Energy Guru: Talk of Global Approaches to Energy Is Ridiculous

So, I've been saying that global warming is dead - from a policy perspective - for many reasons, one of which is that the rest of the world either doesn't believe the West or just doesn't care.

The WSJ has an interview with energy guru Vaclav Smil (I've been following Smil for over 10 years, which makes me way cooler than you).  Here is one apropos tidbit...

MR. BALL: Is there a big energy transition going on now?

MR. SMIL: There is and there isn't. Have you ever heard about Russians wanting to have more wind turbines and more solar? Have you had Turks being terribly interested about any of these things? Have you had people in Indonesia worrying about putting up more solar? There are hundreds of millions of people around this planet, and their leaders, who couldn't care less.

 

Yup.

 

And, well, there are the Chinese

 

MR. BALL: What you've essentially described is that nothing fundamental is happening. Am I wrong about that?

MR. SMIL: It is and it isn't. Look at the Chinese example. They are building all these wind capacities and solar capacities, but in the past eight years they added one billion tons of coal production. It took the good old U.S. 150 years to gear it up to one billion tons. And they want to add another one billion tons of coal in the next six years. So it doesn't matter how many wind turbines are built.

 

The Chinese don't care, as I've said, but nor should they.