The changes to which I’m presently referring don’t seem to be willing to wait in abeyance, for us humans to do things at our own pleasure. Instead, they are beating down the entrance as it were, and threatening to enter the door ferociously. Destructive fires are conflagrating all over the world. Drought and famine are threatening human existence on a universal scale. Sudden floods that destroy property and lives are now almost a daily occurrence. With the phenomenon of rising sea levels new and sudden environmental challenges are currently emerging. What exactly is the path forward? How do contemporary 21st-century earthlings cope with the rapid changes that presently threaten to overwhelm or obliterate us?
The widescale utilization of alternative energy resources such as solar, wind, geothermal energy, nuclear energy, oxygen, and hydrogen all seem to be promising emerging technologies. There are many challenges associated with adopting these new energy modalities. However such challenges are being gradually overcome by new inventions and rapid technological improvements. But are we cutting ourselves off from the umbilical cord of carbonization fast enough? New crude oil resources are being discovered and rapidly developed not only in African countries but also in the Caribbean. Strangely, despite the obvious perils of global warming associated with the continued exploitation of fossil fuels, and the many commitments made at the Paris Accords by first-world countries. Some governments, especially in the USA and the United Kingdom suddenly seem to have lost their sense of direction. The Biden Administration is currently in the process of leasing several hundred acres of land to oil companies. To facilitate the continued development and exploitation of dangerously polluting fossil fuels.
“The Biden administration will resume federal oil and gas leasing in June with a large reduction in acres available for drilling and a historic royalty rate increase. On April 18, 2022, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) issued notices of oil and gas lease sales for approximately 144,000 acres of federal land in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. BLM scheduled the June 2022 onshore lease sales nearly a year after the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana enjoined the Biden administration’s self-described “pause” of the federal oil and gas leasing program—an action taken pursuant to Executive Order 14008: “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.” BROWNSTEIN CLIENT ALERT, APRIL 20, 2022
“The British government approved the development of a huge oil and gas field in the North Sea Wednesday, sealing its commitment to keep producing fossil fuels for decades to come. The Rosebank field, situated northwest of Shetland in Scotland and majority-owned by Norwegian state-owned energy company Equinor, is the largest undeveloped oil and gas field in the North Sea, with the potential to produce 500 million barrels of oil. Its development has sparked fierce criticism for the impacts it will have on the climate crisis and the UK’s ability to meet its pledge to reduce its net carbon emissions to zero by 2050.” By Laura Paddison CNN, Wednesday, September 27, 2023.
This is exactly the kind of lip service, followed by wobbly conduct among political leaders, that endangers all of us. Modern research has clearly established the specific benefits to be gained by the world if the continued utilization of fossil fuels is drastically reduced and gradually eliminated.
Burning fossil fuels is a huge health hazard. The air pollution alone causes 1 in 5 deaths annually. A rapid transition to green energy sources would prevent a lot of disability and early death, researchers say. In the year 2050 alone, the transition’s impact amounts to 181 million future years of healthy human life, a new report found. The world’s energy choices between now and 2050 will determine so much about the future. Climate change, natural ecosystems, and economic development are all on the line. Add to that list 181 million years of healthy human life — annually. That’s how many years can be saved from death or disability by quickly ramping up renewable energy and dialing back fossil fuels, according to a new assessment published on Friday, from the nonprofit World Wildlife Fund and the Boston Consulting Group.
Morgan McFall-Johnsen, Maiya Focht: YAHOO BUSINESS INSIDER. Wed, November 8, 2023
With all of the foot-dragging maneuvers being engaged in by the gigantic fossil fuel industry and its supporters. Some might be tempted to doubt the ultimate arrival of the desperately needed alternative energy revolution. Nevertheless, the world has seen this movie many times before. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution horse and buggy owners felt similarly threatened by the arrival of the first fledgling automobile. When the steam engine was invented there were widespread strikes and demonstrations by entrenched forces of labor and manpower. With the arrival of the printing press, the sellers of various forms of parchment, ink, and pens. Were incensed at the clear threat to their livelihoods. The annals of history eloquently testify, however, that all of these timely changes were not only unstoppable but irreversible. In fact, the head of the International Energy Agency makes a bold prediction:
“Fatih Birol, head of the IEA, said the world was fast approaching a “pivotal moment in energy history” as demand for the fossil fuels that have underpinned the modern economy since the advent of the industrial revolution nears an inflection point. “After rapid growth in gas consumption in the last 10 years, we think the golden age of gas is coming to an end,” Birol said in an interview. “Together with the decline in coal and oil that we were already expecting, we now see a peak around 2030 for all fossil fuels,” Birol said government energy policies were rapidly evolving in part to counter the fallout from Russia’s decision to weaponize its gas supplies to Europe in retaliation for western support for Ukraine. The IEA head described the policy shift as a change that would resonate for “decades to come”. FINANCIAL TIMES: IEA Forecasts Fossil Fuel Demand Will Peak This Decade By David Sheppard, October 27, 2022.
What all of this means is that governments and entrepreneurs who have hoisted their petards on the large-scale and indefinite continuation of the fossil fuel industry will have a big disappointment in store. Once that inflection point is reached the demand and consequently equilibrium prices of all fossil fuel products will collapse.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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