Electricity and Social Emotional Learning for Equity of Woke Warriors

The Roman soldier was not concerned about the fate of the Empire, stretching beyond the administrative reach, the politics of the day, the power and overreach of the patricians, the 600 Senators (senex = old man), the Roman army; soldiers only cared about the pebbles in their shoes because those pebbles caused them pain and discomfort when they marched on campaigns.  They were happy when they were given “pane et circenses,” bread and circuses.  Free gladiatorial performances in the arena kept them placid and pacified with free tokens for plain bread.

The Roman empire was so vast that, when its most important city, Rome, the “Eternal City,” fell in 410 A.D. to Gothic armies camped outside its walls, the world then, devoid of instant communication, took a lengthy gasp. The city that stood unconquered for 800 years fell to Germanic barbarians under the leadership of Alaric the Goth.

St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem, is reported to have said, “When the brightest light on the whole Earth was extinguished, when the Roman empire was deprived of its head, when to speak more correctly, the whole world perished in one city, I was dumb with silence.”

But the western part of the empire lingered on for 66 more years until 476, at the end of which Emperor Romulus Augustus was deposed by his German commanders. But the sacking was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. Citizens had been poisoning themselves with lead for a long time:  Romans drank from lead cups, cooked in lead pots, transported water through lead pipes, and used lead oxide to sweeten their wine, just to name a few of its many uses. Skeletons found around the vast empire exhibited classic evidence of lead poisoning.

Sterility, probably caused by lead, prompted emperors to encourage having more children to stop the population decline. But, poor health, population decline, and indefensible vast borders were just three of the reasons the empire declined and eventually fell.

One Greek historian had remarked almost three hundred years before Rome’s downfall that it had turned “from a kingdom of gold to one of rust and iron.” Our infrastructure today, government, American exceptionalism, and everything that had made America great a long time ago is fast turning into ruin and rust just like Rome, the Eternal City.

Centuries later, humans have not changed that much, they just have better medicine, machines, and transportation. They may not all be soldiers but most only care about their lives, the mundane, sports entertainment, the modern version of “bread and circuses,” and the ability to feed, clothe, shelter, and protect their families. They follow obediently the “government knows best” directives with blind obsequiousness. But the government is made up of little dictators with many faults, inabilities, dishonesty, and lack of vision for generations to come.

The population does not care about politics, the machinations of Washington, D.C., the power grabs, the agendas, the control, and the theft of the nation. They want a home, a car, electricity for heat and air conditioning, medical care, preferably free, dignity, and freedom to live as they please. So, what will happen to their “Shining City on the Hill,” the symbol of their empire? Will it turn to ruin and rust as well?

What is the pebble in the shoe of the 21^st century American woke warriors? It is capitalism and its tool of progress, fossil fuels.

The current woke and delusional generations are determined to destroy their own successful economy and replace it with a disaster promoted under the label of Democrat Socialism and their platform of the Green New Deal.

Democrat Socialism is just a new phrase invented by the left to repackage and sell the old failed socialism model to the ignorant masses.  The Green New Deal is neither Green, nor New, and no Deal, it is just U.N. Agenda 21/2030 retreaded and euphemized to convince the woke voting base that there is an annoying pebble in their shoe and they can regress to a primitive life they’ve never experienced before and go barefoot in order to save the planet from the scourge of humanity.

The old Greenies and the younger Woke Warriors applaud the Green New Deal without giving it a thought where electricity for their Teslas and other electric cars will come from. They just feel instinctively that solar panels and wind turbines will replace the “evil” and “poisonous” fossil fuels” that are killing the planet and the cute little turtles choking on plastic straws, fishing nets, plastic bags, and plastic bottles.

It is so much better to make paper bags and destroy the trees that produce oxygen, trees are so abundant and grow so fast, but, once Bill Gates and Harvard mitigate global warming by spraying chalk in the upper atmosphere to block the harmful rays of the sun, good luck growing anything, including trees.

So where will electricity come from, woke warriors? Where will charging stations for your fully electric cars, millions of them, get their electricity from? From the fairy dust in the atmosphere, the same place where your food will come from once you kill agriculture.  Will you produce enough electricity to sustain our large economy, production, travel, heating, cooling, shopping malls, industry, technology, hospitals, and your ever-increasing electronic gadgets and toys? Will this electricity come from:

-          Wind turbines that only produce a small fraction of electricity when the wind blows at a certain peak speed, turbines that must be manufactured and maintained with help from fossil fuels, turbine blades that are difficult to recycle and must be transported with heavy machinery operated by fossil fuels?

-          Solar panels – the wafers do not last long, must be replaced, produced using fossil fuels, cannot be recycled, are toxic for the environment, and need a lot of land to display, land that is needed for agriculture.  Who needs land to make food when you can eat Bill Gates’ fake meat?

-          Nuclear power plants – none have not been built in this country in quite sometime and the greenies reject the idea of ever building new ones, it is too dangerous to humans and to the environment.

-          Hydroelectric power plants - The environmentalists want to destroy the dams necessary for hydropower, the rivers must flow just like they did centuries ago, unimpeded by man

-          Fossil fuels, oil, and coal - These are dirty words for the woke generation, they are convinced that our current civilization can survive and prosper without them.

