The True Cost of Fossil Fuels
Here is a new post on a subject that I think lies at the very crux of the discussion on renewable energy: identifying the true costs of fossil fuels. Yes, the migration to renewable energy is expensive, but it’s the bargain of the century when one honestly and carefully adds up all the costs — obvious and hidden — associated with coal and oil — not to mention nuclear. As long as we as a civilization live under the delusion that “gas prices are low,” we’re destined to follow irrelevant discussions on the subject of its alternatives.
The most obvious candidates for inclusion in this list of costs are healthcare, global climate change, and ocean acidification. While no one suggests that quantifying the cost of the damage in any of these categories is easy, I call readers’ attention to this recent article in the New York Times that opens a discussion on the subject, quoting a report from the National Academy of Sciences. The article concentrates on the healthcare issues, and points to a cost of about $120 billion a year in US alone (less than 5% of the world’s population), due largely to the thousands of premature deaths caused by air pollution.
Of course, these figures don’t put a price on the enormity of the human misery associated with these premature deaths — most of which are cancer. It’s ironic that we’re talking about the cost of treating people who are slowly succumbing to agonizing deaths, while not even mentioning the suffering of the patients — and that of their loved ones.
To be fair, these costs are even harder to quantify. In a way, one could argue that these are all cases of “wrongful death,” insofar as we actually have the technology at hand to make the move to renewables, but we find it politically infeasible to stop mining coal and pumping oil. It certain makes one wonder if the energy industry will be facing the same type of class-action lawsuits (not to mention public loathing) that has greeted the tobacco industry over the last half century.
In any case, articles like this New York Times piece indicate that we’re starting to ask ourselves the right questions. And as always, that’s a prerequisite to finding the right answers.
Good post, Craig. I enjoyed the NYT article, too. I agree that “that we’re starting to ask ourselves the right questions.”
GA: Thanks. It’s an amazing time to be alive, don’t you think? So many things to be deeply worried about, yet many reasons to maintain a positive outlook.
Same basic subject matter that we’ve previously commented on – negative externalities. These are not newsworthy. I do however accept the notion that we need to continue raising the subject because some fraction of the population is truly unaware of them.
This is why I have previously stated that policy needs to be our focus. It is impossible to effect bottom up change in policy. Only governments can level the playing field for all concerned in a freemarket economy. However the readers of this list may identify themselves – conservative, liberal, libertarian, progressive, etc., the one thing we must agree to in common is the need for policy change. Otherwise, this is simply the never-ending war right up to the point we self-destruct.
It is a fair criticism to state that in a world of free trade, national policy still doesn’t level the playing field. That is a challenge that I can only suggest we devote our best thought, and is why such meetings as Copenhagen must continue to occur, even with all the dysfunctionality they seem to currently possess.
2greenenergy is making a serious mistake by ruling out nuclear energy.
Thirty years ago, there was good reason to have strong reservations about nuclear energy. However, with modern reactors, those concerns are no longer valid.
The nuclear “waste” we now have is actually more than 60% uranium 238 and also contains plutonium. It can be used as fuel in fast breeder reactors and the resulting waste from those reactors is tiny compared with the waste from the more common pressurized water thermal reactors. Moreover, the waste from fast breeders decays so quickly that it needs to be sequestered for only a few hundred years.
The technology to use thorium for reactor fuel has been successfully tested and reactors using liquid fuel (thorium tetrafluoride) are very safe.
I recommend reading the book “Prescription for the Planet” by Tom Blees. Although the book is not perfect, it does an excellent job of explaining the need for nuclear power, especially in countries which have such a high population density that wind and solar would never be able provide for their growing need for power. Also, do a google search on “thorium reactors” for more information on using thorium as nuclear fuel.
The question that needs to be asked more than any other right now is “What are people for?”
Everything else is justified by what we believe humans are good for. So far, we have demonstrated that humans are good consumers, eating and driving their way into the hearts of the wealthiest 2%.
The debate over whether to feed that system with nuclear, fossil, or renewable power is moot if the energy is simply going to be used to support consuming the phosphorus, iron, water, air, or stability of the planet in the name of “human desires” or “the invisible hand job”.
If a true shift in thinking doesn’t occur (regardless of whether at the top by implementing a consumption tax or at the bottom by ignoring “civilized” behaviors and consuming less voluntarily), then sometime down the road, the human race will be extinct: whether they do it with windmills, solar panels, battery vehicles or diesel Humvees doesn’t matter.
Humans need to learn to be useful to the future of their children and their children’s world or worlds. If we aren’t useful to the real world of the future, then why try to save any of us?
Optimism?…pessimism…? It doesn’t matter if we end up eating everything and then each other because we don’t understand the fundamental process of nature. We have eliminated any forms of predators or other moderating forces on ourselves. We have to create laws or systems to make up for a huge natural part of human control that is missing from the picture in our modern age. If we aren’t going to die, then we had better live in a way that allows us to live. Consumption tax: on everything, for everyone. If we are still buying stuff, then it isn’t high enough.
Death by fossil fuels and nuclear power??? So how many deaths happen per year on earth due to fossil fuels? How many deaths are caused each year by nuclear power? A typical scare tactic by left wing environmentalists who apparently are against capitalism and progress. Let’s see, not much more than a hundred years ago prior to the industrialized world, when the air was super clean…..what was the average life span of a human??? Now today…in this awful smog-filled world of man-made (and now cow manure made CO2) pollution what is the average life span and standard of living??? Man’s largest health issues are caused by voluntary behavior…poor food choices, lack of exercise, and smoking.
