Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Steve Case; According to Boston Review, we have to surrender our obsession with continuous electricity supply to save the world from climate change.
To Save the Climate, Give Up the Demand for Constant Electricity
Waiting to ensure uninterrupted power for everyone as we transition away from fossil fuels will cost too much time—and too many lives.
Many decades ago electricity became the new oxygen, and the vast majority of Americans today believe they need it every moment of every waking or sleeping hour. The United States has built a vast infrastructure for generating, transmitting, and consuming it—all almost entirely based on planet-destroying fossil fuels and nuclear power.
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For those seriously concerned about climate change, the inverse—the demand for electrical continuity—may be the real problem. Today’s most ambitious plans to abandon fossil fuels—which are certainly not supported by the natural gas industry—allow ten, twenty, or thirty years to wire the whole country with solar and wind power, running all day, every day, for everyone, everywhere. The plans differ in speed, but all agree on the last point: except for six agonizing hours per year, electrons must flow 24/7/365. To make that steadiness possible, solar plants will have to store some electricity during the daytime feast to last through the nocturnal famine. “As economies shift to variable renewables,” environmental activist Paul Hawken writes in his aggressive climate proposal Drawdown (2017), “management of the power grid with energy storage systems is critical.”
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Zimbabwe and Puerto Rico thus provide models for what we might call pause-full electricity. Admittedly, neither Zimbabweans nor Puerto Ricans chose to accept this rationing. And in Zimbabwe, official incompetence has reduced electricity to a nearly unbearable degree. Still, Zimbabwe’s past and Puerto Rico’s potential indicate just and feasible ways of living amid intermittency. With a pause, life goes on. By abiding that interlude—by shedding their load—people can preserve life near and far. If my town’s blackout will lessen, say, the force of Puerto Rico’s next hurricane, then, please, shed us half a day per week.
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What applies in the pandemic also applies—and also with desperate urgency—in the climate crisis. We can live with some intermittency and rationing—at least until batteries and other forms of energy storage are up and running everywhere. Hospitals certainly need 100 percent reliable equipment—perhaps some “continuous” businesses and cell towers too. And, in cities, elevators, streetlights, and subways must run reliably. One could imagine battery-assisted, semi-smart micro-grids connecting such infrastructure as well as home medical devices. But we don’t need the entire residential third of U.S. electricity consumption to run off lithium or to operate seamlessly.
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Read more: http://bostonreview.net/science-nature/david-mcdermott-hughes-save-climate-give-demand-constant-electricity
The same arguments could be applied to switching off household access to the electricity grid completely. Historically people didn’t have any electricity, they developed plenty of ways to preserve food which don’t rely on electricity, like pickling, canning or drying. People who need refrigeration to preserve life saving medications like insulin could pick up their supply a few times per week from a central depot.
But there is a noticeable lack of people who actually choose to live this way.
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Are you sure this article isn’t in Babylon Bee, instead of Boston Review? Yeah, I bet Puerto Ricans, furious with their stinking corrupt and ineffective politicians, are just overjoyed with the “just and feasible” way they are living – while their political class (mostly Democrat these days) lives high on the hog.
There may have been others, it was the first one up on a search that wasn’t a blog.
The 52nd state would become a model for the future.
And the 51st state would be ….?
Even more corrupt . DC.
The District of Columbia is defined in the Constitution, and cannot constitutionally be a state. Democrats, caring nothing of the constitution, think they can make it so.
Yes, that’s what I was imagining.
They would define the District of Columbia as being just the area around the White House and the Capital building. Leaving the rest of the area free to become a state.
Maryland will fight tooth&nail to absorb that area, she has coveted that ground a long time.
MarkW, the “rational” thing to do, if they seriously wanted to go that way (about which I am extremely dubious), would be to revert that area back to the original state of Maryland.
Anytime someone brings up D.C. statehood, giving the land back to Maryland should be the counter-proposal. That will shut them up nicely.
The Great State of Jefferson https://www.stateofjefferson.com/
Puget Sound should secede from the union so the real state of Washington can be free of their insane rubbish. 🙂 🙂
Bingo, most of us who live in the proposed area that would form the State of Jefferson are conservative.
Washington, D.C.
Right before Oklahoma became a State, there was a proposal to split Oklahoma in half and call the eastern third of Oklahoma by the name Sequoya.
Oklahoma is decidedly conservative, so the State of Sequoya could serve as a counter to a new Democrat State. Just musing. 🙂
Jefferson…
What a great argument to stop at 51.
Just waiting for the Boston Review to lead by example, and move their headquarters to either Zimbabwe or Puerto Rico.
Typical hypocrites!
It’s the unspoken truth, that apparently is now spoken…
I lived in the Bahamas for a short time with this “intermittency”. I can say it is patently STUPID to suggest intentionally living this way when we have perfectly good viable options – meaning clean 100% naturally made fossil fuels to fill fill the void until an actual alternative is available. The wealthy will simply buy gas/ diesel generators and the poor will suffer and die in great numbers.