Maybe the social emotional learning standards of equity over academic content now proposed by the “progressive” Department of Education in Virginia will fill the social justice warriors’ plates with food, bring electricity, heat, air conditioning, transportation, and medical care. https://townhall.virginia.gov/L/GetFile.cfm?File=C:%5CTownHall%5Cdocroot%5CGuidanceDocs_Proposed%5C201%5CGDoc_DOE_4780_20210329.pdf

Perhaps the woke generation has it all imagined and resolved – technology will be everything and the news media, social media, and the climate change industrial complex will take care of ALL their basic needs – food, shelter, cars, energy, education, health care, travel, and non-stop virtual entertainment if they obey the ruling elites.

 

 

 

 

 

Pandora’s Box of Solar Panels

Solnova Solar Station in Spain

Photo: Wikipedia

A neighbor down the street proudly placed solar panels on his house. He spent $4,000 after government subsidies and whatever deductions he may have taken from his income tax. He is confident that this move will save him tons of money on electricity and will safeguard the planet from global warming Armageddon by reducing his carbon footprint from fossil fuels.

There is one fly in this perfect ointment - solar panels generate “tons of toxic waste” during the production process and during their disposal/replacement. https://fee.org/articles/solar-panels-produce-tons-of-toxic-waste-literally/

The solar energy advocates, who only see cheap electricity with rose-colored glasses, are oblivious to the reality of cost, toxic chemicals, environmental pollution, and health hazards to humans and animals. Here are some immediate concerns about solar panels.

1.      How much maintenance would be required for the massive roll out of solar panels around the planet and who will pay for installation and maintenance since they do require a lot of maintenance and replacement?

2.      Solar farms and solar panels are heavily subsidized by governments. What if the subsidies stop and they have? Solyndra went bankrupt and left taxpayers holding the bag for $535 million in federal loans. https://www.newsmax.com/FastFeatures/Barack-Obama-Solyndra-Scandal-Green-Energy/2015/01/29/id/621537/

3.      Producing crystalline silicon from silicon results in a lot of input loss. “Sawing c-Si into the thin wafers used in panels creates a significant amount of waste silicon dust, up to 50 percent of which is lost in the air and water used to rinse the wafers. The process of making crystalline silicon from silicon is also inefficient; as much as 80 percent of the raw silicon is lost in the process.

4.      Health issues in the manufacture, use, and disposal of solar panels:

-          Release of silicon tetrachloride, “a very toxic substance that reacts violently with water, causes skin burns, skin, eye, and respiratory irritations.

-          Sulfur hexafluoride, a potent greenhouse gas, 23,000 times worse than CO2, used to clean the reactors used in silicon production. In the west the “molecules are captured and reused in a closed-loop process,” but in China there is silicon tetrachloride pollution from PV cell factories established to fill the demand for solar energy.

-          Cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films are made of cadmium, which is a toxic, expensive, cancer-causing heavy metal. Cadmium can be rinsed into the water table during the production process. One percent of CdTe is released into the environment as waste. Thin-film panels that might catch on fire in a home would release cadmium.

-          Copper indium selenide (CIS) uses hydrogen selenide which is toxic and very dangerous even in low concentrations.

-          Selenium dioxide, a dangerous air pollutant, forms at high temperatures, causing problems for manufacturing workers.

https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-possibility-of-a-solar-powered-nation-nitty-gritty

Dr. David Nguyen, a cancer biologist, remarked, “The toxic chemicals in solar panels include cadmium telluride, copper indium selenide, cadmium gallium (di)selenide, copper indium gallium (di)selenide, hexafluoroethane, lead, and polyvinyl fluoride. Additionally, silicon tetrachloride, a byproduct of producing crystalline silicon, is highly toxic.” https://sciencing.com/toxic-chemicals-solar-panels-18393.html

Silicon tetrachloride, the byproduct of making wafers for monocrystalline and polycrystalline panels, is highly toxic and its improper handling can cause skin burns, pollute the air, cause lung disease, and, when exposed to water it releases hydrochloric acid (HCl), a corrosive substance. Manufacturers and recyclers are directly affected and even homeowners if their homes catch on fire.

To get a picture of the environmental impact of chemicals due to solar panels manufactured and installed by 2016, a study estimates that “photovoltaics had spread about 11,000 tons of lead and about 800 tons of cadmium” into the ecosystem. https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article176294243/Studie-Umweltrisiken-durch-Schadstoffe-in-Solarmodulen.html

EPA has classified cadmium as a Group B1, probable human carcinogen. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/cadmium-compounds.pdf

There are no salvageable parts on a solar panel so it must be decomposed, and the chemicals disposed of properly.  Disposal costs are exorbitant and unscrupulous Chinese manufacturers are releasing the toxic chemicals into the environment.

Solar power may not produce greenhouse gases while consumers use it, but it does release harmful chemicals during production. One such chemical is nitrogen trifluoride, which, according to Ray Weiss, a professor of geochemistry at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is 17,000 stronger than carbon dioxide. https://www.chemservice.com/news/2015/02/learn-which-chemicals-make-solar-power-possible/

According to Deutsche Welle, Sulphur hexafluoride, a greenhouse gas released during solar panel production, is 22,800 times more potent than CO2.

Since 1997, when the U.S. produced 334.2 megawatts of solar energy, the industry has grown to 6,220.3 megawatts in 2013. For the 0.2 percent solar power usage in the U.S. (Institute for Energy Research), an insignificant amount, the solar panel production and disposal industries seem to create a lot of dangerous pollutants.

Ben Howell pointed out other issues that solar panel proponents have not entertained, the carbon footprint formed in the production, maintenance, and replacement of the following:

-          Batteries that store the generated electricity during the day so that the homeowner has electricity at night. If there are no batteries, then the power generated during sun light goes back into the grid and the owner must use utility power.

-          What is the carbon footprint and pollution from lithium mining?

