The world just gets dumber by the day, Irina, thanks for bringing this latest episode to light!
My wife and I did a (mainly) kitchen renovation 2 years ago, and since we already had city-supplied LNG in the house for heating/hot water, we added another line for a LNG stove and clothes dryer.
We had always wanted a gas stove, and we simply LOVE it! Instant heat, more consistent stovetop, and it bakes like a dream. I simply cannot fathom going back to electric, like our Green-nosed clowns here in the US would like us to.
I'm hoping that one day, the unwashed masses will wake up to the energy insanity being foisted upon us by our elites, but after what I witnessed during COVID, I have little faith in They the Sheople....
Nothing beats a gas stove, yes. I resisted it for a while because I was scared of the open flame but my husband eventually prevailed (his mum has cooked on a gas stove all her life) and I never regretted it. I wish we had a gas network to use gas for heating as well but, alas, it's not going to happen during our lifetime.
We learned to love cooking with gas in our RV, and never want to go back!
When we expanded our LNG system, we also ran an extra tap for a a LNG out door grill, which is the best grill that I've ever had, and no more propane bottles that run out in the middle of cooking!
We also added taps for a clothes dryer and gas logs in the fireplace, but we're waiting for our fairly new elec. dryer to kick the bucket before we switch that, and we love our wood-burning fireplace insert too much to switch that to LNG just yet.
The US GOV will likely come after our wood-burner any day now, as I hear it displeases Gaia....
It's taken the IEA a very long time to come to this party. Sounds like the Clean Cooking organization (of course there's one, and of course it's a "global" non profit that gets between the producers and end users to do good) finally managed to get an email in his in box! Why a country like Nigeria can't create its own program to use more of the LPG it produces to decarbonize cooking there without outside help is an unanswered question. Indonesia has installed connections for LPG cylinders in virtually every home, and subsidizes the cost for a certain amount of it. The US has become the world's largest exporter of LPG in the last 10 years, and prices here are currently back to near historic lows vs crude. It's a good time to support investments in the assets to store, bottle, and distribute it in end markets that still openly burn smoky dung, wood, and kero if we're in subsidy mode anyway. Instead of cutting down American forests to make wood pellets for Europe, what if the EU were to expand its existing network of LPG distribution?
Reminds me of:… many Moons ago, a Catholic missionary told me how he had written a report for a US charity about living conditions in rural Africa. He mentioned in passing how the people dug latrines and squatted over them. Some weeks later, 10 000 lavatory seats arrived, sent by the charity.
One of the important factors the Stupids don’t consider is the lack of communications infrastructure - road/rail - and difficulties and cost of distributing anything. Back in the 80s in rural Africa gas bottles were available, but not many could afford them. Wood, animal dung, cost little or nothing and many people struggle to have something to cook, never mind how it’s cooked.
When I first went to live in France (back now) 20 years ago, most domestic electricity supply in rural France - and France has a very large rural population - was 3kVA - here in Britain at the time the standard was 14kVA. This was enough for lights and the telly, but not cookers or heating. The problem wasn’t lack of electricity - France had tons of nuke electricity - it was the grid wasn’t sufficiently developed to carry the load. Well it has been extensively upgraded last 20 years, but still the standard installation is 6kVA - if you want more, they charge more. Piped gas doesn’t exist in rural France, only available in cities and some big towns. Piped gas was only installed in a big town near where I lived just over 10 years ago.
Many people burn wood (France has a lot) for cooking and heating, or otherwise bottled gas for cooking and oil for heating. Now that’s France in the 21st Century 5th largest national economy.
And Coco-the-clown thinks ‘clean cooking’ for Africa is just a matter of wishing it?
That's strange, you just described rural Bulgaria, which, unlike France, is one of the smallest and poorest EU members. Good overview of the challenges, thanks!
When I went to live in France, I was rather surprised at how relatively primative it was away from the cities. As I was buying property, I visited a number of homes. Typically, one main room with bare light bulb from ceiling, sink in the corner, wood burning stove, sometimes a single gas ring and gas bottle, table with hard backed chairs, TV on top of a cupboard. Shabby decor. Very primitive plumbing, no mains drainage. I had two properties in France, the first only two years old, both had septic tanks there being no mains sewer line. Property was cheap by British standards, but generally required significant modernisation and renovation. I was told, young French people don’t buy old property, they prefer new build - I could see why.
