BeaverFever BeaverFever:
ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:
Tater Tot thinks that snuffing the birthday candle that is Canada, is going to lessen the world's pollution and CO2 levels while the raging tire dump fires of India and China will be allowed to grow even larger.
That's a false argument. First of all, it doesn't matter whether Canadian emissions matter in the global scheme of things. The only way emission reductions work is if everyone follows them.
There will be backwards laggards and "raging dump fire" countries in the developing world and the US when it's under Republican rule but inevitably they will come around and the only way that will happen is if the other countries are already leading from the front and showing through example that it works
Also pretty sure China is moving aggressively away from coal too,despite the fact that some new coal plants are being built under certain conditions for various political and economic reasons.
Slowly, very slowly away. They've only decreased their coal consumption by 2% since 2013, and I'm betting a sizable portion of that was a result of the hit to their steel industry. China still derives 73% of it's power generation from coal. By comparison, in 2010 Canada derived just over 20% of its power generation from fossil fuels including coal.
And unfortunately, some of China's green energy projects ain't that green. Like the Three Gorges Dam that will flood an insane amount of land and displace as many as 2 million people.
Look at the previously praised leaders of green energy development. Britain: No more subsidies for wind and solar. It was killing their economy. Spain: While still working on developing completely new forms of renewable energy, have ended subsidies to wind and solar. They were losing two jobs in other sectors for every one job job created in the green energy sector. I believe Denmark is still subsidizing offshore wind power but not land based wind farms anymore. And Germany, well once Fukushima happened, the Germans got all knee-jerky and went "Oh mein Got. What if ve have an earthquake and tidal vave in Central Germany?", started the closure process for all of their nuclear plants, tossed wind and solar out the window and are going full bore coal/lignite power.
Why? Because wind and solar as they are, suck hind teat for mass generation of power. So unless Tater Tot has some new technology up his sleeve, we're just gonna be pissing into the wind.
Ontario could get away with phasing out coal because of our large nuclear capacity and decent hydroelectric capacity. Toss in a few gas plants for flexibility (sans the stupid wind and solar crap) and we would have been golden.
But not all the other provinces have that advantage. How much arable farmland are they going to fuck up to plant wind and solar farms across the country? How many tracts of woods will they chop down to make room?
And with the exception of a very small handful of specific locations with direct access to geo-thermal vents, geo-thermal power ain't happening in Canada without fracking.
Look, I'm not all "Hey, who gives a crap about the planet I'll be dead before it is". I believe in environmental responsibility. But you have to weigh that responsibility with certain realities.
If there was a way to generate truly reliable, flexible and green renewable power, trust me, I'd be cheering it as loudly as the next guy. But mass generated wind and solar in a country like Canada is NOT going to cut it.
Like I said, Tater Tot better have a trick up his sleeve, and I mean a good trick, not the kind where he manages to bend the entire country over like some national version of the Wynned Bag's rape-fest.
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