“[I]t is utterly futile, on a priori grounds, even to think that wind power can make any significant contribution to world energy supply, let alone to emissions reductions, without ruining the planet. As the extraordinary polymath Sir David MacKay pointed out, the arithmetic is against such unreliable renewables.”
– Matt Ridley, “Wind is an Irrelevance to the Energy and Climate Debate“(May 15, 2017)
An op-ed and blog post several months ago by Matt Ridley is still making the rounds. A great thinker, Ridley gets to the essence of things. He is hard to ignore, even by his critics. Ridley’s book The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (2010), is a seminal contribution in the Julian Simon tradition. (His other work can be found here.)
Here are some salient excerpts from his op-ed/post:
“[Wind power’s] contribution is still, after decades — nay centuries — of development, trivial to the point of irrelevance.
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“When environmental groups act to endanger the very environment they claim to be defending, what conclusion must be drawn in regards to their purpose? There goal is not transparency, truth, nor are these isolated incidents. It is a attempt to reverse the march of progress. As one environmental protestor recently stated at an Occupy rally, ‘Our very existence is bad for the planet.’ And another, ‘if you take humanity off this planet, the planet would explode with prosperity.’”
Energy Transfer Partners L.P. has sued Greenpeace International, Earth First!, Red Warrior Camp and numerous other parties accusing them of collaboration as a “Criminal Enterprise”. The suit states “the Enterprise” collaborated to incite terrorist acts, vandalism and the fabrication of false information in an effort to generate publicity for the purpose of raising money.…
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