De Gaulle, when rejecting Britain’s application to join the EEC (he deserves a sainthood for that) said it was a mismatch, Britain was an industrial Country with some agriculture, France was an agricultural Country with some industry.
Although it appears a very rich Country, many live a meagre life, dependent on welfare support, either from the EU CAP or from the State. Many in the tourist industry, rely heavily on the summer season, but come Autumn, many, bars, restaurants, hotels and attractions close, and the workers spend the Winter on welfare until Easter.
I read a few years ago, that on average 57% of the population are net recipients from the tax system, with higher percentages in some areas. I think France only survives economically because of the EU. The truth is, after decades of mismanagement and poor government, most ‘developed’ Countries are teetering on the brink of collapse - Net Zero is just the final shove.
The gilets jaunes protests were a manifestation of the plight of those in rural France who feel ignored, forgotten by the metropolitan elite. Macron is ‘not popular’ in the countryside, where Marine LePenn and her Party get most support.
It's the same everywhere, I guess, priority is always given to the big cities and the millions who live there. Cities are as a result always progressive, thanks to higher living standard, than rural areas, which are fertile ground for nationalism and I don't say this negatively.
Actually England is such a small place, urbanised and densely populated, that the divide isn’t between cities and countryside, but North v South. The North was the industrial heartland, very rich, the South more agricultural and poorer. But as old industry died, northern towns and cities suffered high unemployment, poor housing and conditions - inner city decay as it is labelled, with the South, because of London, becoming more prosperous as businesses wanted to be in or near the capital. London nowadays is almost a different Country - the London mayor - of Pakistani extraction - recently commented that a photograph of a White family on a tourist poster ‘didn’t represent the population of London’. England is racist, he says… with a Pakistani London mayor, and Indian Prime Minister. Some people have extraordinary thought processes. When did colonisation - bad - become ‘immigration’ - good?
We do have the problem of a London-centric, metropolitan elite, and the usual dumb intellectual class. So in essence the same problem you describe.
I think ‘nationalism’ gets conflated with patriotism, and national pride, not allowed these days being ‘racist’, what used to be democracy - what the people want - is now populism, democracy being what the elites want. Funny old World.
It is small, yes and the rural population is not literally rural, shall we say. Most of my English schoolmates in 90s Cambridge were the offspring of businesspeople living in the surrounding villages but conducting their business in, I imagine, London.
An excellent point about nationalism and populism -- you've expressed my thoughts on these concepts.
I’m beginning to think that the cognitive dissonance is the whole point. Just keep saying things people know not to be true then move on and repeat the next day.
I would add that a number of the talking heads arriving in my inbox are predicting a European recession (at least UK and Germany). So it is possible that global oil demand could reduce in 2024. Apparently growth sloweth in Chyna already, and US is only 6 mos behind UK in their estimation.
The "clean-cooking" issue is a problem I have been pointing out to First-World-Net-Zero-Transition-Disciples for a couple of decades now. You were being polite saying they use wood and charcoal. One of the most common fuels for cooking in Africa, and Asia, is dung. Cow dung, camel dung, it doesn't matter, although cows make nice cow patties that can be stacked up in the market and sold in little stacks to buyers. Don't you always buy a nice stack of cow manure when you go to market? While working in Africa I actually started a collection of the ceramic cooking stoves they commonly use for this. This cooking method often results in morning and evening smog in densely populated cities. It is not diesel exhaust, or particulate matter, or anything related to petroleum, as the First World often imagines, it is cow dung. It was true Net Zero bullshit before they even thought of Net Zero.
