In New York Times Magazine it published an interview with Vaclav Smil, probably the world's greatest expert on energy-where it comes from, how we harness it, what it costs, and why it costs what it does.
The April 22 article "This Eminent Scientist Says Climate Activists Need to Get Real" is delightful to read. Author David Marchese squirms to escape the implications of everything Smil says.
He tries desperately to get Smil to agree that climate change is a looming catastrophe and we simply must act now to avert it by replacing fossil-fuel energy with wind, solar, and other "Renewable" sources.
Smil replies: "Germany, after nearly half a trillion dollars, in 20 years they went from getting 84 percent of their primary energy from fossil fuels to 76 percent. Can you tell me how you'd go from 76 percent fossil to zero by 2030, 2035? I'm sorry, the reality is what it is."
The interview continues, and again and again Smil brings Marchese back to reality-or at least he tries to.
Smil points out that developing countries all need to increase, not decrease, their use of fossil fuels to build their infrastructures.
Marchese asks, "Is there an argument to be made that countries developing new infrastructure have incentives to orient themselves toward renewables?" He later adds, "No today. Maybe tomorrow." Smil replies, "Putting a photovoltaic panel on a roof is very easy. Developing a system around photovoltaics for the whole country - very difficult. No country in the world today runs itself on pure photovoltaics," and "Not tomorrow. Again, it's the scale."
https://townhall.com/columnists/calvinbeisner/2022/04/30/draft-n2556833
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