I realize that is the actual watermelon agenda to reduce the earth’s population, but will never accept it.
The stunning arrogance of those who wish to take all my freedoms to fulfill their idea of utopia is beyond ignorant, it is criminal.
I like your “100% natural” comment regarding fossil fuels.
New add slogans for nat gas electrical generation directed at the low-information voters:
“It’s 100% organic!”
“Certified radiation free! Solar and wind both use radiation to generate power.”
One could also point out that back in the Carboniferous era, all this awful carbon and hydrocarbon waste raped vast areas of Gaia, just as hideous plastic does today.
But the noble fossil fuel producers are recycling this ghastly pollution and freeing Holy Mother Gaia from this horrid mess.
Cleanse the earth of garbage. Burn fossil fuels now!!!
Yahbbut, Boganboy, the Carboniferous epoch turned everything into either fossils or coal, and that’s where all that Dreadful Carbon Stuff is coming from!!!
We’re doomed!! We’re ripping off dragonflies the size of Divvybikes! The horreur!!!
I’ve said for a number of years that solar should be considered a nuclear power source because the energy comes from a great big fusion reactor!
Al you are correct. It is a stupid idea. Elites who are unnecessary get paid a fortune to imagine stupid things. How do you know it is communist and/ socialist? If they lie to say suffering will be universal. This will never happen, the poor will always be punished for the ideas of pseudo-intellectuals who do little or nothing of worth but cause great harm. Would be dictators love them until the dictators are assured of their safety, wealth, and power through armed forces; and then pseudo-intellectuals and other “enemies of the state” are eliminated in brutal ways.
Following are some truths from the Jonova site.
April 20, 2018
“Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy. Its sole virtue is the equality of misery”. Winston Churchill
“This hybrid monster combines the worst of both socialism and capitalism…”
…it is named Globalism
Oil and gas is renewable energy, it’s just a timing issue.
Utter balderdash. We need oil and gas and Nukes – preferably PBMRs.
https://briefingsforbritain.co.uk/the-costs-offshore-wind-power-blindness-and-insight/
https://www.thegwpf.com/category/energy-comment/
This story reminds one of the out of touch ecoflakes who brought solar cook stoves to Africa in the 1980’s. It was a futile idea laughed at by the locals and also by the Rhodes scholars from their villages. But backed by donations from clueless do-gooders who seemed to think there was either a wood shortage or a household smoke problem because African stoves didn’t have chimneys, neither of which is the case. And the “stove presentation team” got a free photo safari holiday out of the deal, which was the clincher for the program popularity in the 1st world.
Speaking of “semi-smart…”
Oh and Just…don’t forget Just.
Just ridiculous.
All too predictable nonsense from the Green Blob. Canada’s own Green Guru David Suzuki has long been a fan of Cuba.
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2006-07-30/cuba-accidental-revolution/
“Without fertilizer and pesticides, Cubans turned to organic methods. Without fuel and machinery parts, Cubans turned to oxen. Without fuel to transport food, Cubans started to grow food in the cities where it is consumed. Urban gardens were established in vacant lots, school playgrounds, patios and back yards. As a result Cuba created the largest program in sustainable agriculture ever undertaken.”
It’s strange what the Green Blob will celebrate and admire.
You have to admit that Suzuki lives a simple bare bones life.
Well, that link is a bit old. Now he owns a house in Australia as well. link That’s OK though ’cause I’m sure he paddles a birch bark canoe to get there and back. He must have no carbon footprint at all. The guy is just such a wonderful example.
At one time Crazy Dave owned 4 homes and part of an island. I don’t care enough about him to try find out the current state of his corpulence. We should remember him not as an environmentalist but as one of the pioneers of monetizing fear. Crazy Dave never really had a cause, any future fantasy that sounded scary was grist for his fear mill. He pioneered future fear sells now and he is a hero to the green industry. Dave you sly old elder, fear has been very good to you. I hope the money helps to assuage your disappointment at not dying from one of the many horrible scenarios you have terrified children with over the decades.
Suzuki is all in favor, as long as he doesn’t have to do the gardening in empty city lots. My wife and I have a backyard greenhouse of the hobby variety…the economic cost of the produce, if one paid my wife and I minimum wage, is about 5 times what the same vegetables would cost in the grocery store.
For some, it’s 50 times…
I like to grow tomatoes every summer. I grow heirloom tomatoes. You cannot beat the price of what is at the supermarket but you can sure as hell beat the taste!
I strongly suspect that my Italian neighbours save a bundle. They don’t mess around with small quantities. The image I can’t get out of my mind right now is a little old Italian lady whose garage floor was completely covered with tomatoes for making tomato sauce.