-          What about the control switching and circuitry required by law that disconnects the home from the grid during a storm in order to avoid electrocution of utility workers from the live wires coming from the home, intermingling with the offline grid during repairs?

-          What about the backup fail-safe safety system if the primary system fails?

-          Smart meters have the lifespan of a cell phone, are very expensive to install and do not last if the traditional old electro-mechanical meters that are known to last basically forever. Ben Howell said that “the old-school electro-mechanical electric meter on my parents’ house was installed in 1948 and is still working accurately so far for 71 years.”

-          What is the cumulative cost of insurance to replace the solar panels after a hailstorm shatters the glass?

-          What is the cost to periodically clean the dust, pollen, tree sap, bird droppings, leaves, and other debris that block the sunlight from the solar panels?

-          What is the cost of a new roof or installing new shingles nailed in when the additional cost of disconnecting, off-loading, staging, up-loading, and re-installing solar panels are factored in?

-          Will solar panel degradation, breakage, contamination, storms, normal clouds formations, and other anomalies, causing fluctuations in the voltage and current output cause the lithium batteries to go kaput more quickly? And will such cases void the warranty on the homeowner’s appliances?

Then there is the killing of massive amounts of birds that fly into the solar panels thinking that they are water pools; or they are being fried in mid-air by the powerful heat flux generated by large fields of solar panels. And, we can scarcely afford to lose thousands of acres of arable land that produces badly need food to solar panel deployment. We have lots of deserts but who is going to install and maintain them there?

And what is going to happen to solar power generation when Bill Gates will implement his idea to stop climate change by blocking out the sun? Eight specially designed jets (to be increased eventually to 100) flying 12 miles up would spray (60,000 times over 15 years) sulfate particles into the lower stratosphere to cool down our “heated” planet, block the sun, and thus interfere with photosynthesis and the production of our food which needs sunlight to grow. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/bill-gates-backing-plan-to-stop-climate-change-by-blocking-out-the-sun-183601437.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cDovL20uZmFjZWJvb2suY29t&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACj8zUV_sGAAv8togOSKpNNA6I9EIf9-nBD1AcJWoexuNcYxSwWZ-UAIWgkDLZ09GY_IJj90P_kc5rsp3Vx7YLcn6p7zKHleQIqNXMyBAFm2XVkUnnmYGcD4jrcyJMoYrW2CCdPdcc7n8n7GALnnCCJhNVrTr8sAI2X-b0fK6Fn1

Never mind that real scientists have measured a cooling of the climate as the sun is going through a solar minimum cycle. https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/news-articles/solar-minimum-is-coming

Prompted by climate change activists and U.N. climate change propaganda organizations, students and parents in Fairfax County are organizing a climate strike in Vienna (as part of an international strike) on December 9, 2019, calling for a Green New Deal for Fairfax Public Schools to “switch all of the schools to net-zero carbon emissions by installing solar panels and energy-efficient windows. The plan would also continue the push for electric school buses in the county.” https://www.tysonsreporter.com/2019/11/22/fairfax-county-students-preparing-climate-strike-in-vienna/?fbclid=IwAR3gq1m4NVzzhazx8NT8kww5SktX9Rmm9YHJpw7SfqfIl3PcY5aiZwVTf3Q

Considering all the toxicity in the production and recycling of solar panels, how is that net-zero carbon working out? Electric school buses get their electricity from fossil fuels, natural gas, hydro, and nuclear power simply because 0.02 percent is not enough electricity generated by solar power for our huge economy. It’s that simple, teachers, students, and parents.

Is Modern Technology Hazardous to Your Health?

Wikipedia photo

Technology has impacted our lives in many positive and negative ways, computers, mobile phones with 5G present and future robotic and automotive applications, smart meters, solar panels, wind turbines, and geoengineering, just to name a few. But are they good for our health?

As the 5G rollout is happening around the world, concerned groups are organizing to mount an opposition and voice their concern about its safety to humans and animals bathed constantly in EMF radiation from towers that will eventually be deployed on every street corner.

A recent article reported that four students and three teachers in a California school in San Joaquin County were stricken with cancer which was caused entirely by environmental factors. Parents were demanding that a “radiation-emitting cell phone tower be removed from elementary school property.” https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-03-16-california-parents-demand-radiation-emitting-cell-phone-tower-be-removed-from-elementary-school.html

As reported by DrJockers.com, documented 5G health effects include “worsened eye health, lowered bacterial resistance, impacted skin health, and more biologically-active organs – more dangerous.”

Dr. Klaus Kaiser wrote that “there is a one-plus order of magnitude difference in the photon (electromagnetic wave, EM) energy between the current 4G communication (4G) and the proposed 5G systems (5G).”

He continues that “The more powerful EM wave energy (30-80 GHz of the 5G vs. 3-6 GHz of the 4G) requires a novel set of long-term assessment testing on a variety of species that could be affected by it, even if it were eventually proven to be of no concern in any testing.” In the absence of such a testing, the hurried 5G rollout is a global experiment on humans as unwilling laboratory rats who want faster internet connectivity, smart appliances, future robotic applications not yet thought of, and self-driven cars, all controlled from towers on every block, like steel trees everywhere. https://principia-scientific.org/recommendations-for-5g-communication-systems-testing/

Dr. Kaiser recommends studying any health effects of 5G technology on the animal population of a zoo with its biological universe at the ready – animals live, breed, and die in a relatively secure and enclosed experimental area. His proposal for 5G testing is detailed here. https://principia-scientific.org/recommendations-for-5g-communication-systems-testing/

