The Fools Around Us

Ironically I wrote this 3 months prior to my previous post on this blog titled "The Power Of Nature". I just wonder if and when sanity will ever be restored in Canada and the world at large. I am now starting to doubt that I will live long enough to see that.

I was told once that I do not tolerate fools gladly. And an all too prevalent foolishness is that we in Canada can do something about “Climate Change”, “Global Warming” or whatever you want to call it. Here we are in a country of just over 36 million and too many think we can counteract what is being done by the billions who live elsewhere. The only ones who will see an impact are ourselves as we turn our land into a third world country as we kill off our own industries in the Quixotic attempt to make a difference.

So these fools say let’s move to “Green Energy” as it doesn’t pollute and is “free”. Well, start asking questions, such as from what and how are those solar cells or windmills produced? Yes, wind and light are “free for the taking” but silicon and the metals and composites used to construct the devices needed to collect that energy do not grow on trees! In the final analysis the only thing “green” is the colour of money as the modern day P.T. Barnum’s who run the manufacturing plants overseas laugh all the way to the bank.

In the meantime home grown industries are dying because energy costs are soaring so we can pay for this extravagance.

Another related fools game is converting thermal generating stations, which by the way can be turned off and on as demand requires unlike those “free” methods of solar and wind, from coal to “biomass”, or in layman’s terms, wood. So we take a natural occurring mineral, coal, which through heat and pressure nature has transformed so that it now it has far more energy per unit volume than just about anything else that can be burned and we replace it with wood, one of the most inefficient?

While it will result in a short term positive effect on our local economy no way can we compete with others once “economies of scale” are brought to bear. Basic economics says that if supply goes up, unless there is an equal or greater increase in demand, prices will go down. To illustrate take for example the application of clear-cutting on the pulp and paper industry. It didn’t take too long before prices collapsed and mills closed permanently.

As in the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes we must not believe everything we are told, especially when the evidence does not support those claims. And don’t just take my word. Do your own research and see what conclusions you draw. I bet you will be surprised!