Guest “I couldn’t make this schist up if I was trying” by David Middleton
This Robert Bryce article in today’s Real Clear Energy feed is actually from last November… But it’s fracking hilarious!
Hawaii protests show why wind energy can’t save us from climate change
BY ROBERT BRYCE, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 11/13/19Since mid-October, some 128 people on the island of Oahu have been arrested while protesting a wind energy project being built near the small village of Kahuku. The project is planned to include eight turbines standing 568 feet high. Many of the arrests occurred after protesters blocked trucks carrying equipment to the site. The protests continued on Nov. 1, when about 30 anti-wind protesters occupied the office of Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell for three hours.
Of the many land-use conflicts that have erupted during the past decade over proposed renewable-energy projects, the protests at Kahuku are remarkable both for their duration and the number of people who have been arrested. To be sure, anti-wind protests such as the one at Kahuku don’t get the type of media coverage that is given to protests involving oil pipelines. In 2014, when about 400 people were arrested outside the White House for protesting the Keystone XL pipeline, the story was covered by Reuters, Washington Post, CNN, Politico and others. Opposition to “clean” energy doesn’t fit the dominant narrative and therefore doesn’t get the media attention given to anti-hydrocarbon protests.
Despite the lack of coverage, the protests at Kahuku are important for several reasons. First, the protests are happening in Hawaii, a state that has pledged to generate 100 percent of its electricity by 2045. Second, they are the latest example of the raging land-use conflicts over renewable-energy projects that are happening from Oahu to Iowa and Norway to Germany.
[…]
[T]he journal BioScience recently published a study signed by more than 11,000 scientists who warned … that to secure a “sustainable future, we must change how we live.” It also advocated population control, leaving “fossil fuels in the ground” and replacing them with “low-carbon renewables.”
But leaving those fuels in the ground will be difficult when so many people in so many places don’t want to live near projects that capture energy that’s above the ground. The refusal of all-renewable advocates to consider the cartoonish land requirements of their schemes and how those plans are affecting ordinary people in rural areas is perhaps the single biggest disconnect in the current energy debate. How cartoonish? Last year, two Harvard researchers found that meeting current U.S. electricity needs with wind would require covering a land area twice the size of California with wind turbines. That’s beyond Looney Tunes.
Last week, I talked to Choon James, a Kahuku resident who was arrested last month while protesting the wind project. The people of Kahuku have “said over and over that we don’t want these turbines,” she said. “I’m all for green energy. But environmental justice has to be a priority.”
[…]
Robert Bryce is the producer of a new documentary, “Juice: How Electricity Explains the World.” His sixth book, “A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations,” will be published in March. Follow him on Twitter @pwrhungry.
The Hill
“I’m all for green energy. But environmental justice has to be a priority.”
I guess “environmental justice” must mean Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY).
well…I guess…just be glad they are not in China…which leads the world in renewables
…by destroying rivers, entire ecologies, displacing millions of people
(Lat, i’ve got a reply for you at the other thread)…
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/03/04/research-commentary-studies-show-fracking-ban-would-wreak-havoc-on-u-s-economy/#comment-2931767
Trump has had a fit with them every time they tried to raise interest rates…..
It really does seem like they’re more a bunch of masochistic nihilists throwing themselves into the abyss and want to take everyone with them as an act of expiation.
Well, here in Canada, our totally NOT over his head Prime Minstrel Zoolander has gone on record saying “because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to turn the economy around on a dime.”
Real “trains on time” stuff from a guy whose resume was basically “snow board instructor, drama teacher and famous last name with nice hair”.
I love it. I post a comment that references THIS site, and it goes to moderation. You can’t make this “stuff” up. We’ll see if they release it.
Go back in the history side of this site and read the article about “Poland bans wind turbines in 17 years. Very informative if the censors allow it.
Poland Bans Wind Turbines in 17 years!
Now we have the nation of Poland examining the health damages of Wind turbines. They have discovered that the low frequency noise given off by wind turbines, affects cellular development and mimics heart problems.
And don’t think you can block these low frequency vibrations with a normal sound barrier. The lower the frequency, the thicker the barrier needs to be. For these very low frequencies, the barrier NEEDS to be 17 meters THICK! The lady who did the study says she wouldn’t live within 17 kilometer’s of a wind turbine!
