This video has three themes:
(1) the logic underlying bioenergy is the grotesque self-contradiction that burning down the world's forests and converting the Amazon forest to sugar plantations to support the ethanol-as-motor-fuel industry will save the planet.
(2) alt-energy schemes are for the most part scams run by rich humbugs such as Al Gore and the Koch brothers intent on adding billions to their already enormous wealth.
(3) solar and wind power depend on a vast range of mining and fossil-fuel-dependent industrial processes and achieve little if anything in terms of energy return on energy invested.
A reviewer at Gizmodo contends that Point 3 is an outdated view based on the state of technology a decade ago. That may be so, but it remains to be seen whether wind and solar have the potential to displace fossil fuels on a global scale. There is, however, no question that large scale investment in bioenergy is a total insanity and a monstrous crime against humanity and all other life on Earth.
Overall, an important story, well presented, with a fine musical accompaniment.
I read your previous post and followed the link to Automatic Earth for "The Only Man Who Has a Clue" Nassim Nicholas Taleb. (I am commenting here because I was afraid if I commented below that particular post you wouldn't see. Is that true?)
ReplyDeleteI haven't completely finished the article, and I usually don't comment until I do, but I am troubled by something. Nassim's original work, though it allows for making decisions in the face of great uncertainty, did assume it was known for certain THERE WAS A DEADLY PANDEMIC. Automatic Earth also seems to believe it is certain THERE IS A DEADLY PANDEMIC. All of this intricate and beautifully-reasoned work is useless or I would say harmful/deadly if THERE ISN'T A DEADLY PANDEMIC but instead a DEADLY LIE.
I bought Nassim's over-priced first book when it came out and I've watched him carefully ever since. I am ambivalent towards him most of the time, but as I have learned some important things from him, I will continue to pay attention. I often do not agree with his conclusions and of course he's wrong or off base from time to time.
Nassim cites Bill Gates's predictions of a pandemic approvingly:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-pandemic-isnt-a-black-swan-but-a-portent-of-a-more-fragile-global-system
Thanks for your comment.
DeleteYes, I see all comments, though sometimes not for a day or two.
I also bought Taleb's first book but managed to read little of it. I think he's a bright guy, but without the greatest proficiency in the English language.
I assume his comments on Covid19 were to indicate what must be done if an epidemic disease is known to be deadly. The problem is, governments will generally not know until the thing is widely spread, that it is deadly at which point the option of "crushing the curve" is long past.
Could governments develop an epidemic hazard early warning system? Theoretically. But given the inherent incompetence of bureaucracy that would be one hell of a challenge.
In fact, what will surely happen in future epidemics is what has happened in the case of all past epidemics. The disease will spread more or less uncontrolled until it becomes evident whether it is deadly. If it is, the rich will flee, and governments will enter into a series of costly blundering responses which will have little impact on the course of the disease, as we see now in the case of Covid19.
For example, government agencies have shut down many normal hospital functions such as cancer surgery to make way for the minority of Covid cases that turn to pneumonia -- a trade-off of doubtful merit.
In addition, governments have imposed lock-downs and quarantines that have slowed, but not prevented, the spread of the disease, thereby reducing the peak demand for hospital treatment. The economic cost of such measures almost certainly exceed the cost of creating temporary hospital accommodation. (For the future, governments could build hospitals to be mothballed until the next epidemic.).
But whatever governments have done in the case of Covid-19, such actions will not prevent the epidemic following the natural course until the spread of post-infection immunity drives the number of people that each infected person infects (i.e., the reproduction number) below one. At that point, so-called herd immunity is achieved and the epidemic dies.
Is fear of Covid-19 being promoted? Certainly.
Is fear being promoted for ulterior reasons? Quite likely. The panic and its consequences don't seem to be helping Donald Trump's election chances do they, although they provide a convenient explanation for the stock market correction and ?future collapse, and the ongoing stupendous government deficits, soon to be followed by accelerated inflation that will wipe out more of the savings of ordinary folks.
Clearly the net economic result of the epidemic will be to wipe out many, perhaps most, small businesses, clearing the field for expansion by the likes of Amazon,Walmart, and the restaurant chains, while driving up unemployment, which will drive down wages and weaken the bargaining power of labor.
In the meantime, the most astute financial entities, including the hedge fund advised by Taleb will accumulate vast amounts of wealth at the expense of the general public.