But there is a major problem to be overcome with this idea, besides the fact that the cost of the fuel will be beyond the means of many. I like to illustrate this with a story about the day I was working with an Ethiopian government official, and an Afar tribesman. We began comparing costs of shoes. The Ethiopian official had sneakers that he said cost him most of a month's salary. The Afar had plastic thongs that also cost him the equivalent of a few goats he would have to sell to buy the shoes. I was wearing $300 Italian leather hiking boots with Vibram soles, and could not bring myself to tell these men that my boots cost more than they would earn in a year, or even ten years. But the most shocking lesson I learned there, was that when I found out that at the local school built by the French, which only went to 8th grade, the kids had to share pencils and sheets of paper. This was why whenever I was near a village I was followed by a group of kids who mostly asked me for pens and pencils. I proposed to a government official that I could get grade schools in the United States to ship boxes and boxes of school supplies as class projects, and that I would add a Polaroid camera so they could take pictures and send back and forth as a cultural exchange. The government official politely explained to me that there would be no way to get those supplies from where they landed in the country to the villages I wanted to support. I would have had to come with the supplies and transport them myself each time, or otherwise they would be stolen and resold by various parties who were asked to bring them to the distant locations. I witnessed how United Nations supplies were sometimes being diverted on the long unpaved road from the coast (and seemed to be mixed in with loads of chat- an amphetamine containing plant). There was a reason I worked most days with two men carrying AK-47's by my side. There was a reason I had to pull a trailer with 500 gallons of diesel behind my Toyota troop carrier. I realized that without a mail system, and without a shipping method with integrity and security, the strongest would be the only ones that benefited from any donations.
So even if the EU sent container loads of small gas stoves (which each stove would likely be worth more than a years income for an African) they would likely end up in other destinations or being sold on the black market. And gas? There is no infrastructure for storing and selling LPG, and pressurized containers would be subject to easy theft. The gas stoves that do get delivered will likely be used until the first supply of gas runs out, and then they will be abandoned because they cannot get more gas, and can't afford it. And I would not be surprised to see many who get the stoves quickly sell them because they know they will not be able to get more gas. The "clean-cooking" project would likely benefit only the wealthy warlords and thieves that steal the imported materials. Already, much of that part of the world that can get gas supplies (common in India for example) cook on stoves using LPG in mobile tanks like many Americans use for an outdoor b-b-q. But the areas where cow dung, and charcoal (made in big pits by burning any wood they can find) will likely continue to do that until the day that infrastructure to refill propane tanks exists. Since they don't even have basic infrastructure to support building and supplying a propane sales point, that is not going to happen soon. I only laugh when people suggest using electricity in that part of the world. Those same people probably think that cell phone service exists too and that cheap computers would be useful. Until you have been there, you can't really understand. It is a valiant idea, but implementing it will not go smoothly.
Again the obvious solution is Methanol, which is what they are doing in China, where Coal is still being used for heat, hot water and cooking. They also use Methanol for transportation, a direct substitute for gasoline, but also better than diesel in converted diesel engines. It is the easiest fuel to store and transport and manufacturing it is a simple distillation process. Unfortunately the hegemonic Overlords despise Methanol almost as much as they do Nuclear. Malthusian creeps.
This is very true, and methanol can be made from wood with a simple still. It doesn't require much technology other than the proper metals for the still. Alcohol fueled stoves are easy to come by (if you don't live in Africa). I carried a Svea 123 in my backpack for years that was capable of burning alcohol. I was once a student of Dr. George Olah that wrote "The Methanol Economy." Sadly the idea never caught hold.
It's all because the PTB know very well that methanol is a direct competitor to LNG. And LNG is a booming business.
In a sane world we would take some country with no NG infrastructure, and instead run it on methanol instead of NG/LNG and then compare the economics and functionality of the two systems. Big advantage of methanol is it lends itself very well to vehicle fuel as well as building heat, power generation & cooking fuel.
And all this biomass going up into smoke in wildfires could be converted to methanol in local tractor-trailer sized plants, enough methanol to supply all the transportation fuel on the planet.
Thank you for this first-hand account. The people with the big ideas really have zero notion of all the problems with making their ideas work, even though these problems are not exactly a secret.
Fatih Birol is an idiot. Africans are burning forests down, critical wildlife habitat for endangered species like Gorillas, because the Club-Of-Rome Malthusians are determined to keep Africa in poverty. Denying them the tech, the capital and the access to Western Markets to earn the foreign exchange they need to jumpstart their economies as the Globalists allowed China to do in the 1980s.
For cooking in Africa, the obvious answer is Methanol, which is what China is doing to replace coal cooking & home heating. They make Methanol from coal for 13 cents/liter. And it is the easiest fuel to transport, you don't need pressurized, certified steel containers as LPG does. Cheap plastic will do. Spills or leaks are benign. Fires are gentle compared to propane, gasoline, diesel or kerosene. They could make it in small local plants in Africa from coal or local scrap biomass, i.e. agriculture waste. But the Overlords hate Methanol, since it is a direct competitor to their Petrodollar hegemony oil & gas. Can't allow that.
