Never in the history of human folly has so much been squandered by so many on so little evidence.
One day Churchill’s famous oratory will be thus bowdlerised to describe our obsession with reducing anthropogenic carbon emissions. Meanwhile, this insane ideology is gathering momentum.
That’s what ideologies do: they are like snowballs rolling down a hill slope into an abyss. As they go, they gather speed and bulk – until they hit the bottom and disintegrate. But while still in motion, they could add up to a deadly avalanche.
Like any other ideology, this one is sustained by mendacious propaganda. For example, one of the current Volvo ads pontificates on climate change, claiming that the Earth has been cool until now.
There exists a code of practice that doesn’t let advertisers lie about their products. Evidently, lying about anything else is fine. In this case, the Earth has been warmer than it is now during about 85 per cent of its existence – but never mind the hard facts, it’s the woke feeling that counts.
Car manufacturers are committed to replacing all their IC cars with electric vehicles. The impression conveyed is that, when everyone drives a Go-Kart, mankind will breathe clean air free of carbon dioxide.
Now we can sleep peacefully at night, rather than being pursued by the nightmares of either burning alive or suffocating, whichever comes first. In fact, 42 per cent of Britons list climate change as their main concern. Say what you will about propaganda, but one thing is for sure: it works.
True enough, transportation produces some 28 per cent of all anthropogenic carbon emissions. Aren’t you glad that in a decade or two cars will no longer be spewing out the stuff?
If you are, consider a few more numbers. Carbon dioxide makes up only 0.04 per cent of the atmosphere. Of that minuscule proportion, 95 per cent comes from natural sources that have nothing to do with human activity. Thus anthropogenic CO2 accounts for 0.0016 per cent of the air we breathe. Puts that 28 per cent in perspective, doesn’t it?
But forget the perspective. Let’s agree with the ecofanatics that reducing 0.0016 per cent by a quarter is a worthy goal. However, we won’t reach it even if we drive every IC vehicle off the road.
Electric cars are powered by batteries, and their production requires lithium, cobalt and manganese. Alas, the mining and refining of those metals releases an awful lot of CO2.
How much is an awful lot? According to a new study, producing a single Tesla battery will emit between 23,000 and 32,000 pounds of extra carbon. Multiply that by the total number of cars in Britain, currently standing at 40 million, and… well, I can’t count that high.
An ecofanatic will argue that this will still produce a net reduction compared to IC cars. Perhaps. But when buying a car, are you prepared to pay an extra £10-20 thousand for a possible marginal reduction in the 28 per cent of 0.0016 per cent?
Add to this the cost, both financial and environmental, of producing the extra electricity required to charge tens of millions of batteries, and we are beginning to bite into those tiny percentages even more. But no expense is too high for the fanatics to claim moral ascendancy.
However, on closer examination their moral ground appears quite a bit lower. For, in addition to producing harmless CO2, the mining of battery minerals causes real environmental damage, not to mention the harm to the miners’ health.
When we consider where these metals are produced, the ecofanatics’ smugness begins to look not only factually unfounded, but also morally defunct. Most of the world’s cobalt is produced in the Congo, South America delivers most of the lithium, and between them South Africa and China account for about half of all manganese.
Therefore most miners are… how shall I put it without risking censure?… not exactly white (it’s not South American or South African whites who go down the mines). How does this tally with the woke commitment to pan-planetary racial equality?
I detect a clash of pieties there, which is always nice to observe. The European and North American ecofanatics, who are predominantly left-wing, don’t mind cobalt and lithium miners getting cancers produced by radioactive particles. As long as their own virtue is properly signalled, they feel self-satisfied.
Everyone can see exhausts coming out of tailpipes, but those dying miners are safely tucked away out of sight in faraway lands. This trompe l’oeil creates the illusion of a carbon-free ride, which I for one find repugnant. Don’t you?
Yes!
” the mining of battery minerals causes real environmental damage, not to mention the harm to the miners’ health.”
Coltan. Used to make micro capacitors essential for modern electronics. Mined by more-or-less slave labor under the control of the armed gangs of the Congo area. Slave labor as you might see in a Ten Commandments movie with small children struggling in the mud pits with the grown men.
That one volcano in Antarctica has been erupting ever since it was first discovered in the early 1900’s. Spewing out greenhouse gases the whole time and presumably for along time before “discovered”.
28% of 5% of 0.04% is 0.00056?
Arithmetic isn’t my core strength, I’m afraid.
I am in the process of finishing Patrick Moore’s (co-founder of Greenpeace) “Fake invisible catastrophes and the threat of doom”. Interesting reading although there is nothing new if you are already convinced, like me, that the whole climate alarmism is a hoax. Patrick Moore left Greenpeace after 15 years because it was hijacked and being used for something different (left wing greenery) it was originally created for; protest against underground nuclear testing. If after reading his book and if you have an open mind, you are not at least curious to invest more time reading up on the subject then you are a fanatic. And that is the entire problem; close minded fanatics don’t even want to. I have tried to get one of those creature to read similar books before to no avail.
Brillant actually. It is what I have been preaching for years. Add to this that the virtue of using electric cars depends on where you get the electricity from: is it marvellous decarbonised French electricity (thanks to nuclear) or dirty German or Polish coal-produced electrons? The EU does not classify nuclear as « green »: why? The « greens » do not pay a dam on environment. They are just anti-nuclear.
The best book I’ve read on this subject is Heaven and Earth by Ian Plimer. As far as I’m concerned, it ended the argument.
Our new Secretary of State is concerned about Uyghur genocide, but that ain’t stopping him from cooperating with China on….climate change. The depths of evil know no bounds with these politicians.
Anthony Watts site is informative and entertaining in this area.
It’s worse than you think Mr B.
I former client of mine in Paris – a distinguished retired professor of chemistry, originally from Argentina – confided that the pollution from vehicle exhausts, even ancient diesels, is negligible. The real pollutants from vehicles, come from the solid particulate matter generated through brake, tyre and road wear. Given that electric vehicles are generally heavier in a given class, they are more polluting than conventional vehicles.
The gullibility of politicians over scams like wind farms and electric vehicles never ceased to amaze and frustrate him.
Thank you for this — learn something every day. But I don’t think it’s gullibility that’s the problem. It’s their cynical craving to cling on to power at any cost. In a democracy of universal and unqualified franchise, this can only be achieved by going along with the zeitgeist. Alas, in a democracy of this type zeitgeist always blows leftwards, fanned as it is by loud-mouthed demagogues with access to wide audiences. These chaps can turn any subversive idiocy into an orthodoxy, which these days takes less and less time. And orthodoxies won’t be bucked, not by someone whose life’s work depends on a show of hands.
Not just politicians. Amazon, sensing various ideological objections, has invested in a fleet of electric delivery vans. So now when consumers feel guilt at making a purchase involving too much plastic packaging, or at abetting tax evasion they can console their consciences with the knowledge of a reduced carbon footprint.
There wont be much “greenery” in the world if they fulfill their desire get us completely carbon neutral (which is impossible anyway) by blanketing the planet with wind turbines and solar panels . Just confirms that the contempt shown by the left towards humanity, aesthetics and the environment is everpresent and, many eggs will be broken in their quest for the perfect omelette.
As they say, you can’t break eggs without breaking eggs.