A recent study, “Microwave frequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) produce widespread neuropsychiatric effects including depression,” was published in the Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy. The abstract said, “Among the more commonly reported changes are sleep disturbance/insomnia, headache, depression/depressive symptoms, fatigue/tiredness, dysesthesia, concentration/attention dysfunction, memory changes, dizziness, irritability, loss of appetite/body weight, restlessness/anxiety, nausea, skin burning/tingling/dermographism and EEG changes. … All collectively show that various non-thermal microwave EMF exposures produce diverse neuropsychiatric effects.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26300312

Josh Del Sol pointed out that the 5G seen in Wi-Fi routers means “5 GHz.” But the 5G they are talking about is the “5^th Generation” infrastructure. “Actual 5G (5^th Generation) is planned to operate at 25-90+ GHz frequencies, use beam-forming/targeting systems, and be integrated with thousands of satellites to blanket the earth.”

In a video found here, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal asked wireless industry reps questions about the safety of 5G technology and whether the industry that is pushing this 5G technology knows of or has sponsored any research studies as to the health effects on humans and animals and the answers were that the industry has done no health and safety studies on 5G technology. Independent studies do show “a risk to all biological life.”https://takebackyourpower.net/senate-hearing-wireless-industry-confesses-no-studies-showing-5g-safety/

Stephen McBride stated in a recent mailout that “China and the U.S. are neck in neck in the race to develop their 5G networks. In fact, so far China has outspent the U.S. by $25 billion in 5G, according to ‘Big 4’ accounting firm Deloitte.”

He believes that, even though “the Trump White House recently labeled 5G a national security priority for America,” the government’s “red tape is choking America’s 5G rollout.” He continues that America needs hundreds of thousands of new cell towers. These are “tiny compared to the 100+ foot cell towers you’re used to seeing.” They are the size of a trash can and carry signal only about half a mile. This means that “instead of placing one giant cell tower every few miles, we’ll need to place small ones every couple thousand feet.”

According to McBride, there are 220,000 cell towers in the U.S. today. In his estimation, AT&T alone will need 300,000 new 5G cell towers, a big project. The new towers are not just an improvement over 4G but a “huge leap.”

In their rush to deployment, the industry spent zero money to study the effects of the 5G towers on health.

Another health issue for humans and animals documented by many independent studies points to smart meters. Smart meters have been installed in most places for the convenience of utility companies and to the detriment of the population at large, who are experiencing various health problems, are paying higher electricity rates per kWh, are spied upon 24/7 without a warrant, their consumption patterns and activities sold to third parties, and are hit with radiation every so many seconds coming from the Mother Ship far away, measuring and controlling customers’ consumption by off switches during high peak demand. Why would the utility store extra electricity for high demand times when they can cut your electricity off and “save” you money while you swelter in your home for hours each day and your food and medicine spoil in the fridge?

Geoengineering is allegedly protecting humanity from the effects of global warming. It engages in aerial spraying and injection of the stratosphere with harmful chemicals in order, as we were told by former CIA chief, John Brennan, to mitigate the disastrous effects of global warming. The particles sprayed in the atmosphere are eventually inhaled by all of us as they fall to the ground and mix in the soil that grows our crops and in our waters from which we drink. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=john+brennan+video+talking+about+geoengineering+to+tcfr&view=detail&mid=51C4B7337867D35FBAE651C4B7337867D35FBAE6&FORM=VIRE

Despite complaints from farmers, environmentalists, and sick humans who experience heightened allergies and other medical problems, the geoengineering continues. The trails in the sky do not dissipate for hours and eventually turn into a milky grey cover that blocks the sun for hours or days. Water vapor trails from airplanes usually dissipate in minutes.

Solar panels installed in large fields are a health hazard to fauna, especially birds. Solar panels on homes reduce electrical consumption and eventually, after a high initial installation cost, begin to pay off in lower usage of electricity generated by fossil fuels. But, in the absence of sun, electricity produced by fossil fuels is necessary.

Fields of solar panels that produce more electricity require huge land area deployment that takes fertile soil away from agriculture and the production of food. Solar panels create heat fluxes, frying in flight any bird that is unlucky enough to fly in its proximity or is attracted to the solar panels that look curiously like shimmering rivers and lakes to them.

Wind farm victims of wind turbines - dead minks

Wikipedia photo

Wind turbines seemed like a good idea until the huge blades started chopping up millions of birds around the word. The constant thump-thump sounds interrupted the sleep pattern of humans and animals alike. Animals started exhibiting strange behaviors, attacking their young, and birthing dead litters. Humans living in the proximity of wind turbines complained of many strange health issues, such as insomnia, skin problems, hormonal issues, birth defects, and psychological problems.

A wind turbine on fire - Wikipedia photo

The production of electricity is sketchy at best since turbines produce electricity when winds exceed speeds of 32 MPH. Just because a blade is spinning, it does not necessarily mean that it produces electricity. According to the experts, the quantity of fossil fuels and other materials used to manufacture and maintain a wind turbine makes it almost impossible to break even in the life span of an electricity producing wind turbine. Some wind turbines in smaller European countries were installed in a hurry because the funds were available from the EU, but the turbines themselves were not connected to any electricity storage facility.

As I ponder the impact of technology on health, I cannot forget how at one time tobacco smoking was touted as a health benefit by those who profited from it.

Musings on Electric Cars and Clean Energy

So, with most electric cars, you have to stop every 200 miles or less to recharge for 1.5 hours. If you are going 400 miles, you need 6 extra hours to get there and back just to recharge. The electricity for your car is generally produced by fossil fuels.

