Wow, Chris. One of the best podcasts we've invested in this year. Outstanding.
On symbiosis, it occurred to us: in the absence of some major breakthrough to replace coking coal, imagine the coal burn necessary to produce the steel needed for nuclear plants (500 Gw? 1 Tw? Over the next 100+ years).
Drax is a sore spot with us, too (May 2024, "A Pulp Fiction". Shameless plug, but won't pollute your comments section with link). Made worse by the fact that two of us have wandered the boreal forest in N. Alberta several times, near the NWT. We walked within 35 yards of a Canada lynx while grouse hunting once. Incredible. Saw gray wolves at night near the Peace River. Saw how ducks use boreal beaver ponds as a breeding habitat safety valve during years when the prairies are dry.
Pardon our French, but that Crown land boreal forest ecosystem is not to be f#&ked with for burning trees in power plants. Same with Southern pine plantations or Baltic forests. Not just no, but hell no.
Robert Bryce sometimes uses the term "Hopium". If it pleases your MD framing, "Hopofol" works as well. Western populace has to get off these utopian green drugs before we waste more time/resources. Credit to you for airing Jean-Baptiste Fressoz' reality check.
Very impressed with your work, Doc. In Ontario and across the world. Very glad you're on Substack. Two thumbs up.
Fascinating. I worked years ago on a show with a Spanish logistician and statistician who spoke at length about the relative energy use is the consumption of "thing" as an interrelated series of events from mining of ore to manufacturing and transportation through consumption. In this way he could compare the relative net energy between a par of butter and a ball point pen. And even that comparison has built in assumptions depending on the change in technology that brings about efficiencies, etc.
Wow, Chris. One of the best podcasts we've invested in this year. Outstanding.
On symbiosis, it occurred to us: in the absence of some major breakthrough to replace coking coal, imagine the coal burn necessary to produce the steel needed for nuclear plants (500 Gw? 1 Tw? Over the next 100+ years).
Drax is a sore spot with us, too (May 2024, "A Pulp Fiction". Shameless plug, but won't pollute your comments section with link). Made worse by the fact that two of us have wandered the boreal forest in N. Alberta several times, near the NWT. We walked within 35 yards of a Canada lynx while grouse hunting once. Incredible. Saw gray wolves at night near the Peace River. Saw how ducks use boreal beaver ponds as a breeding habitat safety valve during years when the prairies are dry.
Pardon our French, but that Crown land boreal forest ecosystem is not to be f#&ked with for burning trees in power plants. Same with Southern pine plantations or Baltic forests. Not just no, but hell no.
Robert Bryce sometimes uses the term "Hopium". If it pleases your MD framing, "Hopofol" works as well. Western populace has to get off these utopian green drugs before we waste more time/resources. Credit to you for airing Jean-Baptiste Fressoz' reality check.
Very impressed with your work, Doc. In Ontario and across the world. Very glad you're on Substack. Two thumbs up.
Fascinating. I worked years ago on a show with a Spanish logistician and statistician who spoke at length about the relative energy use is the consumption of "thing" as an interrelated series of events from mining of ore to manufacturing and transportation through consumption. In this way he could compare the relative net energy between a par of butter and a ball point pen. And even that comparison has built in assumptions depending on the change in technology that brings about efficiencies, etc.
Excellent. Really. Thank-you.
ps-was inspired enough to attempt a small plug for the piece.
https://markelliottmd.substack.com/p/fressozs-new-book-is-superb
This was a super interesting episode!