Quotes from Robert Bryce

Over the past century and a half, we've gone from harnessing animals—and enduring all the shit they shat—to harnessing the subatomic motion of electrons.

Agency (EPA) estimates that coal-fired power plants account "for over 40% of all domestic human-caused mercury emissions." Furthermore, the EPA says, "about one quarter of US emissions from coal-burning power plants are deposited within the contiguous US and the remainder enters the global cycle."6 In addition, the ash that comes out of coal-fired power plants is usually contaminated with heavy metals.

The results were obvious: as more horses were put to work, their need for grain increased. And that put them in direct competition with humans. By the early 1900s, as much as 20 percent of all US farmland was being used to cultivate grain solely for horse feed.5

As Anderson cleared maps and other papers from the table adjacent to his desk, I asked him for the heat content of the coal. His reply: about 12,500 Btu (British thermal units)

Using the official $1 per day line, we estimate that [from 1970 to 2006] world poverty rates have fallen by 80 percent.

Utilizing wind energy to fuel data centers would be equally problematic. To demonstrate that, consider the Facebook data center in Prineville, Oregon, which needs 28 megawatts of power.46 The areal power density of wind energy—and it doesn't matter where you put your wind turbines—is 1 watt per square meter.47 (I will address wind energy in a later chapter.) Therefore, just to fuel the Facebook data center with wind will require about 28 million square meters of land.

It's time to move the debate past the dogmatic view that carbon dioxide is evil and toward a world view that accepts the need for energy that is cheap, abundant, and reliable.

Wind is one of the greatest scams of the modern age.