Renewables are the rage, but they can’t exist without fossil fuels.
In fact, not much of anything that exists as part of our modern lives can exist without fossil fuels.
In short, renewables are worse than a myth, they are a delusion.
Here are a few things that require fossil fuels.
Highways use either cement or asphalt.
Cement must be heated to extremely high temperatures in a rotating kiln using natural gas. Asphalt is derived from the refining of crude oil.
Highways might be able to use cobble stones, but cobble stones would have to be mined using equipment powered by gasoline or diesel fuel made from oil … a fossil fuel.
Skyscrapers must use steel.
Steel is made using coke or electricity and requires large numbers of electric motors for rolling the steel into sheets or shapes.
If steel is made from iron ore processed in a blast furnace it uses coke, made from coal. If made in an electric arc furnace it uses large quantities of electricity.
The thousands of motors used for rolling ingots into shapes or sheets use huge quantities of electricity that is produced from coal, natural gas or nuclear power.
The transformers used for the arc furnaces use large quantities of copper that is mined and refined. Mining requires large equipment, made from steel, that use diesel fuel, made from oil. Refining copper requires large quantities of chemicals, such as sulphuric acid, as well as large amounts of electricity.
Wind mills for wind energy use tons of concrete for their bases. They use large amounts of scarce rare earths that have to be mined, where the reduction process creates large quantities of toxic waste.
The wind turbine towers and generators must be transported to where they are installed by large trucks that use diesel fuel made from oil.
Manufacturing solar panels creates prodigious quantities of toxic waste. If made from silicon, they require the use of coal or natural gas to heat the furnaces in which the silicon is made.
The kitchen table on which this article is being written was made from wood, that had to be cut from timber, where the logging was done using equipment made from steel, and powered by diesel fuel made from oil.
The lumber was sawed in a sawmill powered by electricity or an internal combustion engines.
Kitchen appliances are made from steel and use either natural gas or electricity generated from coal, natural gas or nuclear power plants.
Refrigerators, made from steel and using electrically powered compressors, use a refrigerant made in a chemical plant that consumes large quantities of natural gas, crude oil and chemicals derived from natural gas and oil.
The electric tooth brush is made from plastics derived from natural gas or oil, and Lithium-ion batteries, where the Lithium is mined and transported using trucks and ships, all powered by fossil fuels.
Jet engines are made from steel and special metals, all derived from processes that use fossil fuels, such as steel mills, foundries, machine shops, etc.
The MRI, CATSCAN and Ultra Sound equipment are made from steel, and also plastics made from fossil fuels, and require electricity to work. Without fossil fuels, modern medical services will disappear.
Your favorite car is made from steel and aluminum and some plastics. The steel is produced in a steel mill that uses fossil fuels. The aluminum is made using electricity that uses special transformers that use copper etc. The aluminum is processed through rolling mills for the required shapes or sheets, where the rolls are powered by electric motors using electricity.
The plastic trim is made from chemicals derived from natural gas or oil.
The glass in the windows in your car and home is made using large quantities of natural gas, with rolls powered by electricity.
The amount of electricity used in all the processes described above probably came from power plants using coal, natural gas or nuclear power.
Look around you. See the wall board in your home?
See the granite counter top? See the slate floors?
See the transformer in your yard or on the telephone pole down the street?
See the bicycle in the garage?
See the DVDs, cell phone and TV?
See the canned food in the pantry?
See the frozen food in the freezer?
See the shirts and skirts hanging in the closet, made from cotton produced using equipment made from steel powered by gasoline or diesel fuel, or made from nylon or rayon or some other synthetic material?
See the electric motor in the car, washing machine, drier, dishwasher, gasoline pump, car wash, elevator, escalator, air compressor for air for the tires, refrigerator or power tools?
Virtually everything you see is either made from materials produced using fossil fuels, or was transported using fossil fuels, or, in the case of agricultural products, produced using equipment powered by fossil fuels, and grown with fertilizers made from natural gas or mined using equipment made from steel and that use diesel fuel made from oil.
No matter what you have in your home, or even in your medicine cabinet, it is very likely made from fossil fuels or used fossil fuels to transport it to where you live.
Fossil fuels are essential for living.
Renewables are a myth. They can’t replace fossil fuels, and they create their own toxic waste streams.
But renewables are worse than a myth: They delude people into thinking fossil fuels are bad and can be eliminated.
Renewables delude people into divesting companies that produce fossil fuels. They delude people into wasting money on subsidies for renewables and promoting the use of renewables
The Pied Piper of Hamelin isn’t leading rats to their destruction. Today’s Pied Piper of renewables is treating people like rats and leading mankind back to the dark ages of poverty, scarcity, sickness and death.
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