'Vicious cycle': Heat waves ramp up global burning of fossil fuels (record nat gas use)

[NickB79]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/07/28/natural-gas-heat-waves-climate/

There’s a big winner in the record heat waves baking the United States, China and other countries — fossil fuels.

The United States is setting records for natural gas consumption this week at the power plants that keep the nation’s air conditioners humming, according to estimates from S&P Global Commodity Insights. In China, power plants are burning more coal to keep up with electricity needs, helping to feed a record-pace in demand this year for the world’s largest source of carbon dioxide, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.

That demand is feeding what the Paris energy watchdog calls a “vicious cycle” that further boosts world temperatures. As heat waves multiply and intensify, it creates more demand for fossil fuels, which add to the greenhouse-gas emissions that intensify extreme heat around the world.

The world’s power grids are still too reliant on gas and coal, complicating efforts by the Biden administration and other governments to phase down their use. Despite climate commitments, governments face immediate imperatives to prevent power blackouts and skyrocketing energy prices to cool buildings and protect people from life-threatening conditions.

Imagine all of India and China installing AC units to keep their residents safe from climate change. They're already doing so. If carried out fully, it would consume every watt of wind and solar output installed to date, and then some. And then coal and gas are tasked with picking up the slack, releasing more of the same emissions that required the AC in the first place. A vicious cycle indeed 😞

[Think. Again.]

1. I don't want to...

..complain about how we should have done this earlier, but it's very obvious that we need to ramp up construction of non-CO2 emitting energy souces NOW, a lot of them, and quickly.

[hunter]

2. Apparently I'm supposed to be critical of people keeping what cool they can...

...using 800 watt window air conditioners they can barely afford and ignore all the people cooling entire 3,500 square foot homes to 20 degrees Celsius because God Bless America!