Great piece Irina, but it just reinforces my belief that as the Global South, and quite rightly, develop and improve their standard of living, and along with Global North’s hubristic use of FREE FINITE Flammable Fossils and overuse of what would normally be renewable (crops) energy, the faster we move towards “The Great Simplification”, which is where much of Global South are now.
I’m reminded of a visit I first made to Morocco nearly 4 decades ago. On a visit to a village on the touristy route we were surrounded by youths begging form money, when it became evident to all, that we wouldn’t be able to satisfy all of them, one of the older village youths said (which has stuck with me ever since) “You come here and take advantage of what we have to offer, the Sun’s rays, but one day whilst you freeze in winter we’ll still have the Sun’s rays to keep us warm and grow our crops, and you can’t take that away from us”. I thought then as I do now how profound🤔
I greatly prefer our gas stove over electric. To be fair, though, in some extremes electric is better: my mother-in-law lost her sense of smell, and as her general health and mental acuity declined, we were glad that she had electric appliances. The gas could have killed her. Now, being fair also includes a reminder that this was an extreme example. She was in her declining years, and we had to take her into our house (with our gas appliances); she required constant monitoring over the four years she lived with us, and eventually we regrettably realized that we could no longer keep her safe and cared for, and admitted her to a nursing home for her final years. Regarding energy in general, we all may be forced to source our energy, especially electrical, indepent of the grid.
Of course, there are always exceptions and special cases.
Regarding your last remark, it is kind of ironic that we're planning to put up some solar panels (with battery backup) in order to avoid the potential compromising of energy supply reliability caused by a buildout of, well, solar. What an insane situation.
Regarding exceptions and extreme cases, I should have made it clearer that exceptions cannot define the rules. In the exceptional case of someone without a reliable sense of smell, let her buy an electric range; but by no means prohibit everyone from buying gas ranges just so Grandma, who can't smell leaking gas, can have her electric range.
The world just gets dumber by the day, Irina, thanks for bringing this latest episode to light!
My wife and I did a (mainly) kitchen renovation 2 years ago, and since we already had city-supplied LNG in the house for heating/hot water, we added another line for a LNG stove and clothes dryer.
We had always wanted a gas stove, and we simply LOVE it! Instant heat, more consistent stovetop, and it bakes like a dream. I simply cannot fathom going back to electric, like our Green-nosed clowns here in the US would like us to.
I'm hoping that one day, the unwashed masses will wake up to the energy insanity being foisted upon us by our elites, but after what I witnessed during COVID, I have little faith in They the Sheople....
Nothing beats a gas stove, yes. I resisted it for a while because I was scared of the open flame but my husband eventually prevailed (his mum has cooked on a gas stove all her life) and I never regretted it. I wish we had a gas network to use gas for heating as well but, alas, it's not going to happen during our lifetime.
We learned to love cooking with gas in our RV, and never want to go back!
When we expanded our LNG system, we also ran an extra tap for a a LNG out door grill, which is the best grill that I've ever had, and no more propane bottles that run out in the middle of cooking!
We also added taps for a clothes dryer and gas logs in the fireplace, but we're waiting for our fairly new elec. dryer to kick the bucket before we switch that, and we love our wood-burning fireplace insert too much to switch that to LNG just yet.
The US GOV will likely come after our wood-burner any day now, as I hear it displeases Gaia....
It's taken the IEA a very long time to come to this party. Sounds like the Clean Cooking organization (of course there's one, and of course it's a "global" non profit that gets between the producers and end users to do good) finally managed to get an email in his in box! Why a country like Nigeria can't create its own program to use more of the LPG it produces to decarbonize cooking there without outside help is an unanswered question. Indonesia has installed connections for LPG cylinders in virtually every home, and subsidizes the cost for a certain amount of it. The US has become the world's largest exporter of LPG in the last 10 years, and prices here are currently back to near historic lows vs crude. It's a good time to support investments in the assets to store, bottle, and distribute it in end markets that still openly burn smoky dung, wood, and kero if we're in subsidy mode anyway. Instead of cutting down American forests to make wood pellets for Europe, what if the EU were to expand its existing network of LPG distribution?
Reminds me of:… many Moons ago, a Catholic missionary told me how he had written a report for a US charity about living conditions in rural Africa. He mentioned in passing how the people dug latrines and squatted over them. Some weeks later, 10 000 lavatory seats arrived, sent by the charity.
