384 billion serfs

Diego, I could not agree more! Rather sadly, ‘renewable’ wind and solar power can’t yet survive without lots of fossil fuel inputs—mining, manufacturing and installation, as you say, the energy-intensive metals and minerals that go into them, and backup power sources like gas-fired stations. Wind and solar are part of the sustainable energy answer, but are very far from the WHOLE answer.

HowAndWhy - 2022 11 20

Don’t forget that most of renewable energies depends on petrol, gas and coal for mining, manufacturing, transport, installation, manteinance, etc.  No yet a wind turbine has been turn on using electricity from another windmill

Diego Ara - 2022 11 19

And just to end:

We agree that the world should be moving towards green energy much faster than it is at present. The world’s governments have failed abysmally to make much progress here. But moving towards clean energy is complicated and difficult and expensive, unfortunately.
  And finally ... we are not paid by anybody. Our views are not propaganda.

HowAndWhy - 2022 11 19

Our reply:

You are correct that fossil fuels are not consumed evenly across the world. In the USA, for example, the average person has 187 fossil fuel serfs. But even in China, the average person has 67 fossil fuel serfs, in Egypt 28, and in India 17.
  The world is still reliant on fossil fuels, sadly.
  You say it’s easy to make clean energy? Not so. Solar and wind are great, but are flawed as stand-alone energy sources. First, they require huge fossil fuel inputs. For example, wind turbines require heavy equipment powered by oil to dig their foundations, kilns fired with natural gas to bake the concrete, and steel towers forged with coal. Second, they are intermittent. When it’s dark or unwindy, then either i) huge batteries would be required to store power, but they don’t yet exist commercially, or ii) solar and wind have to be complemented by other sources of power, like natural gas or coal. Nuclear should be part of the answer and works very well with solar and wind, but many countries don’t trust nuclear or are scaling it down.
  If the world cuts back on fossil fuels quickly, then the world economy would stop growing and probably start contracting. Poor people in poor countries would be condemned to poverty, with no way out. At the same time, you are right that they will suffer if we don’t transition to green energy asap.

HowAndWhy - 2022 11 19

On Instagram we received a critical comment, and our reply might help to clarify some points above. The comment was as follows:

This is such bullshit. You’ve averaged fossil fuel use when it is not consumed evenly across the world. You state it’s not easy to make clean energy and that is an out-and-out lie, and you say that poor countries will suffer the most if we stop using fossil fuels, ignoring the fact that they’ll suffer the most if we don’t transition to green energy asap. Whoever is paying you for this propaganda, it’s transparent and your bias is blatant. You should be ashamed of yourself for peddling lies.

HowAndWhy - 2022 11 19