Modern Poverty
Going back to nature and living in poverty are possible today, even in a world where we’re surrounded by modern conveniences. As Robert Bryce puts it in a recent article—Carbon Myopia—more than three billion people today live in energy poverty, and that should put the hand-wringing about American CO2 emissions in a different light. The societies these people live in will do what it takes to get their people electricity, and with it, the promise of life in greater comfort.
Bryce chides:
Indeed, while the climate claque clucks about rising EV sales and favorite color-of-the-rainbow hydrogen, billions of people on the planet are stuck in dire energy poverty. The average American now consumes 20 times more energy per year than the average resident of Africa, and four times more than the average resident of Asia. Need another comparison? There are 1.4 billion Africans, who, on average, consume about 600 kilowatt-hours of electricity per capita, per year. The average American consumes that much electricity every three weeks.
From the rich-world perspective, it is the fact that we consume so much energy that is the problem in need of fixing. From the developing world perspective, it is the low consumption of power among those citizens that needs to be addressed. Artificially restricting energy supply amounts to choosing to eschew wealth in favor of impoverishment, whereas expanding access to cheap, abundant energy means increasing societal wealth.
Nonetheless, in the pursuit of what this blog contends are rather convoluted climate goals, the United States has spent something on the order of two trillion dollars attempting to wring watts from sun and wind, consuming a lot of rare raw materials and square miles of wilderness in the process. The added costs of all that excess electric infrastructure will raise prices and the cost of living.
Bryce’s whole essay is worth reading. It takes a critical look at current federal energy policy and public policy ambitions, especially as laid out in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act of last year. The whole project looks downright silly in the context of what is happening in the rest of the world. What developing countries are pursuing promises to dwarf any domestic American initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions.
Very uncomfortably warm here, and last night we had a major storm—it was hard to sleep! I think I was awake for a couple of hours, and even the dog woke up. He was a little fussy, and I thought about bringing him into our bed, but I knew that would be a mistake!!! Fortunately, he settled down quickly.
I’m so grateful we can bring our horses in and blast the fans. We have metal gates instead of those stall doors that slide, and usually just have an opening with metal bars on the top half. We’re able to put a large floor fan in front of the gate that blows directly into the stalls. Then we have a much larger barn fan in the isle, along with doors that open on all sides of the barn. We usually get a decent cross breeze, but not lately!
Other than helping my husband with the horses, I’m mostly hanging out inside!
And finally, I think our cat is getting closer to the end. However, we’ve thought that too many times to count. Still, the poor guy has lost a lot of weight, and it seems like he’s not eating, or at least, he’s not eating much. He’s restless sometimes, but of course, he sleeps a lot, and sometimes he just crouches and I hope he’s not too uncomfortable.
We’ve taken him to the vet several times, and they aren’t finding anything in particular. He’s on a kidney care diet, but something tells me that’s no longer helping much. But he’s also 18 and will be 19 in December, if he lasts that long. I know a couple of people here have lost cats this year. Weird that we all have or had old cats at the same time. I hate this.
I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube lately, and I’ve somehow managed to get a good algorithm going because I’m getting some great history videos! https://youtu.be/6Nt7xLAfEPs?si=F6Hs4vuGULKzGTfP The description is, “Automata: The Extraordinary “Robots” Designed Hundreds of Years Ago.” It’s excellent! I think I need to subscribe to their channel.