Wind power and EV sales stalling or in retreat, while coal, oil and gas advance. Things are not going according to the climate alarm script, despite assorted government interventions.
– – –
If you are at all interested in matters of climate and energy, you have probably read hundreds of articles over the past few years about the inevitability of the coming energy transition, says the Manhattan Contrarian.
A piece of the claimed inevitability is that all good and decent people support this transition as a matter of moral urgency; but it’s not just that.
Nor is it just that government backs the transition with all its coercive powers, from subsidies to mandates to regulations. No, most importantly, the transition is said to have become inevitable due to unstoppable economic forces.
Wind and solar are now the least expensive ways to generate electricity! Electric vehicles are superior and are taking over the market! And the legacy fossil fuel producers who refuse to change their ways are seeing their huge investments become “stranded assets” that can no longer compete in the new world and must be written off!
Well, look to Manhattan Contrarian as your go-to source for news on how this supposed energy transition is going. The summary is that all the mandates and regulations and trillions of dollars in subsidies in the world can’t make the impossible happen. Here are a few items from the past week:
Continued here.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Gas+coal+oil steady at ~80% of the total.
What, more space debris?
Data source and date for your ‘pie chart’ please OB.
Kind regards, Ray Dart (AKA suricat).
U.S. Natural Gas Consumption Hits New Record
Feb 06, 2024
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/US-Natural-Gas-Consumption-Hits-New-Record.html
The headline says it all.
Ray D – The chart is from the IEA (iea.org), published by Penn State Uni here:
https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth104/node/1345
No sign of a date, they say ‘current’. Here’s another one, source as shown, possibly more up to date.
darteck says: February 6, 2024 at 12:33 pm
Apologies for linking two threads there OB, but unless we ‘cut down on oil, coal’, and ‘increase our use’ of ‘natural gas’ (less CO2 per ‘bang’) we may well need those ‘solar umbrellas’ orbiting the Earth (space debris) if CO2 actually ‘does’ increase the ‘altitude’ at which Earth radiates ‘thermal energy’.
However, ‘water vapor’ (WV) is a ‘more active’ IR ‘damper’ than CO2. It just has a ‘shorter half life’ (~10-14 days) than the more ‘lingering’ CO2 (as per the IPCC assessment), thus WV’s atmospheric total content is ‘ignored’ by the IPCC whereas WV may well be the ‘antithesis’ to any altering ‘activity’ (concentrations) of CO2 within Earth’s atmosphere.
More ‘warming’ due to CO2 leads to the greater evolution of WV (humidity science/data) which is ‘short lived’ and ‘ignored’ by the IPCC. Thus, Earth’s elevated temperature is ‘stabilized’ (is that an an ‘American’ spell correction?) by ‘raising’ the ‘cloud top’ elevation that ‘most likely/seems to’ ‘follows/follow’ the ‘altitude’ at which Earth ‘radiates its IR temperature signal’?
WV certainly ‘damps’ any ‘temperature elevation/temperature reduction’ at Earth’s surface.
Kind regards and apologies, Ray Dart (AKA suricat).
Och mannie, Dartek, ”as per the IPCC assessment” …. I’m gettin’ triggered again …. much like the EU wanting to sanction wotsis name from the US for going speaking to Putin.
Half life or not if we’re going to be burning H2 or CH4, either way it’ll be a lot of HOT water going somewhere More fogs, hazy skies or wotnot …. Help! I’m getting triggered again … THink Putin told the Real Stuff.
saighdear says: February 8, 2024 at 9:33 am
I concur, to an extent. The human population on Earth has never previously reached the level as it has today. However, ‘changes’ in our ‘behavior’ may well reduce our influence on/to our planet.
Meanwhile, I’ll raise a ‘glass’ to you. Slange!
Kind regards, Ray Dart (AKA suricat).
darteck says: February 9, 2024 at 11:49 pm
BTW, the ‘darteck thread’ no longer exists here on ‘wordpress’.
Further to my last post; because ‘WV’ (water vapor) is ‘unstable’ as it ‘rises’ through Earth’s atmosphere (WV is ~3/5ths the density of other gasses that make up our atmosphere) and cools to form ‘clouds’ as it rises and cools with altitude its ‘IR opacity’ alters into a degree of ‘mie scattering’ as it condenses into ‘cloud’.
‘Cloud formation’ tends to shield the Earth’s surface from ‘insolation’ (INcomming SOLar radiATION) and ‘is/seems to be’ the main factor considered by the IPCC (alongside with its ‘short half life [please ‘realise’ that this is a ‘continuum’]) to ‘ignore’ WV as a ‘radiative gas’. However, other factors may influence the activity of WV!
For example, how does the ‘inclusion’ of ‘another radiative gas’ alter the ‘altitude’ at which ‘cloud formation’ is enabled? How much does the ‘formation of cloud’ alter the Earth’s ‘absorption’ of ‘INSOLATION’ (the ‘insolation’ to Earth’s ‘atmosphere’ is the ‘same’)?
More questions!?!?
Kind regards, Ray Dart (AKA suricat).