They are going to force REMOVAL of ALL wind turbines in 17 years! Check this out, https://wattsupwiththat.com/?s=poland+%2Cwind+turbines and read to the end and check the comments of Sommer, and watch the YouTube video for a real education in the subject
Environmentalism degenerated into Luddism long ago. Bite the hands that feed you; oppose everything invented since 1500; guarantee the people free omelets, while strictly prohibiting the breaking of eggs.
It’s a MASSIVE failure of education in math, science, economics, and the need for practical trade-offs.
I realize that language evolves but the original Luddites were workers whose livelihood was threatened. link They were much like the forgotten people who elected President Trump.
The trick of the left is to pretend that those who disagree with them are crazy. They tack ‘phobia’ on to everything. eg: homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia.
How about we start calling the greenies ‘technophobes’. It correctly identifies the fact that they are crazy.
Tom G
You forgot to mention the obligatory pound of flesh nearest the heart that will be collected from every citizen.
David, i was born in honolulu, and i tell you… Hawaii is just too beautiful for wind farms. They’d flat out ruin the landscape. So (just perhaps sorta kinda maybe) in this instance, environmental justice is apt. Gotta remember that not all hawaiians want to be americans. (i wonder how much of the california influence pushes this green energy thingy) They’d just as soon have the haoles go home & take their d*mn windmills with them. i imagine that the tourism industry is a big issue, too. People don’t fly to there to see wind turbines. Hawaii’s landscapes are among the most beautiful in the world…
Plus, RCPs are b*llsh*t:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/02/28/la-nina-may-form-in-the-equatorial-pacific-ocean-later-this-year-and-if-so-it-could-have-wide-ranging-ramifications/#comment-2927597
(i’m using a couple neato graphs of yours there, DM… 👍)
One irony is on the Big Island where 2 years ago the lava flows almost obliterated the one geothermal plant there.
You put your finger right on the sore point.
I’ve visited the Hawaiian islands several times and yes it’s beautiful.
But how a about the Scottish Highlands or Southern France and a few other places that come to mind that are eye watering beautiful? And already full of the gahdawful ugly, inefficient and unreliable contraptions.
Reality is that locals there too are starting to push back hard. In 2019, not one single wind mill got built in Germany because of local resistance.
Nuclear is the only way to go if you believe that hydrocarbons are evil – I don’t- but the green establishment will oppose that option until well after the lights go out.
Humm thanks for that Tetris.
“And already full of the gahdawful ugly, inefficient and unreliable contraptions.”
Subsidy seeking faux-sciency destroy the countryside industrialists, aka —
Green Contraptionism from Green Contraptionists profiteers.
I read one time, likely on WUWT, that each wind turbine needs at least 40 acres, and to be truly as efficient as possible, more like 80 acres EACH. That’s a lot of land.
Even with the 80 acres, as you get more and more rows of the things, the ones in back start to see a decrease in wind speed.
Lived in the far north of Scotland in the late ’80’s, early ’90’s. Had a chance to go back not too long ago and almost wept. The unsightly things are all over. A place of once pristine, wild beauty had been defiled.
Exactly right about nuclear energy. It is a simple test of seriousness about climate change: Nuclear works and is environmentally clean. All the nuclear “waste” Of the world could fit into one football stadium….except it is not waste; it is refineable and reusable. Greens who reject nuclear cannot be serious about a “global” climate change threat.
Tetris: “Nuclear is the only way to go”
Right. But it will be opposed by the nihilists, the regulators, wind turbine providers and political sychophants. Build a small, low-cost nuke at Cape Canaveral on government property and use it to generate hydrogen for the space program. Then, truck some of the hydrogen to fueling points in and around Miami. Then, to points further north along I95. Let the contagion spread. Just dreaming.
fonzie
Surely you don’t think that Hawaii is the only place on Earth that is too beautiful to be destroyed by windmills!
