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World’s energy demand

Renewable Energy



A few days ago, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its updated report on renewable energy sources and the world’s energy demand.

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As in the past, the IPCC stills thinks in “anti-CO2” terms and promotes fossil fuel alternatives with false claims. Hence, it may not surprise you to find a statement up front which says: “Close to 80 percent of the world‘s energy supply could be met by renewables by mid-century if backed by the right enabling public policies.” It also provides a graph with the world’s energy consumption (in 2008), as below: image In simplified terms, it shows that 85% of the world’s energy consumption is derived from fossil fuels and 13% from renewable energy sources of which “biomass” makes up four fifths. But herein lays the lie. Most of this “renewable” biomass stems from old forests (such as the jungles of the world’s equatorial regions), but, in fact, IT IS NOT BEING RENEWED at the present rate of consumption. Yes, every tree cut down right now anywhere in the world can be replaced with another one of the same species, but their rate of growth (assimilation of CO2 from the air) is not the same. The tree just cut down may have taken 200 years to grow and consumes much more CO2 than the new sapling planted. Therefore, the term “renewABLES” is not to be equated with “actually being renewED”. On a larger scale, the IPCC’s assertion that in 40 years time, close to 80% of the world’s energy supply could be met by renewables is hopelessly flawed. For example, even with many of the world’s major rivers being dammed to provide hydropower, their total energy output is only 2% of the world energy consumption. Together, the other renewable energy sources (wind, solar, ocean, and geothermal), account for less than 1% at this time. Moreover, with the decline to be expected in renewED biomass sources, and a general increase in energy consumption, it will be difficult enough to just to maintain the 13% “renewable” energy component, let alone increasing it to allow replacement of any sizable fraction of fossil fuel use, not to mention the current intention in some countries to do away with nuclear power plants. The IPCC’s claim as to the world’s ability to replace most of the fossil fuel energy with renewable sources by the mid-century is nothing but a hollow statement based on wishful thinking. The latter, of course, stems from a complete lack of understanding of the effect of CO2 on the world’s climate, which is derived from models that do not even consider the effect of the world’s main climate control mechanism, namely the energy transfer between water in solid, liquid and gaseous forms. The IPCC’s assertion about renewable energy is yet another example of faulty science and grossly misleading statements that the world is slowly learning to disregard.


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Dr. Klaus L.E. Kaiser -- Bio and Archives

Dr. Klaus L.E. Kaiser is author of CONVENIENT MYTHS, the green revolution – perceptions, politics, and facts Convenient Myths


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