I took the photo above as is sit in the warm winter sun here in Discovery Bay, HK. A random photo with random stuff. Can I see anything that doesn’t involve a fossil fuel?
What about the wood? Looks like Douglas Fir from Canada. Likely from a plantation. Which involves plastics, herbicides, fungicides, fertilisers, made from fossil fuels. Then there’s lots of machinery to plant, to harvest and to turn logs into lumber. Some of those might be electrified. Maybe. But they’re made of steel and steel needs coking coal. Electric blast furnaces have been around for years but aren’t viable at scale. Coking coal is a must for steel and steel is a must for modern society. Then the lumber has to be shipped to China — more steel, more ships 98% of which are Diesel. They ars not going electric or sail any time soon.
The aluminium tube for the umbrella needs mining by machines — more steel — and shipping — more steel — and fabrication, which uses big lumps of electricity. Electricity, hooray! That can be RE. Yes, but… , but competing with the increasing demands we’re putting on electricity from electric cars and all those lumber-logging electric vehicles we’ll be producing.…
What else? The iPad has heaps made from petroleum products including the plastic bits and the steel bits and the aluminium bits and lots in the electronics, including copper which will be competing for the ever greater needs we’ll have for Cu from electric vehicles and batteries. While copper resources are declining.
What about the flowers? Well, I’d grant those. Though I suspect, this being Hong Kong, that they use fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides to grow them, chemical, all made from fossil fuels.
This is not to suggest that the move to RE is doomed. But to point out that “Net Zero” is near as damn it impossible, especially the ones set for ten or twenty years. Stretch goals are good. But not impossible ones.
Mark Mills on the Net Zero dream.
