Monday, December 31, 2012

comment on Bryce & McKibben op eds in WSJ, thanks to a heads up frm Joe Romm


 This is an edited cross post of a comment I wrote at Joe Romm's blog. His blog has the links for both the Bryce and McKibben tests.

Bryce’s weakest point is failure to address climate change damage.
Let’s also tackle his strongest suit, growing global electricity demand, which he presented with an assumption that the global electricity market must be satisfied.
The strongest primary, but not complete, answer is greenhouse gas-driven climate change has the power to sweep away the stability needed to underpin that market for electricity.  Without reliable crops or secure housing and work, the art of supplying electricity deteriorates like a battery without a charger. 

That warning, however dire and true,  does not offer a progressive alternative to the billions of people on this planet who quite accurately link electricity to quality of life, be it street lighting or the controlled air pressure in a hospital operating room or a phone.

Although wind power is a big help for the domestic United States electricity market, we have to face that the burgeoning electricity market is elsewhere; India, China, Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea, which do not have scoped out big wind resources.
We have to tackle non-fossil alternatives for electricity generation in growing economies around the world, so that Bryce’s one strong point can be defeated.

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