Energy Renewables: Too Much Hot Air

The extreme heat waves that hit Europe and the U.S. this summer are leading to cries from some quarters that we must hasten the transition from oil, gas and coal to energy alternatives. The prospect of an expensive and ultracold winter in Europe, thanks to Vladimir Putin’s sharply reducing or cutting off Russia’s natural gas supplies to the continent, will likely increase demands for so-called renewables.

Action is required, but on a practical and scientific basis.

First, a bit of context. As hard as it is to believe right now, heat waves are no more common today than they were in the early 1900s. Moreover, thanks to better and more timely warnings, better building structures, better transportation systems and better medical treatments, the number of deaths from weather-related catastrophes such as floods has declined almost 99% over the past 100 years. That’s right, nearly 99%.

Doomsayers maintain that temperatures are rising over time. True, but not even close to the scale we’ve been warned about for decades. As climate expert Bjørn Lomborg and others have noted, we have plenty of time to adjust to fractional changes.

For heat waves, which we will get more of over the next 100 years, there are practical measures we can take. For example, Lomborg points out that Spain has successfully pushed for the use of lighter colors in roofing materials, which reduces the concentration of heat. Of course, the best antidote is air conditioning. We have plenty of that here, but it barely exists in Britain and elsewhere.

As for carbon dioxide emissions, it’s about time policymakers came to grips with the fact that developing countries aren’t about to forsake future economic growth by banning fossil fuels. India and China are busily constructing scores of new coal-fired power plants.

Western preachments about climate change strike these nations as hypocritical. Behind the scenes, both India and China make clear that they want to reach Western living standards, and that leads to using more oil, gas and coal.

Fast-growing high tech is also a gargantuan user of energy, which means future demand will vastly exceed current estimates of future needs. Already, as energy expert Mark Mills observes, “The global cloud uses twice as much electricity as the entire nation of Japan.” Windmills and solar panels alone can hardly meet future needs.

Here again, the solutions are clear. Natural gas is a clean fuel, as many in green-minded Europe now acknowledge. However, more natural gas production in the U.S. is being hindered by regulatory wars against permits, production and pipelines. In addition, there are plenty of natural gas reserves in Europe and Britain, but production there is blocked by obtuse governments. Britain’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, has ended her country’s ban on fracking, but serious regulatory obstacles still need to be cleared.

Then, of course, there’s nuclear power, which gives off no greenhouse gas emissions.

Here’s another big thing to consider: As temperatures rise, cold weather is less common. Significantly more people perish from cold than from heat. The number of deaths from cold weather has declined at more than twice the increase in the number of deaths from high temperatures.

The problems are real—but so are the solutions.