A Climate Change Fairy Tale
Once upon a time there was a place called Munchcon.
It was ruled by King Estas Loco. King Loco enjoyed his kingship but was a paranoid ruler who constantly worried that some Munch leader might challenge his divine right to rule, challenge the monarchy, and remove him from the throne.
Because of his paranoia he deliberately showed no tolerance for anyone or anything that might question his decrees and high taxes. He had been ruthless. His dungeons were nearly full of Munches arrested for expressing any dislike for his decrees or who wasn’t up to date in paying his taxes.
The Munches who lived there were generally happy people albeit uneducated. They worked their small plots to raise the crops to feed themselves with 20% going to the King in taxes. They cooked their food and heated their huts using dried yak dung. Yaks were used on the small farms as oxen as horses might be elsewhere and were generally prolific. Their dung was easily gathered. All was well in Munchcon.
Then one night King Loco was startled awake by an all too realistic nightmare for him where some Munches were conspiring against him. He decided his dream was a divine harbinger of truth. He wanted those who might be working against him to be identified and arrested.
To do the job of identifying the would be rebels the King called upon his court jesters who lived among the people.
At first the court jesters were ecstatic about being given such an important task for the King. Such orders were previously carried out by the King’s Knights in Shining Armor. The jesters were granted ample resources from the treasury to complete the task. The role they had been ordered to fill beat that of trying to be humorous for the king’s court. It was a wonderful feeling for them. They sensed and grabbed the favor and power and couldn’t wait to exercise it.
But after a month of covert spying and other observed behavior of the Monches the jesters had found no conspiracy against the King. Most of them began to fear the wrath that might be their fate for failure to complete the mandate.
Then at a meeting of the realm at a newly formed Jester Conference a jester who had taken a science class in school proposed the theory that burning yak dung released CO2 which in turn was affecting the Munchcon climate by trapping the heat of the sun.
In discussing the theory, some jesters expressed doubt the King would buy the idea because that was also the gas expelled into the air by each exhalation of every Munch. Others were leery of the proposition because it made up so little of the air. But after considering they had no viable alternative, it was agreed to take the theory to the King, with the recommendation that yak dung needed to be eliminated from usage to save Munchcon.
In its stead the jesters agreed to recommend that energy from horse dung be substituted for that of yaks. It was perfect because burning horse dung was clean – emitting no CO2.
With some trepidation the jesters also wrote piece after piece about how the continued use of yak dung would result in catastrophic results for the realm.
Then they went to King Loco with the theory and argument. To their astonishment, the King loved the idea. He was relieved there was no conspiracy, but that he could actually increase his power over the Munches by changing their everyday lives. He immediately issued a decree that the burning of yak dung would cease in a year’s time. And since horse owners, although few, had been such loyal subjects, he could give those breeders extra cash to expand.
While some Munches bought the theory hook, line and sinker, calling it science, others were reluctant because there were so few horses in the realm and there wasn’t enough time to breed enough horses to supplant the yaks. King Loco was unmoved as the decree would keep the Munches busy trying to stay alive and paying taxes rather than working on any conspiracy. He asked jesters to continue their funded research showing what he was doing was for the people’s own good.
After a year Munchcon was in chaos without yak dung. Crop yields dropped dramatically, and the Munches were having trouble raising enough food.
Many resorted to eating their yaks.
King Loco knew his climate change decree would result in a major deficit in energy, and that he may be wrong, but he could persist in being wrong because the cost of being wrong would be borne by the jesters and their science – or the lack of it. Meanwhile, while knowing the decree was totally irrational because the realm’s energy needs could not be satisfied with horse dung so quickly, but knowing his palace would not be negatively affected, he danced while happily playing his fiddle.
Getting back to reality, here’s part of the real story.
The American Transport Research Institute issued a report last week indicating to convert the country’s heavy truck fleet to electric will require an additional 40% of current electrical generation capacity. In addition, to manufacture the batteries necessary will take 35 years of the current use of lithium and require massive new resources of copper, cobalt, graphite, antimony, and an array of rare earth minerals not currently in widespread production within US borders. All this to convert the current heavy truck fleet. It also does not take into account additional electrical generation capacity needed to charge an all-EV car/light truck mandated market, and at the same time support population growth and economic expansion.
Facts are server farms, and even AI, which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said will itself require a doubling of power generation which cannot occur with wind and solar electrical generation in the time frames allowed.
Unless Allah gives us another sun so we will always have sunshine – day and night – solar and wind power technology is so far from accomplishing the dream of zero carbon emissions without major deficits in electricity is at best a fairy tale. It’s irrational to think otherwise.
It seems this administration has decided, issued its EOs, and is simply playing their fiddles.
“Let them eat cake.”
************
Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
SPIDER Bites
This week’s trivia question is: Before embarking on a solo career, Beyoncé was part of what R&B group? The answer to last week’s question re: Other than litter what’s a group of kittens called: Kindle. A litter refers to kittens birthed by the same mother, while kindles (or intrigues) of kittens can be unrelated to one another.
The last two of this year’s Final Four NCAA men’s basketball teams will be decided later today. The NCAA women’s Final Four teams are: UConn, Iowa, USC and LSU.
Former long-time Connecticut US Senator and VP candidate, Joe Lieberman, died last week at age 82. Senator Lieberman, a life-long Democrat until his party abandoned him after he was critical of some Obama policies, became an Independent in later life. He was one of the “statesmen” who used to populate the Senate.
A 900-foot-long cargo ship took out the 1½ mile long F.S. Key Baltimore bridge last week. 6 highway workers lost their lives. The big port is closed, indefinitely, creating a huge disruption of supply chains and logistics for the Northeast.
A NY appeals court lowered the bond for Trump to appeal the lower court’s decision on a fine and interest from $454M to $175M early last week. It still seems like a lot of money for a victimless crime. Trump was also given an additional 10 days to post the bond. NY’s AG was not happy to not “get Trump” last Monday as she was ready with padlocks.
Last week NBC’s on-air personalities were also not happy when learning the network had hired a former RNC chair as a ‘contributor.’ So, the network backed down and fired her. I mention this just in case you weren’t aware of the political party NBC’s (and MSNBC’s) lowly-rated anchors and reporters for which they are openly political Party spokesmen. Unbiased, fact-checked news, and diverse-view opinions abounds! Right?
The Sacramento, CA city council adopted a transgender “sanctuary city” status last week. I have no idea what that means.
EV manufacturer Fisker is on the verge of bankruptcy. I guess we’ll also likely eat the $500M loan the feds gave the company.
US Fish and Wildlife announced its intention to reintroduce grizzly bears to Washington’s North Cascades. No local government, rancher or resident wants that to happen. Again, bureaucrats in D.C. think they know what’s best for local folks and are proceeding with their plan.
