Ha!
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The little dog is named Itzl.
This diary does not have super-duper intense detailed research, with 40 links and endless information for you to read.
But I felt a need to get this off my chest.
(The way I keep getting things off my chest all the time, you would think I would not have so much hair on my chest. Some of this gray hair should get off my chest, with all these words I keep posting here, you would think. But no. My chest is very thick with mostly gray hair. I know, Too Much Information.)
Joe Manchin appeared on MSNBC recently, talking about the Inflation Reduction Act.
From what he said then, plus something I heard, I am led to believe that the Inflation Reduction Act has certain compromises in it, regarding fossil fuels.
I heard a while back that after Joe Manchin appeared on Fox, a couple of years ago, and said the Inflation Reduction Act would not get through congress, I heard that after that Bill Gates met with Joe Manchin, and maybe they both communicated certain compromise ideas to other leaders in Congress, and to the Biden/Harris team?
I do not know the details, but in the recent interview of Joe Manchin on MSNBC, I think he said that the Biden/Harris team should explain the fossil fuel compromise to the voters, and that might help win the election.
I do not know the details of that fossil fuel compromise, and I decided not to dig that deep for this diary.
But I simply want to put things in perspective, step back and look at the big picture, regarding fossil fuels, and power plants, and human civilization in general.
Here is a list of the power stations in Kansas:
en.wikipedia.org/…
Kansas has a population of about 3 million.
Here is the list of power stations in Kenya:
en.wikipedia.org/…
Kenya has a population of about 55 million.
And the population of Kenya is increasing at the rate of over one million per year.
The fertility rate in Kenya is 3.2
Replacement rate is about 2.
Here is the population website:
www.worldometers.info/…
By the way, I heard a while back that Bill Gates donates a lot of money to the World Health Organization.
I heard that the only donor who donates more than Bill Gates is the government of the USA.
Someone who does not like Bill Gates told me he especially promotes contraception, in places like Africa.
That all fits, so I will not double check on that point.
I have mentioned here before that I have no children, but lots of nieces and nephews.
And I especially pointed out that in Japan, and a little bit in China, there must be many folks like me, because in Japan especially, and China, barely, the population is going down.
But India has one billion 400 million people and growing at the rate of 11 million per year.
And Africa, on the whole, has about one billion and growing.
And in the USA, we add almost one million immigrants per year.
Which is fine.
But the whole world, including India, including Africa, needs to level out, as China is finally doing.
I recently came across a nice YouTube channel, from Kenya:
Truly a nice modern home, with electricity.
So, let us look at the power stations in Kansas again:
en.wikipedia.org/…
I counted:
- One nuclear.
- 5 coal.
- 61 natural gas (we have a lot of natural gas in Kansas).
- 54 petroleum liquids. (Diesel fuel? I did not look it up to figure it out.)
- 3 biomass.
- One hydroelectric.
- 8 solar.
- 31 wind farms.
For solar and wind, I have always understood that batteries need to be right with them, for when the sun goes down and the wind dies down. (Although the wind seldom dies down here in Kansas.)
But what do we have in batteries?
Battery storage
There were no utility-scale battery storage facilities in the state of Kansas in 2019.
Okay.
Anyway, all those power stations are serving about 3 million of us here in Kansas.
Kenya has 55 million people, and at least some of them with electricity.
en.wikipedia.org/…
I counted:
- 5 geothermal.
- 15 hydroelectric.
- 6 heavy fuel oil (diesel?).
- 2 biogas.
- 3 wind.
- 1 solar.
I did not try to add up the megawatts.
You may feel free to do so, if you wish.
I have known a few people from Nigeria.
One of them explained that the power is only on in Nigeria during the day.
She said they always have some buckets of water on hand, for flushing their toilets, when the water plant has no power.
I am supposing that it might be like that in Kenya.
So, I do not hate anyone. For sure, I do not hate folks with large families, such as my in-laws, who give me rides, with three small children in the vehicle. The children help me avoid depression. So sweet, to see their faces, and get hugs.
However, we all know that our Earth cannot sustain unlimited numbers of humans on it, with population growing in an exponential fashion.
But in the short term, until humankind overall starts acting like the Japanese, and the Chinese, we will see a lot of population growth, and a lot of development, in places like Africa.
That development will include power plants.
Some of those power plants will burn fossil fuels.
Unless we want more nuclear power plants.
I have started reading a book called:
Apocalypse Never, by Michael Shellenberger.
In that book, he explains that nuclear power plants, if we would start building them again, would be a big help in the battle to reduce our use of fossil fuels, to slow climate change.
He explains in detail how certain individuals, activists, over decades, have managed to scare so many of us into thinking that nuclear power plants are just way too dangerous.
I know, you will think of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima.
But in the book, he explains the actual illness and death from those events and paints a picture that has me convinced that we, humankind, have given in to a kind of irrational fear of nuclear power plants.
But I am not in charge of anything.
I am only some goofy character, blogging away at my keyboard.
Anyway, as I keep saying, I simply wanted to get this off my chest.
Hugs!