NO! Of course not. But i do think that the obviousness of Hawaii’s case goes without saying. (especially given that emissions don’t affect the carbon dioxide growth rate anyway) i live in the french quarter and, at one time they were thinking about putting an interstate highway through the quarter. i ain’t kiddin’. The interior department said no (that’s how far this got). It should have been obvious to everyone that you don’t put an interstate thru the quarter. That same obviousness should apply to Hawaii perhaps above all, if not most, other cases. That should certainly be considered…
(BTW, stop calling me surely… 😉)
There are immensely pretty parts of Uk countryside also messed up with these useless devices. Looking at Gridwatch yesterday only 1% of this countries electricity was being generated which meant they were running at about 3% efficiency. Was an utter waste of money. Large pump storage facility in Wales had to be bought online just to keep up with demand. Seems that the large pumped storage facility in Wales had to be brought online just to meet demand.
When travelling all across the South-West of UK, (Devon & Cornwall for the Colonials), I was amazed at the vasy tracts of land covered with Solar arrays & Windfarms, land owned by wealthy landowners making pots of money from hard-pressed taxpayers for the most part, with their subsiy payments!!!!
AtB
That’s a real shame some of the loveliest parts of the country.
Once nutty politicians who’ve gone full green there’s no saving beautiful countries from wind-follies.
https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/science-publique/l-autonomie-energetique-est-elle-une-utopie
and you have HUGE available thermal power resources(maybe a few too many?)
Fonz,
I agree it’s beautiful… But it is the Hawaiian elected government demanding 100% renewables. Hawaii already has more rooftop solar capacity per capita than any other state and its onshore wind resource potential is geographically limited…
And I don’t think offshore wind would be economically viable.
Imagine wind farms between Maui and the Big Island or just offshore of Volcanoes National Park.
You could site them in deepwater (>600 m water depth); but that’s likely to be rather pricey.
https://stateofgreen.com/en/partners/alpha-wind-energy/solutions/hawaii-floating-offshore-wind/
Imagine wind farms between Maui and the Big Island or just offshore of Volcanoes National Park.
David STOP(!) Your making my brain hurt! (i need a drink… 😖)
I never need a drink…But I always want several… 🍻
I can tell you that it is a rather pleasant hike in Maui up the Lahaina Pali trail:
http://mauiguidebook.com/adventures/lahaina-pali-trail/
Not sure if wind turbines actually ENHANCE the beauty though, you’re right.
This NIMBYism even for “good” energy is rampant, though. Here in Toronto there was the typically goofy idea that comes up every few years about putting them out in Lake Ontario. “But it will spoil the view” is pretty much the reply from the progressives.
Then there was the English a capella folk group Artisan who were doing their typical folk politics about “saving the earth”, but “don’t put wind farms our our moors, thanks”.
Ultimate hypocrites of course were the folks in Kennebunkport, Maine who despite talking the Green talk…don’t wanna walk the Ugly Turbines in Our View Walk.
Hawaii already tried wind turbines, with predictable results:
“Broken promises: The rusting wind turbines of Hawaii”
http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/6350/Broken-promises-The-rusting-wind-turbines-of-Hawaii.aspx
Exactly right about nuclear energy. It is a simple test of seriousness about climate change: Nuclear works and is environmentally clean. All the nuclear “waste” Of the world could fit into one football stadium….except it is not waste; it is refineable and reusable. Greens who reject nuclear cannot be serious about a “global” climate change threat.
I happen to think Iowa is too beautiful for wind farms too. They are a total blight on the rolling hills of south central Iowa, where I live, just as they are on the plains of northern Iowa. What a waste.
Yes, I also happen to have a great fondness for the wide-open skies and landscapes of Wyoming – and Nebraska – and eastern Colorado – the list goes on.
Hawaii is certainly lovely, but no more deserving of special recognition than many other earthly locales that are visually and aesthetically polluted by these monstrous wind turbines. “Monstrous” is accurate, not hyperbole in this case
Bring ’em Down!
They are an eye saw wherever they are, period.
They ought to go to the Big Island of Hawaii, to the south shore and film to Old wind turbines from God knows when that are still creaking and groaning, and probably still haven’t been removed, spoiling the landscape forever.
While I agree that not all Hawaiians want to be American citizens, it is extremely likely that the vast majority want to be US citizens. Just as the vast majority of Native Hawaiians voted to become part of the United States when they had a chance.
