I just couldn’t decide what graphic to use to introduce this ridiculous story, this photo from The “March to End Fossil Fuels” in Manhattan over the weekend…
…or this video from the Ethics Alarms clip archive:
I must say, I’m leaning toward the video. The protesters are morons.
It is impossible to “end fossil fuels” until there are practical, affordable, effective substitutes for fossil fuels in the myriad ways civilization depends on it. These and similar protests, fueled by cynical politicians trying to expand their power (and totalitarian agendas) and insufficiently educated and rational members of the public indoctrinated by media propaganda and fear-mongering, are the equivalent of infantile tantrums. End war! End hunger! End poverty! End inequality! End gun violence! End prejudice! My mother refused to accept that she had to die at some point, but at least she didn’t take to the streets to demand an end to mortality.
Morons.
Morons!
“We have people all across the world in the streets, showing up, demanding a cessation of what is killing us,” Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, who suffers from Dunning-Kreuger Syndrome, told a cheering crowd. “We have to send a message that some of us are going to be living on this planet 30, 40, 50 years from now. And we will not take no for an answer.”
Oh, good. Don’t take no for an answer, when it is crystal clear that “yes” means deciding to live in Fantasyland until reality imposes, as it always does and must.
Biden’s Energy Department Secretary Jennifer Granholm had such a collision with facts during a June 27 “green energy” promotional stunt that had her driving from South Carolina to Athens, Georgia in an electric car in a fleet of them. She was supposed to stop at a public charging station outside Augusta to recharge the vehicles, but her advance staff determined the station would not be able to accommodate the caravan: one charger was broken and others were in use. So a Granholm staffer used a gas-powered car to squat in the station’s only available charger until Granholm and the green brigade arrived. An angry family to call the cops on the tactic, saying on a 911 call, reported by the Washington Free Beacon,”There’s literally a non-electric car that is taking up the space, they said they’re holding the space for somebody else, and it’s holding up a whole bunch of people who need to charge their cars. There’s other people who are waiting to charge, and they’re still here, and they’re not an electric car, and the sign says that … you can’t park here unless you’re charging. … They said that their person is going to be here in two minutes that they’re holding the spot for.”
Granholm’s cheating notwithstanding, technology and infreastructure isn’t ready to “end fossil fuels NOW.” Electric vehicle drivers often can’to find public charging stations, and those who do locate a station often encounter broken and crowded chargers. Granholm’s group included a Ford F-150 Lightning and a Cadillac Lyriq, both of which can cost more than $60,000. Never mind. That’s just reality. End reality now!
Biden”s minions are still pushing for regulations that will mandate electric vehicles, with the Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration floating rules that mandate automakers to make more electric cars than gas-powered ones by 2032. Why not?
It is at least amusing that the marching morons are angry at Biden, as if the United States has the power to move the “climate change” needle back one iota without the full cooperation of China, India, and the Third World nations, even if all the hysterical doomsday prediction were accurate. The protesters want an unconstitutional, dangerous and stupid declaration of “a climate emergency” so the mentally-declining POTUS will have sweeping executive powers.” Ooooh, good plan.
Morons.
“We hold the power of the people, the power you need to win this election,” said 17-year-old Emma Buretta of Brooklyn of the youth protest group Fridays for Future. “If you want to win in 2024, if you do not want the blood of my generation to be on your hands: end fossil fuels!”
Sure, let’s send civilization back to the Stone Age based on the wisdom, analysis and experience of a 17-year-old. At least Emma has a valid excuse for talking nonsense: it’s a kid thing. The real problem is her adult colleagues.
Ethics Alarms 
Of course, the real endgame is to end the freedom to travel easily. If vehicles and the power to run them outprice the market, there will be fewer vehicles and citizens will be limited in their ability to move freely throughout, not only the country, but also their own cities.
A few years ago, Indianapolis installed a Red Line bus system that made stops throughout the downtown area. During the period of promotion in which riding was free, we went downtown in order to attend an event. On the way out of the event, Mr. Golden got the idea that we could hop on the free bus to take us closer to our car so we wouldn’t have to walk so far.
We watched multiple buses drive by without stopping; buses stopped but couldn’t take on passengers because they were too full. After a 45 minute wait, by which time we could’ve walked the entire distance to our car and been home, a bus finally showed up and allowed us to board.
Imagine having a bag of perishable groceries in your arms. A child who needs a bathroom (in a city in which businesses are increasingly restricting public restrooms to paying customers only). A deadline that must be met.
If the entire city (except the wealthy, privileged electric car owners) is limited to public transportation for everything, that makes for a lot of wasted time.
Dare I ask what mode of transportation these protesters used to arrive at their rally point? It is my recollection that a significant number of indigenous tribes made money off of oil found on their reservations. . And how do these indigenous folks square their inordinate power usage at their myriad casinos to their desire to end fossil fuels?
