Thread by @simon_brooke

Another bloody thread on #ClimateEmergency. Sorry.

Current world enegy consumption per annum is about 14,000 million tons of oil equivalent, or about 162,820 terawatt hours. >>>

That's equivalent to 1.8 million of the largest wind turbines currently available running at peak output all the time, or 5,701 nuclear reactors the size of Hinkley Point C. >>>

Let's be clear - I don't believe we can safely build nuclear reactors at all. But if we wanted to get to carbon neutrality by 2050, even assuming energy consumption does not rise AT ALL, then to do that by nuclear energy would mean building one every two days from now on. >>>

If we wanted to do it entirely by wind energy, we'd need to install AT LEAST seven of the largest size of wind turbine every hour of every day from now on.

I don't have equivalent figures for solar, but I'm working on it. >>>

But the key point is that construction is not free. Each wind turbine costs 1,157 tons of additional carbon emissions; each nuclear power station costs an additional half a million tons. >>>

I've been skeptical for a long time about whether we could continue to consume NEARLY as much energy as we currently do. The more I study the problem the more skeptical I get. >>>

But if we're going to cut energy consumption by an order of magnitude - as I'm sure we'll have to, if we're to save a habitable planet - then that's going to mean enormous lifestyle changes for everyone.

If we need two orders of magnitude - I think we may - it's even harder. >>>

But even more important, the longer we leave it the harder it becomes. Yet no country is facing up to this. Nowhere are governments taking it seriously.

Changing your own life isn't even nearly enough, we must change governments - but changing your own life is a start.