One of the important factors the Stupids don’t consider is the lack of communications infrastructure - road/rail - and difficulties and cost of distributing anything. Back in the 80s in rural Africa gas bottles were available, but not many could afford them. Wood, animal dung, cost little or nothing and many people struggle to have something to cook, never mind how it’s cooked.
When I first went to live in France (back now) 20 years ago, most domestic electricity supply in rural France - and France has a very large rural population - was 3kVA - here in Britain at the time the standard was 14kVA. This was enough for lights and the telly, but not cookers or heating. The problem wasn’t lack of electricity - France had tons of nuke electricity - it was the grid wasn’t sufficiently developed to carry the load. Well it has been extensively upgraded last 20 years, but still the standard installation is 6kVA - if you want more, they charge more. Piped gas doesn’t exist in rural France, only available in cities and some big towns. Piped gas was only installed in a big town near where I lived just over 10 years ago.
Many people burn wood (France has a lot) for cooking and heating, or otherwise bottled gas for cooking and oil for heating. Now that’s France in the 21st Century 5th largest national economy.
And Coco-the-clown thinks ‘clean cooking’ for Africa is just a matter of wishing it?
That's strange, you just described rural Bulgaria, which, unlike France, is one of the smallest and poorest EU members. Good overview of the challenges, thanks!
When I went to live in France, I was rather surprised at how relatively primative it was away from the cities. As I was buying property, I visited a number of homes. Typically, one main room with bare light bulb from ceiling, sink in the corner, wood burning stove, sometimes a single gas ring and gas bottle, table with hard backed chairs, TV on top of a cupboard. Shabby decor. Very primitive plumbing, no mains drainage. I had two properties in France, the first only two years old, both had septic tanks there being no mains sewer line. Property was cheap by British standards, but generally required significant modernisation and renovation. I was told, young French people don’t buy old property, they prefer new build - I could see why.
De Gaulle, when rejecting Britain’s application to join the EEC (he deserves a sainthood for that) said it was a mismatch, Britain was an industrial Country with some agriculture, France was an agricultural Country with some industry.
Although it appears a very rich Country, many live a meagre life, dependent on welfare support, either from the EU CAP or from the State. Many in the tourist industry, rely heavily on the summer season, but come Autumn, many, bars, restaurants, hotels and attractions close, and the workers spend the Winter on welfare until Easter.
I read a few years ago, that on average 57% of the population are net recipients from the tax system, with higher percentages in some areas. I think France only survives economically because of the EU. The truth is, after decades of mismanagement and poor government, most ‘developed’ Countries are teetering on the brink of collapse - Net Zero is just the final shove.
The gilets jaunes protests were a manifestation of the plight of those in rural France who feel ignored, forgotten by the metropolitan elite. Macron is ‘not popular’ in the countryside, where Marine LePenn and her Party get most support.
It's the same everywhere, I guess, priority is always given to the big cities and the millions who live there. Cities are as a result always progressive, thanks to higher living standard, than rural areas, which are fertile ground for nationalism and I don't say this negatively.
Actually England is such a small place, urbanised and densely populated, that the divide isn’t between cities and countryside, but North v South. The North was the industrial heartland, very rich, the South more agricultural and poorer. But as old industry died, northern towns and cities suffered high unemployment, poor housing and conditions - inner city decay as it is labelled, with the South, because of London, becoming more prosperous as businesses wanted to be in or near the capital. London nowadays is almost a different Country - the London mayor - of Pakistani extraction - recently commented that a photograph of a White family on a tourist poster ‘didn’t represent the population of London’. England is racist, he says… with a Pakistani London mayor, and Indian Prime Minister. Some people have extraordinary thought processes. When did colonisation - bad - become ‘immigration’ - good?
We do have the problem of a London-centric, metropolitan elite, and the usual dumb intellectual class. So in essence the same problem you describe.
I think ‘nationalism’ gets conflated with patriotism, and national pride, not allowed these days being ‘racist’, what used to be democracy - what the people want - is now populism, democracy being what the elites want. Funny old World.
It is small, yes and the rural population is not literally rural, shall we say. Most of my English schoolmates in 90s Cambridge were the offspring of businesspeople living in the surrounding villages but conducting their business in, I imagine, London.
An excellent point about nationalism and populism -- you've expressed my thoughts on these concepts.
Does this Bozo listen to himself or is it recurrent amnesia?
