Guest essay by Eric Worrall
VOX author David Roberts worries the Sierra Club are not being practical, with their opposition to any low carbon power generation technology other than solar or wind.
Reckoning with climate change will demand ugly tradeoffs from environmentalists — and everyone else
Being a climate hawk is not easy for anyone.
By David Roberts@drvoxdavid@vox.com Jan 27, 2018, 8:30am EST
Climate change is a crisis. Serious damages are already underway, there’s enough carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to ensure more damages to come, and if carbon emissions continue unchecked, species-threatening damages become a non-trivial risk.
Lots of people acknowledge this. But it’s one think to acknowledge it and another to really take it on board, to follow all the implications wherever they lead. Very few people have let the reality of the situation sink in deep enough that it reshapes their values and priorities. Being a consistent climate hawk, it turns out, is extremely difficult.
Let’s take a look at an example of what I’m talking about, and then pull back to ponder the broader problem.
Zero-carbon energy vs. environmentalists in New England
The operators of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant, the only remaining nuclear plant in Massachusetts, recently announced that they would close the plant no later than June 2019. It has long been plagued with maintenance and safety issues, and nuclear is having a hard time competing in wholesale energy markets.
Pilgrim is a 690 megawatt plant that has been producing 5.12 terrawatt hours of energy per year — around 4.1 percent of the New England region’s energy. (These numbers are courtesy of Jesse Jenkins, an energy analyst and MIT PhD candidate, whose tweet thread got me thinking.)
That represents an enormous amount of carbon-free energy about to vanish from the grid, which any climate hawk must surely view with alarm.
Take the Massachusetts chapter of the Sierra Club (SCM). It proclaims that “climate change is an existential threat.” But it is not fighting to find new ownership or better safety procedures for the Pilgrim plant, or ways for the plant to be compensated for the lack of CO2 it produces (as in New York). It advocates that Pilgrim be closed immediately.
OK, well, Pilgrim is a pretty poor performer, safety-wise, so maybe it’s best to replace it as quickly as possible with clean energy.
So how about this idea? As part of an effort to clean the grid, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has proposed the Northern Pass transmission line, which would bring around 9.45 TWh/year of hydroelectric energy down from dams in Quebec. That would replace the lost Pilgrim energy and add more carbon-free energy to boot.
SCM … opposes that too. “Not only will we be contributing to ecological destruction on a massive scale,” it writes, “we will be furthering the exploitation of the indigenous people of Canada.”
…
Read more: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/1/27/16935382/climate-change-ugly-tradeoffs
This growing war between greens who believe in the climate emergency but want nuclear power, and radical groups like the Sierra Club, seems to be about whether we get to keep the conveniences of modern civilisation.
A new generation of greens is worried about climate change, but they don’t want to give up their cell phones, lattes, cheap power, convenient travel and warm homes in winter.
How do Sierra Club reconcile their concerns about the destruction of habitat which large scale hydro causes, with their advocacy of renewables? Replacing existing energy systems with renewables, if it could be done at all, would require clearing millions of acres of land.
The answer to this dilemma in my opinion is the Sierra Club have no intention of allowing the replacement of existing energy systems.
In my opinion radical greens like the Sierra Club leapt onto the climate bandwagon because they thought the climate cause would help them achieve the social changes they wanted – large scale abandonment of modern civilisation, a return to more natural ways of life. But Sierra Club’s precious climate cause is rapidly morphing into a demand for more nuclear power, which if successful will ultimately lead to a massive increase in global energy use, an expansion of the modern way of life which groups like Sierra Club appear to despise.
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Sierra club and the other radical greens only oppose expansion of the modern ways of life just for commoners. They perceive themselves as elites, who would be exempt from having to make personal sacrifices to put their money where their mouths are, they feel entitled to take plane rides (like countless private jets which flew to Davos) to elites’ gatherings around the world where they would lecture the commoners about their destructive ways of living (SUVs, ICE cars, etc.) while allowing themselves to be leading the lives with many times the carbon footprint of an average commoner…
I know this is just a pile on but the Sierra Club is a particularly deceptive organization. They are currently promoting artificial release of wolves in Colorado, claiming Colorado needs to be “fixed” just like Yellowstone National Park, when wolves are actually in the state already!!! There are enough people who don’t know the facts and they are exploiting that just like they are exploiting energy issues. It isn’t about a logical solution it’s about conflict. Conflict and ignorance makes them money, plain and simple. They know how to gin up a conflict about pretty much anything, just look at their adds. The greater the conflict, the greater the drama all equals money from the useful idiots. It’s a formula that is working like a charm. Sierra Club knows how to do it and their partners in deception the Center for Biological Diversity knows how to do it, etc. There is no philosophical integrity in their heart, It’s disgusting.
Can somebody explain to me how 1 molecule of CO2 can heat up the other 2499 molecules in the atmosphere? It is one part in 2500. It is trace gas.
Don’t the Greens understand statistical thermodynamics?
