Finally Greenpeace has found a solution to the problem of unreliable wind generation: pork. The world’s biggest and richest “environmental” multi-national has long been criticized for pushing a methane-based electricity future. Most methane comes in the form of natural gas, which is of course a carbon-heavy fossil fuel. Natural gas-fired power plants are necessary for balancing unreliable wind power. Wind is therefore the Trojan Horse PR device that Greenpeace and other phony green groups have used in their drive to rid the world of nuclear energy.
Yes, Greenpeace would rather we burn more fossil fuels than use the cleanest and safest energy source on the planet.
But natural gas is not the only source of methane out there. Another major source is livestock manure, which produces methane when it rots. Technology for capturing methane from manure has been around for a long time. Anaerobic digesters are bio-reactors that hasten and control the process.
The German village of Feldheim, population 145, has become famous for weaning itself (allegedly) off the electricity grid through a combination of wind, solar, and manure methane. For this reason, Greenpeace’s Japan subsidiary has glommed onto Feldheim as a model of how Japan could get itself off nuclear energy, apropos of the March earthquake and tsunami that led to meltdowns at the Fukushima plant. Greenpeace Japan therefore organized a tour of Feldheim for some Fukushima residents to show how it’s done.
Finally, Greenpeace can push a methane-based solution to climate change without being vulnerable to charges of blatant hypocrisy.
So—there’s the future. Japan just needs to cover itself with windmills, solar panels, and millions and millions of pigs.
And if for whatever reason that proves impractical, there’s always liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Middle East. Everybody knows that LNG regasification terminals are immune to earthquakes. Here’s some video of how the Chiba refinery east of Tokyo handled the earthquake on March 11:
It only took a couple of weeks before they could put that fire out. Who knows how many people were burned to death when the refinery exploded during the quake. Lucky for those who prefer fossil fuels to nuclear, the world’s media, encouraged by multinationals like Greenpeace, couldn’t have cared less. They were fixated on the Fukushima nuclear plant—which, 4466 days after the meltdowns, still hasn’t killed a single soul.
I’m guessing an LNG terminal would behave similarly after a major quake. Only the fire would be bigger.
There is no escape. If you are anti-nuclear, you are pro natural gas.
And of course, all of this needs to be financed with that other form of pork: government subsidies, tax breaks, renewable energy mandates, etc.
[…] I have registered annoyance in recent posts with dedicated anti-nuclear lobbies, like Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and the David Suzuki Foundation. In my view organizations like these are […]
We could make the pigs do the work directly. They can pedal generators. The’ll eat almost anything so that will surely be the answer.
Well, Greenpeace itself is full of sh*t… So, I can see where their solution is coming from..