I’m beginning to think that the cognitive dissonance is the whole point. Just keep saying things people know not to be true then move on and repeat the next day.
A lie repeated 100 times...
I would add that a number of the talking heads arriving in my inbox are predicting a European recession (at least UK and Germany). So it is possible that global oil demand could reduce in 2024. Apparently growth sloweth in Chyna already, and US is only 6 mos behind UK in their estimation.
Yeah, but the UK and Germany are not really big drivers of demand growth. That would be the developing world, so we'll see.
The "clean-cooking" issue is a problem I have been pointing out to First-World-Net-Zero-Transition-Disciples for a couple of decades now. You were being polite saying they use wood and charcoal. One of the most common fuels for cooking in Africa, and Asia, is dung. Cow dung, camel dung, it doesn't matter, although cows make nice cow patties that can be stacked up in the market and sold in little stacks to buyers. Don't you always buy a nice stack of cow manure when you go to market? While working in Africa I actually started a collection of the ceramic cooking stoves they commonly use for this. This cooking method often results in morning and evening smog in densely populated cities. It is not diesel exhaust, or particulate matter, or anything related to petroleum, as the First World often imagines, it is cow dung. It was true Net Zero bullshit before they even thought of Net Zero.
But there is a major problem to be overcome with this idea, besides the fact that the cost of the fuel will be beyond the means of many. I like to illustrate this with a story about the day I was working with an Ethiopian government official, and an Afar tribesman. We began comparing costs of shoes. The Ethiopian official had sneakers that he said cost him most of a month's salary. The Afar had plastic thongs that also cost him the equivalent of a few goats he would have to sell to buy the shoes. I was wearing $300 Italian leather hiking boots with Vibram soles, and could not bring myself to tell these men that my boots cost more than they would earn in a year, or even ten years. But the most shocking lesson I learned there, was that when I found out that at the local school built by the French, which only went to 8th grade, the kids had to share pencils and sheets of paper. This was why whenever I was near a village I was followed by a group of kids who mostly asked me for pens and pencils. I proposed to a government official that I could get grade schools in the United States to ship boxes and boxes of school supplies as class projects, and that I would add a Polaroid camera so they could take pictures and send back and forth as a cultural exchange. The government official politely explained to me that there would be no way to get those supplies from where they landed in the country to the villages I wanted to support. I would have had to come with the supplies and transport them myself each time, or otherwise they would be stolen and resold by various parties who were asked to bring them to the distant locations. I witnessed how United Nations supplies were sometimes being diverted on the long unpaved road from the coast (and seemed to be mixed in with loads of chat- an amphetamine containing plant). There was a reason I worked most days with two men carrying AK-47's by my side. There was a reason I had to pull a trailer with 500 gallons of diesel behind my Toyota troop carrier. I realized that without a mail system, and without a shipping method with integrity and security, the strongest would be the only ones that benefited from any donations.
So even if the EU sent container loads of small gas stoves (which each stove would likely be worth more than a years income for an African) they would likely end up in other destinations or being sold on the black market. And gas? There is no infrastructure for storing and selling LPG, and pressurized containers would be subject to easy theft. The gas stoves that do get delivered will likely be used until the first supply of gas runs out, and then they will be abandoned because they cannot get more gas, and can't afford it. And I would not be surprised to see many who get the stoves quickly sell them because they know they will not be able to get more gas. The "clean-cooking" project would likely benefit only the wealthy warlords and thieves that steal the imported materials. Already, much of that part of the world that can get gas supplies (common in India for example) cook on stoves using LPG in mobile tanks like many Americans use for an outdoor b-b-q. But the areas where cow dung, and charcoal (made in big pits by burning any wood they can find) will likely continue to do that until the day that infrastructure to refill propane tanks exists. Since they don't even have basic infrastructure to support building and supplying a propane sales point, that is not going to happen soon. I only laugh when people suggest using electricity in that part of the world. Those same people probably think that cell phone service exists too and that cheap computers would be useful. Until you have been there, you can't really understand. It is a valiant idea, but implementing it will not go smoothly.
Again the obvious solution is Methanol, which is what they are doing in China, where Coal is still being used for heat, hot water and cooking. They also use Methanol for transportation, a direct substitute for gasoline, but also better than diesel in converted diesel engines. It is the easiest fuel to store and transport and manufacturing it is a simple distillation process. Unfortunately the hegemonic Overlords despise Methanol almost as much as they do Nuclear. Malthusian creeps.