Wind turbines and solar panels require backup generators. Just because wind turbines are moving, it does not mean that they are producing electricity. In some places in Europe, they are not even attached to a storage facility, they are just spinning. EU gave them money to install them and they did it hastily for show or did not have the infrastructure nor the money to store the electricity generated.

The electricity produced by both wind turbines and by solar panels is more expensive and not sufficient and dependable to satisfy the demands of our huge economy.

Wind turbines and solar panels require large fields to display, fields either taken from agriculture or in a deserted area with lots of sun and wind.

Turbines chop up wildlife in flight and cause a constant thump, thump sound which affects the health of animals and humans. Whales are confused by the low frequency waves and beach themselves accidentally. Animals living around wind turbines attack each other and give birth to deformed babies. Humans suffer insomnia, tachycardia, headaches and other hormonal disturbances.

Solar panels create a heat flux that fries birds in flight. The shiny mirrors further kill birds who fly into them by confusing them with water pools.

But, let's not allow facts get in the way of the progressive agenda, they've already made up their minds. The young environmentalists on Capitol Hill drive alone to work on the Beltway in their expensive Mercedes and BMWs while they lecture us to ride bikes, the metro, the bus, and light rail.

 ~ Ileana Johnson

Climate Change Has Been Tamed

The COP21 was a seminal moment in the history of the planet. The wizards of the Paris conference, reportedly 147 heads of states, their very large entourage, and thousands of delegates and journalists from 195 countries will be remembered as the slickest con-artists ever in the history of humanity.

Paris, the City of Lights, of culture, of learning, of civilization, is a perfect place for such a gathering. Decadent, rich, storied, and romantic, it provides the perfect destination for bureaucrats who avoid poor places like the plague. The elitist choice is always the most luxurious and expensive locales where they can travel, live, eat, drink, and party in style at the expense of the hapless worshippers of Gaia who foot the bill.

These tin pot bureaucrats and their developed world brethren have finally succeeded, through the audacity of persistence, power, pressure, and blatant lies, to fleece seven billion people who willingly gave up their lifestyles and their fortunes in order to save the planet from an impending doom and gloom presumably caused by man alone.

We are so lucky!  We are getting a new life and the assurance from the gods of climate that we will live in balmy weather and glorious climate across the globe, with plenty of water and no harsh weather, only sunshine and blue skies, anytime, anyplace, on a blessed and abundant earth, protecting its most precious inhabitants: wild animals and the elites.

We can now rest assured and with confidence that blizzards and heat waves, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, mudslides, and other weather and climate related events are a thing of the past.

The whizzes of the Paris COP21 conference have tamed the climate and we no longer have to fear anything.  The science is settled – all discussions or debates will cease. Deniers will be marginalized, ridiculed, silenced, fired, or jailed if too persistent and annoying.

The seas will no longer rise and flood some obscure pacific island or some city built unwisely below sea level; the oceans will no longer acidify and kill marine life; the fish stocks in rivers will self-replenish, the delta smelt will thrive again once the agricultural industry will be completely destroyed; the globe’s temperatures will no longer rise by 2 degrees because now, we are going to pay through our noses more taxes to the climate lords and their lucrative climate change industry dominated by renewables.

Climate science elites will make sure that our paper money will stop pollution, volcanic activity around the globe and at the bottom of the oceans. The oceanic currents will flow the right way. El Nino will sit with them at the discussion table and will tame and subdue its activity. The sun will cooperate and stop flaring whenever it wants. Everything will now be under the sly control of the bureaucrats at the United Nations who, ever so wise, have no idea how many countries have actually signed this existential and unenforceable proposal. Or is it a gentlemen’s agreement, paraded as a treaty?

The third world nations are already salivating at the prospect of dividing 100 billion each year with more to come in the future. The planet must be 100 percent renewable green in a short time.

We will all be singing kumbaya in our dark and dank caves once all the dams are blown up, the rivers restored to their pristine state, the salmon and other migratory animals and birds will be safe from encroaching development, and the polluting coal power plants will be closed.

Wild animals and birds will have nothing to fear as long as birds avoid flying into the chopping blades of the wind turbines or into the solar panels’ vaporizing heat flux. Animals may have to move away from the constant and maddening thump-thump noise of wind turbines and away from millions of acres of solar panels.

China and India will finally breathe fresh air again. Nuclear power plants will be a thing of the 1970s, replaced by renewable wind and solar power.  Coal mines will be closed, “dirty” coal will no longer provide energy, and cars and planes will rust in place while the elites will whiz by in their expensive solar automobiles and private planes. What a perfectly dystopic planet that will be! Who needs civilization when the animals of the planet will be safe?

The Industry and Economics of Climate Change/Global Warming

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2014

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Lima, Peru, December 1-12, 2014, determined to chisel a new treaty that would mandate a cap and trade on greenhouse gas emissions effective by 2020 and would “eliminate the use of fossil fuels entirely by 2050.”

The hypothesis that rich nations caused climate change by burning fossil fuels to produce energy has never been proven by IPCC’s computer modeling. The fact that now the hypothesis changed its name from global warming to climate change in the face of obvious 18 years of global cooling is enough evidence that the purveyors of the industry of climate change are desperate but are not giving up. Fleecing rich countries with carbon taxes is a very lucrative scam.

“We must leave fossil fuels in the ground and not repeat the steps of the developed countries that brought us to this point,” said Enrique Maurtua Konstantinidis, international policy advisor for Climate Action Network Latin America.