No they don’t; but then again they don’t give an fig. They are ideologically driven and for idealogues, the last thing you need is an argument. You an idealogue, everything is a hammer as you aalready know the arguments and your answer is the correct one.
Don’t get me ranting.
“Don’t the Greens understand statistical thermodynamics?”
Of course they do. They know that the global warming theory is a complete piece of claptrap. But pushing it gives them power. And they love power.
By absorbing a photon of IR energy, transferring that energy to another molecule via collisions, then absorbing another photon or IR energy and so on thousands of times a second.
There’s no question that CO2 can thermalize LWIR in the 14-16 micron range, so I think it’s more pertinent to ask how can the insignificant thermal energy added by that one molecule per 2500 (supposedly added by man to the atmosphere since 1850) cause the postulated atmospheric instability and weather condition changes. That’s where the leap of faith, reductionist reasoning and hand waving occurs.
That’s why a doubling of CO2 will only result in a temperature increase in the 0.2 to 0.3C range.
A value that is at present undetectable giving natural variability.
I salute VOX, whatever that is, for standing up for reason and exposing eco-misanthropy. However, until such entities as VOX drop the green religion, they’re sincerity is in doubt.
VOX still believes that CO2 is the control knob for weather. (“climate”).
“J. Philip Peterson January 27, 2018 at 6:47 pm
VOX still believes that CO2 is the control knob for weather. (“climate”).”
No, it’s worse than that. They believe it’s just the human contribution to total CO2 concentration, the ~4% of ~400ppm/v, is *THE* control knob. It’s the bacteria on a microbe on the back of a flea on the tail of the dog.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have a system that allowed us to identify the radical Sierra Club members and then the greens and in order turn off power to the Sierra Club members first then the greens whenever there is an energy shortage of green only power (which is most of the time). In other words let them make sure they don’t use any energy provided by anything other than green sources. This will allow them to put their money where their mouths are as it were. With the added benefit to society that they are likely to be the first climate casualties especially in a New England winter like the latest one. But hey it will be worth it. Virtue signalling is very important as long as it impacts on other people’s lives.
The Sierra Club, Greenpeace and all the rest of the Climate Kooks may not be aware of the fact that whenever clean energy sources like hydro and nuclear are being closed, they almost always get replaced by gas burning plants.
It is all basically just another demonstration of why the Left is unfit to lead as the dominate political party. They can be back-benchers, minority party and do little damage as long as the People recognize the danger of having the Left actually running government, as they do in California.
all you need to know about the sierra club
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/12/25/al-gore-bilks-people-at-christmas-asking-for-climate-crisis-money/comment-page-1/#comment-2701695
{excerpt]
Marxism made simple!
The Groucho Marxists are the leaders – they want power for its own sake at any cost, and typically are sociopaths or psychopaths. The great killers of recent history, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot. etc. were of this odious ilk – first they get power, then they implement their crazy schemes that do not work and too often kill everyone who opposes them.
The Harpo Marxists are the followers – the “sheeple” – these are people of less-than-average intelligence who are easily duped and follow the Groucho’s until it is too late, their rights are lost and their society destroyed. They are attracted to simplistic concepts that “feel good” but rarely “do good”.
George Carlin said: “You know how stupid the average person is, right? Well, half of them are stupider than that!”
One can easily identify many members of these two groups in the global warming debate – and none of them are ”climate skeptics”.
I was walking around a shopping mall with my wife recently when we came across a two-year old having a meltdown. He was stamping his feet and screaming “no, no, no, no, no!!!”. My wife turned to me and said “look, there’s an environmentalist in training”.
The Sierra Club doesn’t appear to care about Carbon Dioxide released into the atmosphere. I suspect it is because they know that it is not a significant factor in climate. They have an agenda that is anti human and anti prosperity and for them climate change fears are a useful tool politically and nothing more.
Simply put; If they believed CO2 was a significant threat to the environment they would be radically pro nuclear power. They aren’t so the don’t.
The goal is to preserve the problem and shake down the people to support projects least likely to reach the purported goals with the only benefits being kickbacks to politicians and political support for them while flushing tens of billions to support pork barrel projects. More money and power for politicians and higher power costs for consumers, less dependable power, more job loss and a
far more corrupt government.
I wouldn’t worry with these deja vu hippies as it didn’t take long for the South Australian Premier to roll out 276MW of diesel generators when facing summer blackouts. Sure the Tesla Big battery was a unicorn stunt but the diesel gennys gave the game away for the true believers.Yes they’ve stuffed up the national grid with their unreliables and batteries won’t cut it so that only leaves pumped hydro if they’re to press on with 100% renewables by whenever the poor can afford it.
Now SA is the driest state in the driest continent and being largely flat that only leaves the Great Dividing Range to the east for pumping salt water uphill as they’ve dammed most of the easy runoff. Very populous and quite bemusing thinking about all the NIMBYs having kittens over any proposal to pump seawater up into any of their precious valleys. When the rolling blackouts begin in earnest and the doomsdayers face building salt water dams their time in the sun will be over.