In terms of fossil fuel pollution, the technology exists today to make harmless the truely harmful gases out of industrial plants and transportation vehicles….we do this in the USA already….yet most emerging countries fail to do so…e.g. India and China in large urban cities. Why not focus attention there first rather using more scare tactics to try to promote change based on scare tactics and falsehoods? Also…as the truth is coming out…man made global warming now appears to be a man-made lie simply for one idealogical group to gain power over man and work towards how they think man should behaive…this is truly one of the largest scientific community travesties in our lifetime. So let the environmental extremists ignore truth and facts and fail to focus on low lying fruits that can really help mankind. Let’s focus on cleaning up the air in the mega-cities now!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
You must be too young to remember Chernobyl. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster. It’s not leftwing propaganda; it really happened.
You make my case…deaths caused by fossil fuels and nuclear power plants are tiny. Do you know how many people die in car crashes each day? Nuclear power was not the root cause of the Russian incident but rather failure of the country to properly design and safeguard an industrial process. Japan, France, USA, and others now use nuclear power and it is very clean and very safe. May the true facts and real technological progress help us achieve a clean planet and prosperous one based on freedom and not idealogical control based on scare tactics and the end of the world. What is % make-up of CO2 in the atmosphere? Has warming caused CO2 increase or vice versa? Climate swings have naturally occurred in the past and will again. Facts are clearer now…and Climate-gate reveals the scam….see just one article of many that exposes the truth…link here: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/
It is becoming clear that man made CO2 has not caused global warming…in fact the earth has been cooling for the last decade. Even the CBC understands it…see the video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3309910462407994295#
You can ignore the facts and truth, bu it will not change them. We need more men of integrity who can at least debate with facts rather than scare tactics. The general public are also not buying it anymore…new public opinion polls now shows a major swing against this largest scientific-political scam in the world’s history. The UN and Copenhagen is not about protecting humans and the environment…it is all about stealing from the weathly to give to poor countries becuase of jealously and false guilt. The truth is that the free countries like the USA and free market capitalism will maximize propsperity AND provide the best technology to reduce or eliminate harmful pollutants. True enviornmentalists who want clean air and water should focus on real science and and technology and economical solutions and exit the political control & corruption arena.
Thank God the world is waking up!
It’s funny; my blogging software somehow identified your post and asked me to approve or reject it, where normally anyone can post a comment. Of course, when I read it (though I disagree with what you’ve written here) I approved it immediately. I’m not into censorship; as long as we’re all respectful of one another, I encourage divergent points of view.
Listen to all pros & cons, argue what you will, read the bible, Christian or not, the final outcome is the same if we continue to argue, “the one world government” & a world-wide “Nazi Germany.” Have a very Merry Christmas!
The burning of fossil fuels in roughly 60,000 vehicles worldwide, and in 50,000 coal fired electrical generators worldwide creates, in a traditionally forested world, about a 10% gape of non-absorbed carbon in the atmosphere. This accumulates each year, thickening the carbon filter of solar energy. But it is not a traditionally forested world. Hundreds, thousands of acres of forest are being cut down in Indonesia and Brazil. The result is a gap of 25% non-absorbed carbon. This has already created an atmospheric carbon index of 390 ppm, with an increas of 2 ppm each year. And, as the permafrost, in Canada and Siberia has begun to melt, methane is being released into the atmosphere. Methane retains solar energy 20 times more than carbon dioxide. This rapid increase has been going on for the last 10 years without any attempt to ameliorate it until very recently. But, the amound of heat retained has already started the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic glaciers. When melted, these two glaciers will increase the sea level by 167 feet. That will inundate most of coastal land, and coastal cities, worldwide. But that will take about 40 years. In 25 years the level of rise will be about 40 to 50 feet. That will be enough to end civilization as we know it, as well as most states, including the United States, in the world.
And the efforts to reduce the carbon in the atmosphere, thusfar, are less than meager. Nothing is being done to alter the 25 years schedule described above. Anyone want to cost out this doing practically nothing?
I am engineer who worked on a repair team during the TMI accident. On a cost per kilowatt of installed capacity, or on a cost-per-kilowatt hour basis, nuclear power is costlier than any renewable technology. We need not even consider the safety issues. It is very expensive. Also, none of the ‘new’ nuclear technologies has been successfully run at a commercial level.
The main virtue has over renewable energy is only a limited few entities can afford to own one and they have meters. Were someone able to figure out how to own the sun and put a meter on it we would have solar power tomorrow.
Nuclear Energy is not a option, If all the nations were to go to NE then we’ed have to find an alternative energy in 30years as all known resources will have been used up. Nuclear power plants require vast amounts of concrete that emits huge amount of CO2 in the process. Then there’s the matter of all that energy required to bury the waste in more concrete.
Renewable Energy directly (solar of various types) or indirectly (wind, wave, bio-energy from waste) from the sun or geothermal is the only real option. Increased lifespan is from medical advances not from changes in the atmosphere. Some countries still don’t get this privilege of increased lifespan. It is only the wealthy energy hungry natons that have the increased lifespan, to the detriment of many others. My dad told me how he used to feel his way home in London’s “Pea Soupers”, the smog so thick from coal fires he couldn’t see more than foot.
Something that scientists and all humans should worry about more than carbon dioxide, as great a problem as that is, should be the pollution such as lead, mercury, nitrous based compounds. These pose a greater threat and a more immediate threat to humanity. Neurogenic diseased are increasing dramatically, respiratory diseases are rampant, and cancers from air and water pollution, many of which come from fossil fuel power plants, are on the rise. If we take the actual cost of fossil fuels in their totality, human beings can’t afford it.
Hi Craig,
Thanks again for all the enriching viewpoints. I love reading the posts. I agree. It’s a time to make hay even though the sun is not shining as brightly as before.
MERRY HOLIDAYS!!!
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