The Climate Action Network, “a conglomerate of 900 radical green groups from about 100 nations, mocked Australia, Belgium, Ireland, and Austria because they have yet to donate to a new Green Climate Fund.” The real agenda of spreading the wealth from developed countries to poor countries and arresting economic development could not be more transparent. http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/12/02/exclusive-new-legally-binding-treaty-emerges-on-first-day-of-lima-climate-conference/

Martin Kaiser of Greenpeace stated that, “In Lima, the countries must agree on the long-term goal of phasing out fossil fuel emissions to zero by mid-century while moving towards 100 percent renewable energy for all in a fair transition period. Subsidies for fossil fuel industries must be shifted towards renewable energy deployment and climate adaptation for vulnerable countries. In countries like the U.S., China, and the EU, the phase-out of coal must be accelerated.”

So how are renewable energy industries working out so far across the globe as replacements for fossil fuels? Judging by the number of bankruptcies filed and by the billions in taxpayer dollars wasted so far, with scant energy produced, not very well.

Take Ivanpah Solar Power Facility (ISPF), which cost $2.2 billion to build ($1.6 billion from government loan guarantees and $600 million from private investors, including one third from Google), “was supposed to deliver an energy output of approximately 1.7 million MWh (megawatt-hours) of electricity annually.”

According to Dr. Klaus Kaiser, the Ivanpah facility, which covers 4,000 acres and is located in the Mojave Desert, delivered a very low output of 250,000 MWh during January-August, 2014. The visionaries of solar power did not take into account the blasting of mirrors by sand and dust. To solve the problem, ISPF investors decided to seek extensions on the borrowed money and to use more natural gas, “doubling the amount of natural gas usage permitted for ‘preheating’ of the solar towers,” thus spinning the truth and “fudging the numbers.” http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/67861

Eric Wessof wrote in his article, “Rest in Peace: The List of Deceased Solar Companies, 2009 to 2013,” in which he tallied the solar companies that went bankrupt, were acquired, closed, restructured, sold for a song, or in the endangered category, a lengthy list of 102 companies, hardly a success story. http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Rest-in-Peace-The-List-of-Deceased-Solar-Companies-2009-to-2013

The Washington Post reported on the billionaire Vinod Khosla who invested in a biofuel plant called KiOR in Columbus, Mississippi, that “was supposed to turn wood chips into hydrocarbons that could be poured straight into a refinery, pipeline, or car.”

Instead of producing the magic catalyst, on November 10 2014, KiOR filed for bankruptcy, “leaving behind 2067 creditors, including the State of Mississippi which can ill-afford the bag of $75 million, 20-year, no interest loan.” The promised 1,000 jobs to be created by December 2015 never materialized. (“The Misadventures of a tech billionaire confronting the stubborn economics of the biofuel business,” Washington Post, November 30, 2014)

According to Washington Post, KiOR spent $5-$10 per gallon notwithstanding the cost of building the plant. KiOR’s losses were $629.3 million and had revenues of $2.25 million. The bankruptcy was inevitable even though “Khosla spent $85 million and Bill Gates $15 million in October 2013.”

The project of transforming biomass into fuels by using “catalytic pyrolysis, or cracking,” an invention by a company in the Netherlands, BIOeCON, turned out to be a renewable money pit for KiOR which produced very little energy. http://www.bioecon.com/

Among other energy programs and initiatives for renewable energy, President George W. Bush promised in 2006 “to make ethanol not just from corn, but from wood chips and stalks and switch grass.” http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/energy/

Using corn as fuel was not such a great idea either; corn that fed billions of people around the world skyrocketed in price in recent years and became scarcer, causing people in many countries to riot.

Wind turbines caused health hazards in humans and millions of bird kills around the world, some on the endangered species list. The energy produced was certainly dirty green and inadequate for most developed countries. Conventional fossil fuels were used to run gears to prevent rusting and to supplant electricity when the wind turbines were idle. Turbines had to be cut off in some areas at speeds of maximum production of electricity because the noise and constant thumping was unbearable to the nearby residents. Just because a turbine rotates, it does not necessarily mean that it produces electricity.

Are most large economies of the world ready to ditch fossil fuels entirely as proposed in Lima Peru by the environmental architects of gloom and doom alarmism and replace them with renewables? The answer is a resounding no, unless we are ready to live in the dark ages again.

Copyright: Ileana Johnson 2014 

 

 

 

 

 

The Irony of Green Propaganda

The supporters of global warming met in Washington, D.C. on February 17, 2013 to pressure President Obama to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. The irony was evident to the rest of us. The green environmentalists were bundled up to their eyeballs since it was the coldest day this winter, 16 degrees Fahrenheit if you factored in the wind chill.

Protesters claim that tar sands, fracking, fossil fuels, and especially “dirty” coal are the enemy of ordinary Americans while the same Americans are fed up with paying unnecessary high prices for gasoline and electricity when our country has such vast resources of oil and natural gas that are not being tapped.

I wonder if Europeans knew in 1300-1850 that their Little Ice Age was caused by human activity since global warming alarmists were not around to inform them and force them to change their planet-altering life-style.

In the Blitzkrieg of constant manufactured crises, the media machine is deflecting people’s attention from the real issues affecting our country. Everyone is overwhelmed by a never-ending string of real and imagined catastrophic occurrences. Citizens seem to have lost the ability to judge for themselves and discern truth from fiction.

Bombarded by a deluge of MSM propaganda, low information Americans believed that the passengers suffering inconveniences caused by a disabled cruise ship that had lost its power for five days was akin to hurricane Katrina suffering. Can we have a reality check?