It’s not that funny. A tiny village, relatively impoverished but rich in beauty, natural history, and tradition will be severely impacted by giant turbines that are ugly, noisy, kill endangered birds, and produce intermittent power for whom?
The supposed solution for an insanity-driven non-problem once again hits a rural community without any political power to speak of. The poorest people, who did not cause the non-problem, are sacrificed to the Almighty Dollar by crooks and thieves masquerading as “saviors of the planet”.
CAGW is not merely a wild-eyed scam perped by globalist industrialist rent seekers; it is a font of injustice and hardships foisted on the least advantaged. You can sneer at the protesters, call them nasty names, and look down your highly sophisticated super-intelligent noses at them, or you could maybe try to help them.
Fracking hilarious? I’m not laughing. Why are you?
Because… It’s fracking hilarious.
Mike D, David posted this because it is NIMBY writ large. Many commentators here at WATTS note the nonsense associated with the fools rushing in to go green, when cleaner conventional is the ticket, especially where economic issues demand conventional.
Yeah. Not one of those poorest tiny villagers who lives in their thatched hut has refrigeration, drives a car, watches TV, owns anything plastic, nor in fact do they enjoy any of the modern day benefits of the fossil fuel developed lifestyle.
It’s plain ole NIMBY. Because saving the planet isn’t as important as saving your view.
“Green” really means “In favour of displaced emissions”.
Here’s a link to a compiled list of videos made by rural residents who have been forced to deal with turbines surrounding their homes.
https://wind-watch.org/video-denmark.php
Here the Greenies are doing our work against the Warmistas. As Napoleon once said, “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
Attributed.
Something Napoleon did say (or at least write) was, ‘”Ce n’est pas possible”, m’ecrivez-vous: cela n’est pas français.’
Profound. Probably, it is impossible to tell objectively due to linguistic complications. Still, if we want some truly profound from French military personalities I feel the wisdom of Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot is most appropriate when discussing the implications of any ‘Green Future’
‘Nous sommes dans un pot de chambre, et nous y serons emmerdés.’
(and remember, those who do not learn from history are doomed to have obscure quotes thrown at them! 😀 )
The goal is no energy. No industry. No technology. No infrastructure. No trade. No future. No hope.
Just idyllic kumbaya homestead subsistence grubbing to grow your own veggies, spin your own yarn, bury your own dead, huddle in your own delightful and fulfilling misery.
You ignore that a major facet of the new future plan is to get all the peasants off the land and into high density. high-rise hovels.
The land will belong only to the elite.
exactly correct
Gulags or concentration camps, been tried before many times.
Aren’t we lucky that SARS2 covid19 coronavirus is about to accomplish all that much more quickly than CAGW…?
Except it won’t.
Mortality rate of 2% & it’s around 0,2% for healthy adults.
Yep. And that 2% mortality rate will likely drop below 1% as asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic cases are factored in.
If you don’t feel bad enough to go to the hospital and be tested, then at present you aren’t being counted.
The director of the WHO has announced that 3.4% of COVID-19 cases reported globally have died. But professor John Edmunds, professor for the centre of mathematical modelling of infectious diseases of the London School of Tropical medicine had this to say about it:
“It is surprisingly difficult to calculate the ‘case-fatality-ratio’, or death rate, during an epidemic. This is because it takes some time to die. In the case of COVID-19 the time between onset of disease and death is quite long – 2 to 3 weeks or more – so the number of cases that you should divide by is not the number of cases that we have seen to this point, but the number of cases that there were a few weeks ago. In a rapidly expanding epidemic, that number will be much less, so the true case-fatality-ratio will be higher. However, there is another bias working in the other direction. We do not report all the cases. In fact, we only usually report a small proportion of them.”
In other words nobody really knows at this point.
Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., H. Clifford Lane, M.D., and Robert R. Redfield, M.D.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387
Hmm, don’t want power generated by fossil fuels, nor by nuclear, nor by wind… So I guess they either want hundreds of square miles of solar panels and battery warehouses, or they want to give up on electricity altogether.
(Actually, I agree in that I wouldn’t want a bunch of wind turbines all over my beautiful island either, but I have no problem with fossil. I don’t think I would want a nuclear power plant on a small volcanic island now that I think of it.)