Store this rubbish with batteries to make it reliable 24/7 all year round?
http://anero.id/energy/wind-energy/2018/january
Don’t make me laugh as I’m not the product of post-modern universities with the bone heads-
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/tim-blair/the-researcher-sits-on-a-small-chair/news-story/e8a14e30a0de797eeeef36d62427fdca
The cracks in the grid are beginning to show although lucky for the doomsdayers it was a weekend again- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5321715/48-000-homes-Victoria-without-power-heat.html
Just need to blow up Liddell when AGL have finished wringing the last drop of revenue from it and the true believers will live in interesting times the following summer.
Low natural gas prices have made the Pilgrim economically non-viable and will lead to shutdown. The plant had no safety issues and was approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency for operation until at least 2032. The plant provided 84% of the low carbon power in Massachusettes.
How much will the 1,000 MW of Canadian hydro- power really cost by the time it reaches Boston?
[The mods begin counting the number of greedy politicians between the power supply and Boston … .mod]
CBC News | Nova Scotia, Jan. 25, 2018
According to this article:
Underwater cable to Massachuetts clean energy bid $2.2 billion.
http://cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/emera-atlantic-link-massachuetts-energy-northern-pass-transmission-1.4504425
Too many Republicans remain delusional about the left and their irreversible trajectory into total loopyville.
On some some midday cable discussion show I caught the host posed the question,
“that because some Republicans support some form of carbon taxation, perhaps if the Republicans would join a bipartisan adoption of a carbon tax the left would relent on their more nuttier stuff like war against meat and fining waitings waiters for offering straws?”
The exact opposite is certain. The rabid left would step on the crazy accelerator.
Why doesn’t this host and all of the GOP abandon this absurd thinking that placating the left will calm then down?
Let it go. Wise up. Only when the left is in full ruin will they stop.
Speak of the Devil- http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/companies/vegan-protesters-storm-melbourne-steak-restaurant/news-story/a99c20f1de1e59e027b097b239da9eb1
and in the next breath leftists will start wanking on about bullying and the need for safe spaces-
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_5716340654001
Yes there’s a Qld State election on and out comes all their virtue signalling.
Green zealots should have their electricity cut off for a while, so that they learn to value it. Anyone who values electricity won’t be so quick to call for sabotaging the infrastructure which supports it.
People from postage stamp Massachusetts have no idea of the vastness of Northern Quebec. Similarly if they educated themselves on the “plight” of the native people of Northern Quebec, they would learn that the Cree people in the James Bay Region negotiated a very lucrative deal with the government-owned Hydro-Quebec worth millions a year in perpetuity. They also get electricity at 1.5 cents CDN/kWh (~1.18 cents US) in perpetuity. This small band has an excellent K-12 School, a sports complex with a superb fitness gym, indoor hockey/skating rink, basketball, etc. They provide scholarships to university and technical schools for interested students. They have no alcohol or drugs in this community. The band has purchased significant shares in mining developments at the feasibility stage and negotiated employment and contracts for a range of services they provide (road construction, heavy equipment an large truck repairs, etc.etc.). They have high-speed internet and a a Telus cell phone service. Their is an airport and a native-owned, scheduled airline service to the Montreal International Air Terminal. On top of this and much more, they still follow a traditional lifestyle hinting abundant big game, waterfowl, trapping and the best fishing in the world. They own a commercial hunting and fishing guide service. Employment terms with mining and forestry include time off for the moose and goose hunt.
http://www.nemaska.com
The left’s empty “concerns” about native peoples are an insidious form of гас¡зм that they seem utterly blind to. It’s this form of concern that has inhibited resource development in Africa – tapping a treasure trove to bring people to prosperity and a good life.
oops “hunting”. Oh and NGOs like Sierra don’t want the people from places like Africa to become prosperous. They have been “helping” these people to go no where. Tens of trillions spent on Africa since idependence in the 1960s and you cant get a clean drink of water! This all just a safari for the NGO white – neocolonialists.
We should do goose hunting right here in Silicon Valley, CA. There are lots of undocumented Canadian geese, and some are permanent residents.
“Climate change is a crisis. Serious damages are already underway, there’s enough carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to ensure more damages to come, and if carbon emissions continue unchecked, species-threatening damages become a non-trivial risk.”
Sorry, but exactly when did they prove any of this?
Correct Jerry.
“Dangerous Man-made Climate Change” is so vague a hypothesis that it cannot even be disproved – is not even scientific – it is a scam.
“Dangerous Man-made Global Warming” can be disproved and I suggest it already has been disproved. The maximum sensitivity of climate to increasing atmospheric CO2 is about 1C/(2xCO2), which is not dangerous (Christy and McNider, 2017). The actual sensitivity is probably much less, and so is even less dangerous.
Global warming alarmism (aka Climate Change) is a fraud, the most costly fraud of all time.
Politicians love big scams because that is where they can derive the most graft. Between the scoundrels, the corrupt politicians and the corrupt scientists, and the imbeciles who follow them, this is a very tenacious scam. To expect the imbeciles to suddenly become intelligent is improbable; to expect the scoundrels to suddenly become honest is impossible.