EARTH DAY MYTHS

How Many Do You Still Believe?

Edward Ring, director of Water and Energy Policy at California Policy Center, wrote a brilliant article debunking some of the myths around how the earth works. I found them fascinating, and have read many other scientific papers and books covering similar material. These were his thoughts on Earth Day, rewritten a bit to make it a shorter piece.

Myth #1: We are in a climate crisis

Are we? There is some doubt, as the data on rapid warming has been widely disputed; we may have warming at times, and cooling at others. In my childhood, we were at the end of an ice age; this is how the earth works. When people talk about an increase in extreme weather events, it has been shown that we are simply better able to detect them. And more people live in areas affected by these events, due to the large increases in population.

But what if there is some truth to what the climate believers think? We cannot transform our energy infrastructure quickly. The alternatives we have now are simply not enough to support the demand at a price we can afford.

However, we are endlessly creative and can adapt to it.

Myth #2: The population is too large
Rapidly growing populations such as the Baby Boom scared a lot of people especially environmentalists. But we’re now in a stage of underpopulation, where people aren’t replacing themselves (having fewer than two children each). The UN believes our largest population will be around 10 billion people, declining thereafter. There are many problems associated with this, especially given societies who assume the young will always be there to keep things going (ex. Social Security), but the problem IS NOT the environment.

Myth #3: We are running out of “fossil” fuel
It’s interesting that this point is being made, given that environmentalists want us converted solely to wind and solar (which is another huge problem for many reasons, including the environmental impact). However, our innovative people keep finding more and more reserves of oil, natural gas and coal, no matter what the demand. This is not a real problem.

The estimates of what we have now should last a century, during which time, nuclear will likely become a bigger factor, as well as energy sources we haven’t even thought of yet. We have plenty of time to continue to innovate.

Myth #4: Biofuel is renewable and sustainable
Biofuel/ethanol can’t supply the increasing energy needs we will have. In California, an acre of corn results in only 500 gallons of ethanol, but we would need 13.6 billion gallons in a year. To achieve that, we’d need to plant more than 63,000 square miles of farmland which also requires four times more water than we currently use for farming. We only have about 14,000 square miles of farming now. You can see that this makes the idea of this as a major fuel source ridiculous.

Myth #5: Offshore wind energy is renewable and sustainable

This is still the claim, but the blades kill lots of birds, bats and insects. The underwater cables cause damage to marine life and disrupt their senses. There is also less mating, so less fish. Turbines raise the sea temperatures, which is worse than any global warming to date.

As usual, California is the leader in this horrible idea, ready to destroy our coast. They want to put in at least 2,500 wind turbines which only do good if the wind blows, which it doesn’t always. It could cost $300 billion or more, but the installation would only be good for 10-20 years. It’s a bad idea and we might end up starving for just a small increase in energy.

Myth #6: Renewables are renewable
This idea has been disproven over and over again. What it takes to build solar and wind farms destroys the earth while providing power only intermittently. Natural gas requires far fewer raw materials and once built, can operate for 60 or more years.

Have you bought an electric car? Based on International Energy Agency data, geopolitical writer, Peter Ziehan, has calculated that EVs require 200 kg/vehicle of minerals, while regular, gas-powered cars, only require 35 kg.

Myth #7: Renewables can replace fossil fuels
We’ve already seen this doesn’t work in the disastrous power outages in Texas during a bad winter. In 2022, 82% of global energy was still obtained from fossil fuels. Of the so-called renewable energy sources, only 7.5% was produced this way. And 2/3 of that was biofuels, which aren’t a good solution.

Myth #8: New housing must be confined to the footprint of existing cities
Really? In California, we have egregious demands to build, build, build, but not in the vast stretches of land that has no infrastructure. People want to live where jobs are and there simply isn’t more room where people want to live. But there is no support to extend jobs and housing further out. Right now, 94% of the population lives on only 5% of the land. If we didn’t attract so many homeless and illegals, we might not have an issue.

When you block growth, you cause prices to soar, making it unaffordable.

Myth #9: Mass transit is necessary to achieve sustainability
Mass transit is the pipedream of the Left. It works great in dense areas where people and jobs coexist. BART’s failures show why it isn’t feasible over more distant, suburban hubs.

Ridership declined after COVID and hasn’t (and won’t) recover. The costs of union-controlled transit are far too high to be sustainable. Too many trains are dangerous and people don’t feel safe enough to use them regularly. Work-from-home is popular and will grow more so. Driverless options will supplant static transit. The old solutions are dying and soon to be dead.

Myth #10: Wilderness areas are sacred
In the US, far too much land has been restricted from use. Along with the ’73 Endangered Species Act, we have made too many areas untouchable, whether for crops, lumber, energy sources or simply enjoyment. At the same time, we “protect” forests from their nature, which is to burn down regularly, making the forests safer. We aren’t using the tools we know of to keep us safe.

We don’t dredge in the Delta, which keeps water fresh and healthy for salmon, while allowing us more water for our own use. While there is value to protecting endangered species, we have gone too far, with poor results. (The “endangered” smelt has been gone for years, but still causes stupid policies to reign in CA).