I say turn off all power to the island, ban all driving and powered boating, and see how they feel about fossil fuels after a few weeks… Reality is such a great teacher.
“I say turn off all power to the island, ban all driving and powered boating, and see how they feel about fossil fuels after a few weeks.” Hawaiians were self sufficient long before fossil fuels were ever discovered and there’s many native islanders and descendants that would love to return to those days.
markl
How many would be willing to give up driving, watching TV, or having refrigerators?
Do you believe the current population of Hawaii or anywhere else for that matter could “live off the land” without enviromental disruption?
No, there are people who *think* they would like to return to an agrarian or hunter-gatherer lifestyle, even in paradise. In reality, when you have to look for and carry fresh water, scrounge up food, dig a latrine, use a latrine, live with parasites, and walk everywhere, it loses it’s luster. Vanishingly few first-world people will actually do any of that. It’s hard work.
Yep. Camping is one thing, living like that is quite another. Most of these activists would panic being more than 20 minutes from a Starbucks.
Not for anything was the average age in the Paleolithic so low.
And why shows like “Survivor” and “Naked and Afraid” as so crap. None of them could be made somewhere that didn’t have warm temps.
I mean, I almost got hypothermia camping north of Lake Superior. In July.
A guide once in Hawaii said that so much is shipped in now, there is basically two weeks of food. Since we were in a helicopter a thousand feet up and a few miles between islands…I didn’t disagree then, or now for that matter.
I’d rather live next to Comanche Peak, rather than a wind farm… But I’m not clamoring for green energy and “environmental justice”, whatever the frack that is.
You just haven’t accounted for the fraction that does not want solar, either.
The location of the volcanoes on the big island are well known, as well as the lava fields from them.
Avoid those, and you have no problem. The volcanoes on the other islands are long dead.
No one ever said the Climate Justice warriors had any intelligence.
And this article quoting Choon James proves it.
The whole Climate scam movement went Full Moron decades ago.
These people believe wind is just purchased from some store shelf??
Snark!
Last year Dr Bob Brown, the former Senator and leader of the Greens in Australia, protested long and loud against a wind turbine project about to start within sight and sound of him and his boyfriend’s house. Even his own devoted followers could finally see the man for what he was – an arrogant, self-serving hypocrite.
To top it off, during the federal election he then led an in-your-face circus of anti-coal protesters (the usual bunch of welfare slackers attired in that tired old cliche of ’70s retro hippie gear) into the coal mining towns of Queensland. This blew up in his face big-time and this action alone virtually guaranteed the return of the pro-coal Coalition government. Best own-goal of the year!
P.S. This senator would refer to people as Earthians.
Yes the ultimate hypocrite is old mate Bob Brown (ex-leader of the Aussie Greens party).
After ~ 30 years of leading protests against all forms of power generation (including hydro and of course nuclear), Bob retires to his bush getaway, only to discover that there is no getting away from those windmill eyesores he so enthusiastically pushed for all those years.
But as soon as the prospect of him having to look at them all day long, he concluded –
“windfarms – we doan need no stinkin windfarms”
They tried a wind turbine farm on the big island and you can visit their rusting hulks sticking out of the ground like giant withered corn stalks. Not a pretty sight for paradise and probably the future of all wind turbines.
What are they going to do, just leave them standing there uglying up the place?
The busted and rusted Kamaoa wind farm was finally removed in 2012 and the scrap sold to China for recycling. There are other winds farms operating, one on the Northern end of the Big Island and one on Maui.
What will happen to any wind farm when it hits its 20 year contract life is uncertain.
The wind energy industry isn’t naive about this. The set up separate companies to operate each wind farm, so when that one wind farm hits its turbine contract life with the manufacturer, they can simply declare bankruptcy, abandon the farm to creditors, and move on. The big utilities just buy the power from the operators without an ownership stake to encumber them when the wind farm ceases operation.
Many places will soon be finding out in the next 5 years whether there was any consideration of teardown cleanup when they were built. It is likely not going to be pretty for the land owners when their only contact with the wind tower operator-owner is a bankruptcy court appointed lawyer who won’t return their calls or emails. And when the bankruptcy finally does clear court, the land owners in most cases will find there is no money to remove them.
