Molo … goeiedag … en so aan … herewith an extract from a second newsletter by Renfrew Christie in which he spells out some nasty truths about coal … it does not bode well for our hopes of shutting down our toxic coal burning behemoths on the eastern highveld …
Some nasty facts about coal
By Renfrew Christie
Following my previous piece on the scary electricity stresses in the north-east USA consequent upon cancelling fossil fuel power stations, some equally sobering facts about coal.
It is fair to say that the West very consciously exported its smokestack industries to the East, above all to labour-docile China, and also to India. Finished industrial goods then flooded back to the West in vast quantities, made with coal-fired electricity. Whee, the West was carbon-free!
Unsurprisingly, both China and India are now wedded to coal-fired electricity generation, and are going to stay that way for 30 years.
And the Germany that put its faith in sun and wind (‘and would never use coal again’) rapidly changed its mind when Russian gas disappeared in the Ukrainian melee. It’s simply rushed back to coal.
Oh yes, and the largest external coal supplier to Germany is … er … Russia. What did you think would happen?