruction,…”
I would.
But I don’t think there is a conspiracy – as in, a James Bond style evil villain sitting around twirling their mustache, saying “Mwa ha ha – I shall take over the world!”. Rather just the usual ignorance, graft and corruption, and a “confluence of interests” – you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours is more than enough to explain it.
Frankly, I don’t think the majority of them are smart enough to pull of a full-blown conspiracy as such – they’d be lucky to even notice it.
But it is self-destruction in any case – and the populace at large is at least as much to blame as the political/industrial heavy-weights. We (all of us) are more inclined to shrug, shake our heads at the ineptness and carry on as best we may. That will continue until it’s gone way too far, and then an ugly reckoning will occur. Unless we are very, very lucky. We might be lucky, but the longer it goes on, the less likely that seems.