Countries have to hold US$ in reserve in order to be
able to conduct trade. That is another constraint and a rope around
their necks. They have to keep buying and holding US$ in reserve for
oil, which is one of the most essential commodities that runs every
country's economic activity. Without oil, vehicles cannot move, planes
cannot fly, trains cannot run, lifts cannot work, air conditioners
become white elephants, offices cannot function, household equipment
like fridges cannot do its work of keeping food fresh. That is how
important oil is and how the US$ exerts its hegemony on the rest of the
world.
China is moving fast and furious into renewables. China
is now the world's biggest hydro-electric generating country, the
biggest solar energy electricity generator, the biggest wind energy
electricity generator, the country with the most EVs that are relying
less and less directly on fossil fuel.
If we think rationally,
China is using the sun's energy directly to generate electricity in all
its three alternative sources of electricity generation, rather than
relying mainly on coal or fossil fuel derived from decomposing trees and
other organic substances, taking hundreds of years to grow using energy
from the sun and needing thousands of years to turn those decomposing
trunks and organisms into coal or fossil fuel. Those are exhaustible
commodities; abundant they may be today.
Dams hold back water
for electricity generation, the direct result of the sun causing
evaporation that turn into rain or accumulated as glaciers on mountains,
whose melting under higher summer temperatures provide the water for
those dams to generate electricity. Solar panels need no explanation,
using direct energy from the sun and converting it in electricity
immediately. Wind turbines also need little elaboration, using winds
generated by the sun's energy moving air between hot and cold regions to
create wind energy. And these are inexhaustible and freely available
everywhere in the world, save for the poles.
There are now
experiments using ocean waves for electricity generation, another
renewable energy worth exploiting. And China is experimenting with small
nuclear energy generating equipment that may one day surprise everyone
over its availability and affordability.
On the other hand, the
USA and the EU are stifling the use of renewable energy by curbing EV
growth. Trump is a big fan of fossil fuel and a big hurdle against
renewables. He already said that climate change is a hoax. Another lie
to be exposed?
Anonymous
PS. China is experimenting on tapping direct sun energy and transmit to earth for consumption.
If the sun's massive energy can be tapped from space, unhindered by dust particles, blocking clouds, bad weather conditions and other atmospheric anomalies, and transmitted from outer space to earth, it opens up another source of unlimited renewable energy source for China.
ReplyDeleteWe never realize that human lives are totally dependent on the sun, every aspect of it. We just take it as something natural and fail to appreciate how much a part the sun played in our very existence.
First, without the sun, the earth will be just a frozen planet, devoid of living things, like the poles. Polar bears and some animals may be able to adapt, but they too depend on availability of prey for food, whose existence are not certain without the existence of a food chain beginning from basic planktons that also needed sunlight to grow.
Secondly, without sunlight, plants cannot grow. Plants are the only living thing able to manufacture their own food using the sun's energy, something that animals and humans cannot replicate. And plants also provide food for animals to survive, in turn to provide food for humans. Everything in our lives revolves around the sun - the wind, the rain, the flowing rivers, the waves, the seasons, our food.
Sad that nature created a living environment so intricately intertwined, which humans are now destroying - creating wars of destruction, new forms of pollution like extracting more fossil fuel, creation of mountains of plastics and not to mention weapons of mass destruction. As if destroying nature itself is not bad enough.