This is very true, and methanol can be made from wood with a simple still. It doesn't require much technology other than the proper metals for the still. Alcohol fueled stoves are easy to come by (if you don't live in Africa). I carried a Svea 123 in my backpack for years that was capable of burning alcohol. I was once a student of Dr. George Olah that wrote "The Methanol Economy." Sadly the idea never caught hold.
It's all because the PTB know very well that methanol is a direct competitor to LNG. And LNG is a booming business.
In a sane world we would take some country with no NG infrastructure, and instead run it on methanol instead of NG/LNG and then compare the economics and functionality of the two systems. Big advantage of methanol is it lends itself very well to vehicle fuel as well as building heat, power generation & cooking fuel.
And all this biomass going up into smoke in wildfires could be converted to methanol in local tractor-trailer sized plants, enough methanol to supply all the transportation fuel on the planet.
Thank you for this first-hand account. The people with the big ideas really have zero notion of all the problems with making their ideas work, even though these problems are not exactly a secret.
Remember Africa is where John Kerry told the countries to not develop their oil and gas resources! These hypocrites are hilarious.
If you want to look at some real Africa and Asia issues Dr. Scott Tinker has visited, researched, and done some good deeds. https://switchon.org
Fatih Birol is an idiot. Africans are burning forests down, critical wildlife habitat for endangered species like Gorillas, because the Club-Of-Rome Malthusians are determined to keep Africa in poverty. Denying them the tech, the capital and the access to Western Markets to earn the foreign exchange they need to jumpstart their economies as the Globalists allowed China to do in the 1980s.
For cooking in Africa, the obvious answer is Methanol, which is what China is doing to replace coal cooking & home heating. They make Methanol from coal for 13 cents/liter. And it is the easiest fuel to transport, you don't need pressurized, certified steel containers as LPG does. Cheap plastic will do. Spills or leaks are benign. Fires are gentle compared to propane, gasoline, diesel or kerosene. They could make it in small local plants in Africa from coal or local scrap biomass, i.e. agriculture waste. But the Overlords hate Methanol, since it is a direct competitor to their Petrodollar hegemony oil & gas. Can't allow that.
Love your content, but need to commend your writing style as well. It has a rhythm. I can’t describe it, but I feel it in every post.
Bravo
Oh, thank you, that's really kind of you. I hadn't noticed. :)
Great piece Irina, but it just reinforces my belief that as the Global South, and quite rightly, develop and improve their standard of living, and along with Global North’s hubristic use of FREE FINITE Flammable Fossils and overuse of what would normally be renewable (crops) energy, the faster we move towards “The Great Simplification”, which is where much of Global South are now.
I’m reminded of a visit I first made to Morocco nearly 4 decades ago. On a visit to a village on the touristy route we were surrounded by youths begging form money, when it became evident to all, that we wouldn’t be able to satisfy all of them, one of the older village youths said (which has stuck with me ever since) “You come here and take advantage of what we have to offer, the Sun’s rays, but one day whilst you freeze in winter we’ll still have the Sun’s rays to keep us warm and grow our crops, and you can’t take that away from us”. I thought then as I do now how profound🤔
I greatly prefer our gas stove over electric. To be fair, though, in some extremes electric is better: my mother-in-law lost her sense of smell, and as her general health and mental acuity declined, we were glad that she had electric appliances. The gas could have killed her. Now, being fair also includes a reminder that this was an extreme example. She was in her declining years, and we had to take her into our house (with our gas appliances); she required constant monitoring over the four years she lived with us, and eventually we regrettably realized that we could no longer keep her safe and cared for, and admitted her to a nursing home for her final years. Regarding energy in general, we all may be forced to source our energy, especially electrical, indepent of the grid.
Of course, there are always exceptions and special cases.
Regarding your last remark, it is kind of ironic that we're planning to put up some solar panels (with battery backup) in order to avoid the potential compromising of energy supply reliability caused by a buildout of, well, solar. What an insane situation.
Regarding exceptions and extreme cases, I should have made it clearer that exceptions cannot define the rules. In the exceptional case of someone without a reliable sense of smell, let her buy an electric range; but by no means prohibit everyone from buying gas ranges just so Grandma, who can't smell leaking gas, can have her electric range.