Let’s take Mr. Hughes at his word that electric continuity is a problem and look at his proposal that the residential third of electricity consumption could learn to live without reliable power. There is one problem enormous problem with that. In the de-carbonized future, the green zealots want to electrify everything in the home so that fossil-free electricity can replace cars, heating, cooking, and hot water. The problem is the gap between renewable production, particularly solar in winter-time high latitudes, and the load needed to prevent people from freezing to death in the dark. A multi-day light wind mostly cloudy period when there is an arctic blast of cold weather is inevitable and no “battery-assisted, semi-smart micro-grid” is going to keep up with demand from totally electric homes.
“…noticable lack of people who actually choose to live this way.” Yea, like the author of this nonsense. David McDermott Hughes is a Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University, New Jersey. He often works from his home via modern communication devices. These devices are not candle-powered, he does not cook on buffalo chip fires, he does not ride an ass to work, and he does not scavenge around the swamps for his food. Typical “I know what’s best for you” liberal. Next.
All quite true, but there is no reason whatever that the good Doctor could not equip his house and other spaces where he lives and works with an intermittent electricity interrupt device. Such a device would
switch off his electricity at unpredictable times and for unpredictable lengths of time, up to one month long. Perhaps some enterprising electrical engineer will design, build and market such a device. That should be quite simple. All those who think wind and solar are needed to save us all would doubtless be eager to purchase and install one to introduce themselves to the benefits of intermittency.
I for one, would not choose to invest in the manufacturer or buy one, but I am old fashioned that way.
Smart meters already provide the required functionality. Power companies can and should offer ‘green power’ rates as long as the customers power can be shut off whenever the Sun isn’t shining. I wonder how many virtue signalers would go this route, even if the ‘green’ rate was heavily subsidized. My guess is it would only be those who can afford a whole house UPS backed up with a diesel generator.
I do have interruptible electrical service for my air conditioner. For a 40% discount they can shut my a/c down for up to 20 minutes per hour when demand is high. Most years I just get a 40% discount for nothing. There have been a few years where we were shut down for about a total of an hour.
And you live where? How much dependence on renewables in your grid without other backup?
Things would start looking a lot different once that backup goes. I’ve done the sums on this for very different locations.
Those very special ‘green power’ rates whenever the power can be shut off when the sun doesn’t shine remind me of one of me dad’s favorite stories: A lady calls this grocer over and complains, “79 cents a pound for bananas! The store in the next block sells them for 39 cents.” The grocer tells her, “I suppose you’ll want to buy them over there then.” She replies, “I was just over there and they’ve sold all theirs out.” “Ah, I see.”, responds the experienced purveyor of produce, “Then you’ll be gratified to hear that when we’re out of bananas, we sell them for 19 cents a pound!” and he saunters off quietly singing that old tune, “Yes, we have no bananas, we have no bananas today . . . “
regarding that interrupt device, we call that central maine power here in Maine.
It should be an option with these Smart Meters. Call it “True Green Power!” Once the sun goes down it goes off!
Indeed. My (UK) university a few years back had online courses a few of which were taken on by students in Zimbabwe. Naturally the idea was they could distance learn and avoid the costs of moving to the UK. Not one of half a dozen ever completed their courses because the lack of consistent electricity in Zimbabwe made it impossible. And, bear in mind, these were the ‘rich’ kids of that failed state.
“Zimbabwe and Puerto Rico thus provide models” Yes, they certainly do. All the world should look at them and not ever, period, do any of the things they have or are doing. Ditto Venezuela. Learn, people!
Experience is the best teacher, but it doesn’t have to be your own experience. Learn from other peoples bad experiences.
A smart person learns from their own mistakes. A wise person learns from the mistakes made by others.
Examples of the wise. Don’t do drugs, smoke anything, or drink alcohol. The world is full of examples of mistakes made with all those, made by other people.
The world is full of the examples of mistakes made by the ” Don’t do drugs, smoke anything, or drink alcohol.” crowd, the perfect people who have consistently f**ked up the world.
Mugabe would be so proud! His vision of a destitute Zimbabwe can be a template for a destitute world.
Just like California…oh, wait!
Well so far the COGS have told us we don’t need and can’t have, fossil fuels after 2035. They have closed down all debate about the nuclear options for energy. They are also pushing hard, to stop any hydro power from being developed beyond the existing ones already in place.
Now they have gone full Green, and stated electricity which is their go to option for power remember, should not be available all the time, and certainly not for all of the people.
That just leaves them to tell us, who will be the chosen ones entitled to have access to energy in their imagined future and who are the ones that will be denied?
The “Constantly Offended Green Socialists” (COGS) are nothing if not constant and increasingly evil.
Typical bunch of ridiculous fear-mongering pseudo-scientific garbage. I say this, having been listening to both sides of the issue, and having studied both the science and history of earth’s climate for the past 14 years.