If power outage disabled such a large ship, have irrational lefties asked themselves what would happen to a major city if a massive electricity shortage caused the power to go out for days, weeks, and months? Would solar panels and wind mills restore electricity, clean water, sanitation, sewage disposal, heat, A/C, and normalcy to the city? How many people would die from pestilence alone?

The environmentalists demand that the “evil” coal-powered plants be shut down, and many have been shut down, because coal destroys the planet. A large portion of our electricity does come from “dirty” coal. Beloved hybrids and electric cars need fossil fuels and electricity generated by coal, hydro, and nuclear power plants, another industry that progressives want shut down.

Then there is the filthy little secret of solar-generated energy. It may be cleaner than coal-generated energy, however, in the production process, solar panel manufacturers create millions of pounds of contaminated water and toxic sludge which must be transported and disposed of hundreds of miles away.

The hazardous waste disposal costs (transportation via rail or trucks which burn fossil fuels) is not included or calculated in the solar panels carbon footprint. The polluted sludge is shipped because new solar panel manufacturers have not built facilities to recycle part of the sludge and to dispose of the carcinogenic cadmium properly.

Dustin Mulvaney, an “environmental studies professor who conducts carbon footprint analyses of solar, biofuel and natural gas production,” calculated that shipping 6.2 million pounds of waste by eighteen wheelers from California to a site 1,800 miles away would add 5 percent in carbon footprint.

Jason Dearen of the Associated Press compiled a list of 41 California manufacturers of solar panels and reported that no such data exists at the federal level.

“The state records show the 17 companies, which had 44 manufacturing facilities in California, produced 46.5 million pounds of sludge and contaminated water from 2007 through the first half of 2011. Roughly 97 percent of it was taken to hazardous waste facilities throughout the state, but more than 1.4 million pounds were transported to nine other states: Arkansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Nevada, Washington, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.” (Jason Dearen)

Does creating 100 Megawatt of energy to power 100,000 homes (as the now bankrupt Solyndra did) balance out the 12.5 million pounds of hazardous waste that could seep into our drinking water? Yet Mulvaney said that coal-fired plants and natural gas plants create more than ten times the hazardous waste created by a solar panel. (http://news.yahoo.com/solar-industry-grapples-hazardous-wastes-184714679.html)

One problem not addressed in calculations is the fact that solar panels need thousands of acres of land to display them, land that cannot be used for agriculture. Wind energy generation is problematic because huge wind mills kill a lot of birds and the noise pollution created is unbearable and unacceptable in populated areas when the wind exceeds 30 mph. Wind mills do not create electricity when idle and need back up from conventional power just like solar panels.

This brings me back to the war on coal waged by environmentalists and their powerful lobby. In 2012, the electricity generated from coal was 36% compared to the previous year of 44.6%, a considerable drop caused by the unprecedented regulatory assault on coal.

PJM Interconnection, which operates power for 13 states (Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia), held its 2015 capacity auction.

President Obama’s promise that “electricity prices will necessarily skyrocket” is coming to fruition. According to A.J. Cameron, “The market-clearing price for new 2015 capacity – almost all natural gas – was $136 per megawatt,” eight times higher than the 2012 price of $16 per megawatt. New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and D.C. price is $167 per megawatt. First Energy’s price in northern Ohio is $357 per megawatt. Ohio has more forced coal-fired plants shutdowns thus the higher price.

Why are prices so much higher? Andy Ott of PJM explains, “Capacity prices were higher than last year's because of retirements of existing coal-fired generation resulting largely from environmental regulations which go into effect in 2015.”

The Environmental Protection Agency regulators are winning the war on coal and most Americans are going to suffer, including the clueless greens.

“The PJM auction forecasts a dim future where Americans will be paying more to keep the lights on. We are seeing more and more coal plants fall victim to EPA’s destructive regulatory agenda, and as a result, we are seeing more job losses and higher electricity prices.” (Ed Whitfield, House Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman)

British Petroleum published a report with projection of long-term energy trends, “Energy Outlook 2030,” in which it predicted that United States will be 99 percent energy self-sufficient by 2030 due to shale gas and oil produced by hydraulic fracturing. “It could result in a re-industrialization of the U.S.” Being more skeptical, I believe that it could happen if the EPA would lessen its onerous regulatory stronghold on economic development. http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9048887&contentId=7082549

“The natural gas boom in America will also lead to a significant reduction in greenhouse gases, since natural gas-fired power plants produce around half as much carbon emissions as coal-fired plants, and just 1 percent as much sulfur oxide.” (Newsmax, February 3, 2013)

As long as the President is in brilliant campaign mode, he can divorce himself from reality and pretend he is trying to solve the very problems he has created by blaming President Bush and the rich and greedy people. He has not solved any problems but has been quite successful in convincing a majority of Americans that he has. In the meantime, progressives push renewables and the misery and costly war on coal continues.

Butler on Business WAFS 1190 Atlanta Solar Power

Ten minute radio commentary on Butler on Business WAFS 1190 Atlanta, August 8, 2012. Topic: Solar power. I come on at the 30 minute mark.
http://www.cyberears.com/cybrss/16630.mp3

Solar Panels Melting Money Away

Citing national security and environmental degradation, the federal government has pressured the manufacture of solar panels in the U.S. by enacting tax credits, loan guarantees, and state mandates for utilities to derive a certain percentage of their electricity from green energy even though green energy is more expensive than traditional energy and the cost would be passed on to the consumer while the taxpayers guarantee the loans.