“What will happen to any wind farm when it hits its 20 year contract life is uncertain.
The wind energy industry isn’t naive about this. The set up separate companies to operate each wind farm, so when that one wind farm hits its turbine contract life with the manufacturer, they can simply declare bankruptcy, abandon the farm to creditors, and move on. ”
My point is that Green Energy True Believers can be divided into the Dreamers and the Schemers.
The Dreamers are the ones who can’t do math (see: Brian Williams as the latest example), and who believe we can someone stop using coal plants, gas plants AND nukes, and then somehow get “free” energy from the wind, the sun and unicorn farts.
The Schemers, as you’ve mentioned, convince the Dreamers to convince the politicians and bureaucrats to build this crap, with the added bonus that the government collects taxes, jails those who don’t want to pay, then gives the money to the Schemers (who give back no small amount to the politicians and bureaucrats in kickbacks, lets not fuzz with terminology).
Here in Toronto we have one “experimental” turbine. It is as useless as you can imagine, a huge (usually) non-mobile crapfest right on our waterfront beside a 6 lane street. It was refurbished last year near the “end” of its original life, so who knows the true cost.
The late Rob Hunter, a founder of Greenpeace, positively chortled when he announced he was able to get in “on the ground floor” of this awesome, game-changer, before, of course, those “greedy” capitalists did.
Again, one of the “smart ones” confusing the cart with the horse and never asking: “gee, why aren’t they spending they’re own money NOW?”
>>> BioScience recently published a study signed by more than 11,000 scientists … also advocated population control<<<< Are they volunteering to lead by example?
Funny thing about Hawaii,if wind and solar were useful for grid energy,then the Islands are the perfect test case.
Located close to the equator,they get the best solar ,with very predictable trade winds and no local energy sources.
So wind and solar are directly competing with imported fuel oil.
Yet so far they fail; miserably.
As markl notes,the rusting hulks on the “Most Southernly point in the USA” are testament to the last time this fad was subsidized.
Wind farms truly are dinosaurs…I just wish their bones were more biodegradeable! Like roadkill, nobody wants to claim ownership!
I am too lazy to look it up, but I don’t believe that Hawaii is located very close to the Equator…
19.8968° N, 155.5828° W
It does not appear that these people are climate justice warriors protesting wind power. I think it’s one of those “not in my back yard” things. They have nothing against wind power. They just don’t want the project to be that close to their homes and its little elementary school; not only because of noise and risk of injury but also because of what it will do to the market price of their homes.
…elevated electric rates for sporadic service isn’t a selling point? Who knew!
Yeah, Trump says if they build a windmill within sight of your house, the value of your house drops 65 percent. Remember, Trump is a real estate guy. He knows what he is talking about. 🙂
“… the protests at Kahuku are remarkable both for their duration and the number of people who have been arrested.”
Besides the fact getting arrested doesn’t mean what it did when I was a kid, it’s hard to distinguish between genuine grievance and being paid to pretend you’re aggrieved.
Cynical – but a more comfortable belief… to me – than the idea of the blind hog stupidity of them not understanding how things work.
“Last year, two Harvard researchers found that meeting current U.S. electricity needs with wind would require covering a land area twice the size of California with wind turbines. That’s beyond Looney Tunes. ”
Is it really? vs the total US landmass. Have you looked at Germany lately? and what Scotland is becoming?
as stupid is limitless I wouldnt be surprised in the least if they get close.
Keep in mind- that’s just for electricity. To become completely free of carbon emissions- including industry, transportation, heat, etc. will require several more Californias worth of land- unless nuclear makes a big comeback.
Here’s a mind blowing time lapse video of the construction of a wind “farm” in western Massachusetts. This was a decade or so ago- newer turbines are much bigger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSgVpz_7dDg. They had to build a huge road to the top of a mountain- then blast the top flat, then install the cement foundation, get really big trucks up there. Amazing to watch. I’ve heard that there are many mountain ridges in Vermont now covered with turbines.
No, “environmental justice” does NOT mean “not in my back yard”. It means that the price to pay for 100% clean energy is just too darned high a price to pay for a society (or for the whole of humankind), no matter how you look at it. If we cannot get enough energy any other way we simply just have to endure a meter or two sea level rise – period. Who worries, for heaven’s sake. Not a single life will be lost.
