How Much Energy Will the World Need?
Are we heading toward an all-renewable energy future, spearheaded by wind and solar? Or are those energy sources wholly inadequate for the task? Mark Mills, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of The Cloud Revolution, compares the energy dream to the energy reality.
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Script:
We’re headed toward an exciting all-renewable energy future. Wind and solar will power the world of tomorrow.
And tomorrow isn’t far off!……..
…It’s time to wake up.
You’re having a dream.
Here’s the reality.
Oil, natural gas, and coal provide 84% of all the world’s energy. That’s down just two percentage points from twenty years ago.
And oil still powers nearly 97% of all global transportation.
Contrary to headlines claiming that we’re rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuels, it’s just not happening. Two decades and five trillion dollars of governments “investing” in green energy and we’ve barely moved the needle.
This was supposed to be easy. Why is it so hard?
In a word: rocks.
To get the same amount of energy from solar and wind that we now get from fossil fuels, we’re going to have to massively increase mining.
By more than 1000%.
This isn’t speculation. This is physics.
Copper, iron ore, silicon, nickel, chromium, zinc, cobalt, lithium, graphite, and rare earth metals like neodymium. We need them all.
And then those metals and materials have to be turned into motors, turbine blades, solar panels, batteries, and hundreds of other industrial components. That also takes lots of energy, which requires even more mining.
As a World Bank study put it, these green “technologies … are in fact significantly more material intensive” than our current energy mix. That may be the understatement of the century: raw materials account for 50-70% of the costs to manufacture both solar panels and batteries.
Until now it hasn’t really mattered that much because wind and solar still account for only a few percentage points of the global energy supply. They’re an applause line for environmentalists—not a major energy player. And it’s unlikely they will be in the foreseeable future.
But for the sake of argument, let’s say we sharply ramp up mining. Where would these new mines be located?
Well, for one, China.
That country is today the single largest source for most of our critical energy materials. The United States is not only a minor player but is dependent on imports for 100% of 17 critical minerals. Do we want to give China more political and economic leverage? Europe has made itself dependent on Russia for 40% of its natural gas. How well has that worked out?
Ironically, we have all the minerals we need right here in North America.
But good luck trying to get them out of the ground.
Proposals to build mines in the United States and, increasingly almost everywhere else, meet fierce opposition if not outright bans. To give just one example, in 2022 the Biden Administration canceled a proposed copper and nickel mine in northern Minnesota. This was after years of delays, navigating a maze of environmental regulations.
Yes, the same environmentalists and green-leaning politicians who tout all the benefits of electric cars are the same people who make mining the materials essential to build those cars—like copper and nickel—all but impossible.
Try to square that circle.
So far, we’ve only talked about today’s energy needs. What about tomorrow’s?
Future energy demand will be far greater than today’s. That’s been true for the entire history of civilization. The future will not only have more people but also more innovations. And entrepreneurs have always been better at inventing new ways to use energy than to produce it.
It’s obvious but worth stating: Before the invention of automobiles, airplanes, pharmaceuticals, or computers, there was no energy needed to power them.
And as more people become more prosperous, they’ll want the things others already have—from better medical care to vacations to cars.
In America, there are about 80 cars for every 100 citizens. In most of the world, it’s about five per hundred citizens.
Over 80% of air travel is for personal purposes. That’s two billion barrels of oil a year.
For the complete script, visit: https://www.prageru.com/video/how-much-energy-will-the-world-need
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Nice to know that some people still exist who can comprehend reality.
Mark Mills not supporting renewables. When you work for the fossil fuel industry, what do you expect him to say. He has a long history of misinformation he manipulated the numbers of a gallop poll to show only 17 percent of climate change.
I have watched his videos and he always has that line "It's just physics" but never shows data.
The one thing he does show is that 80 percent of the world's energy is provided by fossil fuels, that is true when you go back but in 2022 the percentage has dropped to 60 percent.
He always brings up mining for renewables but mountaintop removal for coal. One major difference is mining resources for renewables can be reused. once the coal is burned the polluting continues with coal ash.
Nuclear, is an option but name the last time a nuclear power plant was built on time and on budget. South Carolina abandoned new plants when the cost reached 9 billion,
Unlike Mark I will name my source https://www.statista.com/statistics/269811/world-electricity-production-by-energy-source/
The world needs a whole lot more energy than Bidumb and the Dumbocrats can make with their windmills and pixie dust
Don t worry … With this kind of living " modern " way of life – we will be all gone / washed off from "our" planet soon … So – there will be no need for new "exstra" energy … Homo sapiens will be history soon … We will eliminate ourselves from this planet – there is no animal spiecies – to do so … We think / we are sure – that we are the most inteligent spiecies … Probably not. We are so stupid – so help us God.
P.s. GOD is just watching us… And he / it is laffing … It is hallerius.