With all the government involvement in “green” energy, less than 0.1 percent of all electricity produced in the U.S. is generated by solar panels. Stimulus funding and tax incentives have kept the solar industry alive worldwide. When government funding stopped, as it has been the case of four large solar panel manufacturers in Germany and numerous ones in the U.S., those companies declared bankruptcy.

Photovoltaic solar panels can be used on a small or large scale while concentrated solar technologies can only be used for utility-scale electricity generation.  This administration declared in the Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future:

“We invented the photovoltaic solar panel, built the first megawatt solar power station, and installed the first megawatt-sized wind turbine. Yet today, China has moved passed us in wind capacity, while Germany leads the world in solar.”

What bureaucrats fail to mention is that the four largest German suppliers have gone bankrupt and twelve American manufacturers involved in solar panel production and/or renewable energy storage have filed for bankruptcy. Amy Payne of Heritage Foundation calls the twelve American manufacturers “the Green Graveyard of Taxpayer-Funded Failures.”

Alexandre E. Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect but it was the American inventor, Charles Fritts, who made the first solar cell in 1883. RCA, Texas Instruments, and the Japanese used PV panels on a small scale. It was the oil crisis of the 1970s that increased the attractiveness of solar panels but they remained expensive. President Carter offered the first “direct federal support for solar [panel] manufacturing.”

There are two types of solar panel manufacturing:

-          Crystalline silicone system with four stages of production, polysilicon manufacturing, wafer manufacturing, cell manufacturing, and module manufacturing

-          Thin-film PV (a newer method, similar to flat panel displays manufacturing for TVs, computer screens and cell phones)

A polysilicon plant requires $500 million-$1 billion in construction capital. European, American, and Japanese companies dominate the polysilicon manufacturing. Polysilicon, which is based on sand, represents about one-fourth of the total cost of a solar panel.

(Green Rhino Energy, Value Chain Activity: Producing Polysilicon, greenrhinoenergy.com/solar/industry/ind_01_silicon.php)

The production of solar glass requires massive capital and large shipping costs. Sixty percent of the global supply is produced by four manufacturers, Asahi, NSG Group, Saint Gobain, and Guardian.  (Green Rhino Energy, Value Chain Activity: Manufacturing Solar Glass, greenrhinoenergy.com/solar/industry/in_15_solarglass.php)

According to Paula Flowers, Asahi Glass of Japan produces more than 50 percent of the world’s solar glass through its AGC Solar, a Belgium-based company. Its factory in Kingsport, TN produces solar glass for the U.S. market. (TN Solar Energy Activities Update, TN Chamber of Commerce and Industry, October 7, 2011)

The Department of Energy estimates that the plant manufacture of 120 MW of solar cells per year would need at least $40 million in initial investment. The solar cells are cut wafers into 5X5 or 6X6 inch pieces linked by copper leads. A wafer is a shaped polysilicon into an ingot.

(U.S. DOE, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Solar Photovoltaic Economic Development, Building and Growing a Local PV Industry, November 2011)

The modules weigh 34-62 pounds and are comprised of 60-72 cells covered by solar glass to protect against environmental damage and are attached to an aluminum frame and supported by a plastic backing.

Currently, lack of profitability has driven the consolidation of the solar panel industry into the hands of ten companies that control half of the global production of photovoltaic solar panels and they are located in China and Taiwan who subsidize exports and have been accused of engaging in dumping of products on foreign markets at prices lower than prices charged on domestic markets. China currently exports 95 percent of all the photovoltaic panels it produces. (CRS Report for Congress, April 27, 2012, p. 17)

Federal programs that created our domestic demand for solar photovoltaic panels have reached funding limits and have expired such as the 1603 cash grant program, the advanced energy manufacturing tax credit, and the S. 591, introduced by the 112^th Congress to extend the credit, will expire at the end of 2016. (U.S. Solar Photovoltaic Manufacturing:  Industry Trends, Global Competition, Federal Support, Michaela D. Platzer, April 27, 2012)

Examples of government support for solar power include advanced energy manufacturing tax credit (MTC) which reached funding cap in 2010, Section 1705 Loan Guarantee Program for “new and significantly improved” technologies, the investment tax credit (ITC) which ends in 2016, the Section 1603 Treasury Cash Grant Program, and the Sunshot Initiative of the DOE.

The White House Fact Sheet lists 27 Solar PV manufacturers who received 48C Manufacturing Tax Credit (MTC) from approximately $1 million to $142 million. Two of the companies listed have already filed for bankruptcy:  Abound Solar Inc. which received $12.6 million in 48C MTC and Amonix Inc., which received $3.6 million in 48C manufacturing tax credit. (CRS Report for Congress, April 27, 2012, pp. 28-29)

John Boehner’s office issued a statement last week that the former Office of Management and Budget Director ignored warnings on Solyndra’s insolvency – millions of taxpayer dollars could have been saved by closing the company immediately and selling its assets. “Instead, the DOE restructured the loan to Solyndra (a solar cell manufacturer), putting private investors ahead of taxpayers for repayment if the company closed (crony capitalism). Solyndra’s liquidation will recover just $24 million of the $527 million that taxpayers lent to the company.”

A bill is making its way through Congress, No More Solyndras Act, which will ban any new loan guarantees from title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

“The competitiveness of solar PV as a source of electric generation in the United States will likely be adversely affected both by the expiration of these tax provisions and by the rapid development of shale gas, which has the potential to lower the cost of gas-fired power generation and reduce the cost-competitiveness of solar power, particularly as an energy source for utilities. In light of these developments, the ability to build a significant U.S. production base for PV equipment is in question.” (CRS Report for Congress, Summary, Michaela D. Platzer, April 27, 2012)