We will move our cities to higher ground, no great problem. That is how societies always (throughout the Holocene) did it – without ever complaining. And if we do have enough energy (by continuing to use that lovely fossil fuel) we can easily afford to shift a bit of real estate. That will just keep us busy – which is a good thing – “otium est pulvinar diaboli” (my Latin may not be up to scratch).
And, of course, there is a better than even chance that all those computers forecasting the weather in 80 years’ time may just be plain wrong!!!
The rate of sea rise is slow enough that we can wait for the buildings that are closest to the oceans to reach the end of their useful life and then be torn down and replaced with something further inland.
…or…we could just send our politicians, planners and bureaucrats to a magical place that has been underwater for hundreds of years.
No, not where Spongebob Squarepants lives.
The Netherlands…
Don’t forget too that the mentioned 11,000 scientists included scientist Mickey Mouse: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/11/07/11000-climate-scientists-petition-includes-a-bunch-of-fake-names/
Clay
That is DR. Mickey Mouse to you! 🙂
Don’t forget his affiliation. He put Zimbabwe on map.
Leaving hydrocarbons in the ground. That’s an interesting thought. No bitumen for electric cars. Wait a minute, there wouldn’t be any electric cars because there wouldn’t be any plastic to insulate electric wires. Am I right? WUWT readers please sort me out if I’m wrong. I’m thinking that if the world’s entire fleet of family cars becomes electric-powered the petroleum companies will lose the market for their most lucrative fraction of oil, gasoline. So would they bother to extract oil anyway? If oil is left in the ground we would all soon have to ride horses on dirt roads and the climate crisis would be replaced by a horse manure crisis, and the planes of the future would have to powered by passengers furiuosly cycling, with all the cranks in front of the seats hooked up to the propellers somehow. Am I right?
The Columbia Gorge doesn’t look so great wind turbines either!
That schist joke just gets funnier and funnier every time I read it.
These people are morons – small modular molten salt reactors are merely a few years away and
will satisfy everyone’s needs for safety, economy, environmental footprint, and the ability to load follow, largely eliminating any need for peak level generation, which is typpically fossil fuel.
Even if they put enough wind turbines that the capacity is sufficient , the wind doesn’t always blow or blow hard enough and back up capacity of a considerable amount (perhaps 100%, the same capacity they have now) of back up capacity would be required, and back up capacity i not cheap and cannot be provided by batteries,.
You’d put a nuclear power station on a Hawaiian island?
You should be able to place one of the next gen modular molten salt reactors in your backyard.
Just remember to schedule it for refueling every 60 years.
Why not ? Several nuclear power plants are stationed there now ….
😉
Why not?
Most of the big island is not in the path of any lava flows, and the volcanoes on the other islands went extinct millennia ago.
How many years have you been telling us that these reactors will be available in a few years?
I will expect nothing less than total commitment to the people of Hawaii if they want to be carbon-free. That means NO use of diesel and jet fuels, which means no airplanes filled with tourists, no helicopter tours, no scuba diving tours unless they want to row out there, and no container ships with goods from the mainland or other countries. That also means when they harvest crops, they need to do it the old-fashioned way… By hand.
You mean Magnum will have to give up his Ferrari?
It always amuses and dismays me when I fly Virgin Atlantic and see their video of destinations: from the iconic Golden Gate Bridge to Tower Bridge we get to Glasgow which is shown as a field of wind turbines. I kid you not.
David, perhaps we should petition the rock group “Rush” to add another verse to their hit song “The Trees” to accomodate the new version of tree?
Unfortunately, Neil Peart (actual lyricist) has passed, but I hope he hears us…
I’m sorry, but the description “Climate Justice Warriors” is a double-speak invention by the left. I’m not sure what the most accurate description would be, but I can imagine a few that would be inappropriate for this, a family site.
Here in Canada, they care actually called “Land Protectors”.
As in “thank you for protecting the land, but I asked for milk, not cream, thanks.
I am amazed they have not criminalised breathing……..
This gives me an idea.
“renewable advocates” = Renewbies
Henceforth, I shall term all Greenies and Renewbies. Just
as I refer to environmentalists as “enviros”.