No, you may not ask that question. I mean, really. John Kerry, et al, have already stated that their mission to end global warming and fossil fuels is paramount and no matter the amount of carbon footprint they leave is relevant to accomplishing that mission. Greta, the most important person on the planet have to travel by plane because her sailboat wouldn’t arrive at the exalted Doha (or some such . . .) conference on time. You know, trade winds and currents be damned. But, she cares so much so her actions are excused.
As for Sandy Cortez, she says some magnificently stupid things but I wouldn’t write her off under Dunning-Kreuger. I suspect she knows exactly what she is doing – if she doesn’t, her handlers do.
jvb
People forget that fossil fuels have pretty much never not been a part of civilization. They are necessary for our success in so many things. I thought maybe some history would be good to discuss today, rather than my usual soap box rant. When were fossil fuels first used, and by whom? There is legitimate debate among historians as to when exactly this was. Of course, to start the discussion, we need to know that there are several types of fossil fuels. Natural Gas, Petroleum, and Coal are the ones we utilize most now. Of those, coal was the eldest of the three, followed by petroleum, and then natural gas, depending on how you define the three. Of interest in our discussion, are two other compounds. Naphtha, which is petroleum, is straight run (unrefined) gasoline. Pitch is also known by another name, asphalt, which comes from either petroleum or coal. We get the majority of it from petroleum today, but it can also be called coal tar.
So when did we first use fossil fuels? We can all forget about the 70s, no matter what the AGCC crowd tries to argue. We all know that they predated that time frame, at least because Henry Ford sold Model T’s in the late 1920s. Indeed, his first ICE was the 1896 Quadricycle Runabout. The first ICE was developed in 1876. In 1802, London used coal gasification to light the streets. The Industrial Revolution started in 1760. People who like reading about medieval battles might think of the usage of naphtha and pitch as weapons of siege warfare in the years following the fall of the Roman Empire. However, we need to back up even further.
Pliny the Elder, a historian from the first century AD, also known for an offhand comment about some crazy guy in a backwater in Judea called Christus, mentioned the usage of naphtha in the Roman Empire at that time. China, however, beat the Romans to it (or at least had more accessible records) by using naphtha in the 4th century BC. We can also know that China used Natural Gas in 500 BC. China would like to be the winner on usage of coal too, with recorded usage at 3000 BC. However, the earliest definitively proven usage of fossil fuels comes from the Mediterranean, specifically the Babylonians in 4000 BC, as they used pitch to keep their boats waterproofed. Around that time, there were big asphalt pits in modern day Iraq that were well used too. China may have used pitch at that time too for their ships.
Yep, we were using fossil fuels DURING the Stone Age. So no, this wouldn’t even push us back to the Stone Age, it would push us into the Stone Age, GOING BACKWARD!
We have used fossil fuels to advance society for over 6000 years. They permeate everything. We have no replacements for wholesale fossil fuels usage. All manufacturing requires petroleum. There are things that do not require petroleum lubricants, but for many applications, the properties just cannot compare to petroleum lubricants. Plastics, varnishes, manufacturing of every sort, and more all use fossil fuels. Even renewable energy requires fossil fuels to work, at least in the manufacturing of parts, transportation and set up, and often, lubrication. Fossil fuels cannot be stopped without grave effects on every single aspect of our lives. Frankly, I just wish people who want all fossil fuels usage to be stopped give up their transportation (outside of walking), phones, and computers. That’ll get them understanding even the barest minimum of what they must give up. After they do that for a couple years, then they should work to only eat what they can eke out of unfertilized soil. I bet that, if they survive, they’ll understand more closely what they are actually asking of society.
Think also about how the ancients smelted iron and other metals. They used charcoal to heat the ores, which is made from wood. Unless you’re careful, industrial production of iron and steel can (and did) result in large scale deforestation of a region (e.g. Europe). I imagine the inability to make enough charcoal was a major reason for using coal instead.
If you end fossil fuel usage, people will return to burning wood, which will not be beneficial to the environment. Of course, if 95% of us are dead, and the rest living in hovels, the environment will likely not be the first thing on people’s minds.
I wish these anti-fossils activists practice the change they seek, and eliminate all products and services made or rendered by use of fossils (good luck!!).
Similarly, I wish feminists eliminate all products and services made or rendered by the patriarchy and/or straight men (good luck!!).
Why aren’t these protesters in school studying electrical engineering and chemistry and chemical engineering and nuclear physics so they can end fossil fuels? Ending fossil fuels now is much like addressing the Great Potato Famine by telling the poor Irish peasants (from which I descend) “Stop eating potatoes!” Brilliant.