Left out was Calizuela, which no longer has continuous electricity, 24/7/365.
The people just love it, especially during heat waves.
They are leaving in droves to other states.
One of my friends left LA for Portugal!
Calizuela is a leading US state.
I hope other states will not follow Calizuela
We need at least some states to be island of sanity
As usual, progressives are quite eager to cut everyone else’s lifestyle.
Yes, if they want to cut natural gas consumption by 15%, they won’t shut off their furnace a day per week, but they have no problem conceptually turning off their next door neighbor’s .
My great grandparents lived this way. They died of cuts and other treatable infections. I have no problem with people choosing to live like this, go for it. Just don’t expect me to follow in your trip down the 19th century memory lane.
Response times for the ambulance in a horse drawn cart may be longer than expected, and you better be able to do good CPR for about an hour while your kids ride on horseback to get one.
I will believe it when they are the first in line to live that way,
Without reliable electric power, every home and commercial building will be forced to install new windows that can be opened and closed, whole-house fans, etc. Not being able to count on refrigerators or other key appliances, folks will be cooking fresh meats from wet markets and vegetables outdoors over gas or charcoal fires. Heating homes would be via high efficiency wood-burning furnaces (if wood can even be obtained in sufficient supply). On and on. What a grim picture! Cities would quickly starve.
Without electricity, whole-house fans don’t do a lot of good.
AH! On the lack of power for fans: there will be loads of unemployed, thrown out of work by the closure of so many businesses because of lack of power. Surely some would be willing to work for a small amount as ‘punkah-wallahs”. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punkah_wallah)
To save the world… for social progress, social justice, we have to make one compromise, two compromises, three compromises. Ha. Ha. Ha. Then its gets wicked. Deja vu.
And when you’ve compromised too much, you find yourself in a position where you can’t push back anymore.
Here’s a better idea: get rid of politicians. They cost far too much to keep as pets.
And in Zimbabwe, official incompetence has reduced electricity to a nearly unbearable degree.
So, governmental incompetence as a desired policy goal?
Well, I guess this is one thing government might get right.
Yeah, and they they don’t need quick response, quality health care or food choices, or private property. I’ll say it again–Shut down Ed Markey’s state so we can be normal elsewhere.
Is this guy George Monbiot’s long lost relative?I thought nobody could “out stupid” the Moonbat but Hughes makes it look easy.Does he get paid for writing this drivel?
I used to live in Puerto Rico and power outages were normal and extended. When they happened we knew it would be for hours. Instead of sitting in the dark waiting for the power to come back on there were parties where melting ice cream from the non-functioning freezers was eaten by invited friends and neighbors. I actually have fond memories of the power outages.
As I understand it the electrical grid in Puerto Rico is still cactus. Someone should do research on net ice cream sales.
This kind of thinking is vivid demonstration why idiot Democrats like AOC, Senator Markey, and all that ilk should not be allowed anywhere near positions of political power.
“planet-destroying fossil fuels and nuclear power”
I stopped reading at that point.
Oh Joseph, then you will have missed the part about how Puerto Ricans (would surely) wisely choose their intermittent electrical service over continuous supply in order to weaken the next hurricane barreling down on them. Would it be too much to ask that we overlook whether there is any addressable cause and effect here while the rest of us emulate their deprivation and help weaken that same hurricane by following their native wisdom as a sign of our good fellowship? Not doing so would slap the face of the tropical poor/downtrodden with our enviable temperate zone white European (sympathetic college faculty aside) unearned privilege that burdens a delicate planet with comfortable living exacerbated by an added longevity of 50% over the past century. In other words, if you can’t make a cogent argument feel free to throw acid in the face of your opposition and call it a day.
Why are the energy “experts” so ignorant about energy technologies? Think small modular molten salt reactors and throw all these idiotic ideas about energy strategies in the trash can, where they belong.
+100
If this nonsense continues, it won’t be but a few weeks before somebody suggests nuclear war as a way to save the earth an humanity. Blast a few continents sky high, and humanity can start back from square one, and nature can recover.
I could save the world by killing a lot fewer people than that. Just the social scienc and humanities faculties of American Universities.
“David McDermott Hughes is Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University”
That was something I proposed about 40 years ago. Blow up the world and let what ever survives take over. At the time I was just tired of the way tings were and tired of trying to fight the inevitable. But then the U. S. Olympic hockey team beat the Soviets and went on to win the gold medal so I started to believe in miracles again.
“For those seriously concerned about climate change, …”
———————————————–
They keep telling us that the majority of the people are seriously concerned about global wa…er, climate change. So I gotta wonder, why don’t all these seriously concerned people set an example and cut themselves off from fossil fuels? Simple enough to do, and that would result in a huge cut in national emissions. If they don’t practice what they preach, they don’t really believe.