How much electricty do the refineries use? Check "Volts for Oil | Fully Charged"
LOOK EVEN AIR PLAINS USE FUEL, NOT SOLER ,OR WIND. ELECTRIC IS NOT THE WAY TO GO
Well, its good to see many sources beginning to address the sheer physical improbability of creating/finding/mining the Actual Materials required for this “Green Revolution” … NOT to mention the Expense.
Its NOT just “Can we create the Power Necessary to operate these things?” (which we can’t) it's also a matter of; “can we even build them?”
PragerU (NOT a university!!) —-Farris and Dan Wilks, who made their billions in oil and gas fracking, donate large sums of money to this organization. They also heavily promote climate crisis denialism. Florida's DeSantis is now promoting Prager for schools and, irony of ironies, he loves to bash 'indoctrination' while this video and others this organization produces are textbook examples of the same.
Nuclear power generation HAS to increase 10-fold year on year. No other option. Get used to it.
very good video ahaha ! Thanks for showing us the problem of the electric cars ! Our gouvenement is lead by reptiliens which they are leaded themselve by the worst Valorant player called Baptiste or Zizbat
Only the rich will have cars or meat. Everyone else will be crammed in cities, eating bugs, walking or taking a bus or bicycle. And libs are ok with that because they think that for every government incompetency, they can, in the end, control the weather if we just give them enough power and money.
Renewable, especially wind+solar, will produce all!
Especially as the expansion speed will increase as in the past with cars.
It will crush nuclear as nuclear is far too dangerous killing millions and far too expensive.
Hey Mark good video, Big Pharma and Smoken Joe Biden have your solution… Get a Covid Shot it will cure life….😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
Usa has been infiltrated by China, it explains why trump elections was stolen, to make path for the chinese puppet (Biden)
Why is it so hard, great question! Not rocks, thats just a furby brought about by folk not able to challenge the assumption of continued growth. It is of couse the actions of the oil and gas industry to ensure its hard, This nonsense of this supposed irrefutable logic: we have to keep pumpiing oil and gas because we still use so much oil and gas is the equivalent here of the person who keeps stabing you saying you need to keep buying bandages and asking why you arent fit for work. The oil and gas industry as shit scared of energy indepedence at any scale, and will do anything to ensure that we remain dependent on them, hence their brillant lobbying, the never never technologogies around ccus, hoodwinking folk into thinking hydogen will save the world and the shrug of the shoulder saying 'look we still need gas because we are still using gas' when its their activities brillianty marshalled that have stood in the way of renewables at scale or energy demand reductions. But hey, atleast they don't live in Texas so these totally unexplainable heat waves don't affect them. I do laugh at how people working for companies can be made to act against their own long term self interest so effectively.
The whole climate change-we need to go green Now-propaganda is a way to appear to push solar and wind when in fact it will all be about nuclear (which has now been green-washed and is mentioned in the same breath as the other renewable resources). Great marketing.
ever think it to be posable to turn asbestos into aerogel so it doesn't cause cancer. it would make everybody want to dig up that trash pile if it was a free Oneill cylinder with spaceships and escape pods – never know till someone try's it
well, when you have things like kosher meal that takes all the healthy top parts e=mc2 and feed other people it shit and shit end that don't want your going a lot of problems brain fart and death and a lot shit no one wanted in trash, because can't get the shit taste out of mouth already from last pile ate when kosher is playing god with its religious persecution – that why forefathers went with scrapple so didn't waste life and time like pemmican/// – Kardashev scale is the only way to live know how to use everything on planet to get off it [ liquid magnet antigravity motors with solar cell inside motor liquid superconductors liquid is lighter then metal and is the way to go to get away from the energy giants that want to keep dipping in pockets/// and hate to be with them out in space to see what they do out there with all that energy – need more f no eat the shit you been feeding everybody // because i am getting some hologram satellite and putting them on desert planet so can grow out there, because too much fight to do it here, even with global warming, and could save everybody enough to get them free nanotechnology health care with liquid magnets, good thing where there is sulfur things will grow even H2O🌋// the way they waste are time killing us off/// space program 🌋🦨@#$%^&*(@#$%^&*( the answer could be right in front of your nose as everlasting life
You can recycle nuclear waste into fuel!
Nuclear is renewable energy source ,Problem solved.
Chinese mining companies >>> Hunter Biden>>>> Joe Biden >>>>> Green Energy >>>>> 😁
I have worked in the Conventional Energy Sector for over 40 years and have seen dramatic transformation in regards to responsible resource development. (Especially in Canada) We need to do everything we can as stewards of the environment to do whatever we can to reduce our environmental footprint. I loved this video and it makes so much practical sense, that even fanatical environmentalists have to realize the practicality of global energy requirements to meet global demand.