Source: Email group discussion
Kelvin Kemm (South Africa) and Terigi Ciccone (USA)February 4, 2022
The comments from Terigi Ciccone about Africa were very good and on the mark.
Around Africa we are experiencing a type of technological colonialism, or almost bullying. African leaders are starting to react against it.
What happens is that European countries arrive here and tell us what they think is good for us...... then threaten us with punitive measures if we don't do as they say. So we are 'instructed' to stop using coal power production and instead buy German wind turbines. We are telling them to 'buzz off.' They are telling us how much money we can make by producing green hydrogen and then exporting it. I have asked: please show me a buyer. So far nobody has come up with a single buyer of the mythical hydrogen. All we hear is the 'vast potential' that awaits. A number of African countries are now enthusiastically preparing for the future apparent hydrogen market, with no foreign customer in sight. To my mind this is disgraceful dishonesty.
Something which is irritating are the times when Europeans assume that we are stupid and just don't understand..... so they have to speak to us in words of one syllable, at Grade One level.
I have had a person in Germany ask me if I have heard of a concept of transmitting telecommunications by microwaves. I had to point out that we have far larger and more powerful microwave links than they do.
A while ago I was at a green conference here in Johannesburg which had speakers from Switzerland, Germany and France, amongst others. I was also a speaker, and it had been plain that I had been invited so they could make a fool of me in public. So I was prepared. I am also experienced so I came out on top when the confrontation started. But the Swiss speaker told the African delegates (about 200 from a number of African countries) that Africa must not be allowed to increase electricity production by more than 10%. Note that this is not 10% per annum, but 10% forever.
Can the world solve an energy problem, especially in Africa
He said that Switzerland was an example of a lifestyle which African countries should not follow. He said that Africa must continue to show the world how to live 'in harmony with nature' and not build modern infrastructure. I was there, this is not second hand news!
Later, in private discussion with a number of them, they said that world GDP growth must be stopped, because any GDP growth is bad for the climate. They explained to me (as if it had never occurred to me) that if someone stops ploughing his land with oxen, and then he gets a tractor, then diesel must be produced, and transported, spare parts must be made, oil will drop into the ground, tyres must be made.... etc ...... and all this requires more industrialisation somewhere, which is bad for the climate. They carefully explained the concept of an industrial process.
I pointed out that children will die if there are no medical facilities, educational facilities.... They replied that that is a price which has to be paid to 'save the planet.'
There were German people there demonstrating a 'lighting solution' for African villages. It was a wooden box containing two ordinary lead/acid motor car batteries. On the box was an old-style 60Watt incandescent light bulb (only one) and a switch. The box was connected to a solar panel. The instructions were: carry the box and panel outside each day and put it in the sun. Then carry it in at night and switch on the light. But the box was too heavy and bulky for one person to carry, let alone all the other faults, not to mention the insult to show this 'African solution' to a room full of graduates.
Here we have some very advanced technology and systems. We had GSM cell phone technology two years before the US. We had text messaging two years before the US. I demonstrated how text messaging works in the US Senate. I had been invited to give a Senate Briefing, and while I was waiting my turn I was texting my secretary in Pretoria with instructions. A fellow watched me in amazement, and moments later I had a whole crowd gathered around me amazed to see what I could do 'all the way to Africa.'
We had cell phone banking well before the US and Europe. I believe that it is still way ahead of Europe. Generally the country has a very advanced electronic banking system. I believe well ahead of Europe. When I've been in Europe I've been quite surprised to discover what their system can't do but which is commonplace to us.
By the way, South Africa is very advanced compared to most African countries. Here we produce and consume 50% of all the electricity in Africa. In my experience our road freeways are bigger and better than those in Germany.
We also have many unpaved roads, which we call 'dirt roads' and which Germany does not have. So Germans come here on holiday and crash their cars on a sandy road, because they do not know how to drive on them. This brings me to another point. Terigi
made the point that England, 100 years ago, used coal to enter the Industrial Age. Yes, totally correct. But it is interesting for sociologists to study a country like South Africa. In England a hundred years ago, all the people entered the electric age together. Here, as in many countries in the world, there is a large difference between the 'front end' and the 'back end' of society advance. Note that this is not based on income or other such obvious markers.
The technologically advanced front-end has world-class international telecommunications and all sorts of other modern devices. By the way, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) was fully electronic well before the NYSE on Wall Street.
But at the 'back end' so to speak, people live a simple life out 'in the bush' avoiding the elephants. A while ago I was out in the bush (as we say it) hiking with a physics friend. We were carrying a large calibre rifle in case we needed it. A simple village fellow spotted us and politely came up and asked if we could help him. He took off in a particular direction and we followed. He went to the river where he pointed out a large crocodile and asked us if we could shoot it. It is not legal to just shoot animals, unless they are on your own property. Besides, we would not do that anyway. The rifle would only have been used if we were in serious danger from an animal. We asked him; 'why do you want us to shoot it?' He replied; ' because it ate my wife.' But that fellow quite likely does cell phone banking. That is why I said that this phase in history would be interesting for sociologists to investigate.
So Terigi was quite correct in pointing out that we have a bullying situation (my words) in which European countries are turning up in African countries and demanding that we run our lifestyles and GDP growth with their rules, values, and political wishes. They frequently arrive with a totally superior attitude and act shocked when we don't kneel down with gratitude and thank them for their superior wisdom and guidance.
I will end by pointing out that certainly not all European people are like this. There are many sensible, friendly and understanding Europeans. The problematic ones are the self-styled green end of the spectrum who seem to believe that only their opinions count.
Regards, Kelvin
From: terigi ciccone [mailto:terigiciccone@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, 03 February 2022 04:23
To: John Shanahan
Cc: Howard Hayden; Kelvin Kemm; Kenneth D. Kok; Jay Lehr; Patrick Moore; Tom Moser; Jim Peacock; David Wojick; Gary
A. YoungSubject: Author review of draft letter to the Nuclear Energy Institute : "When will nuclear power get going again?"
John, an excellent move and thank you for including me in the rank. The letter is excellent and I support it 100%.
There is also another dimension to this energy story that perhaps we can tap into at some point. Earlier today I received a query through Quora about energy, especially in Africa, which I would like to share, and that is the humanity side. Below is the question I received and my response.
Can the world really solve an energy problem, especially in Africa?
Those are two very different questions and need to be separated. But unfortunately, too many Europeans and their European cultural heirs prefer to conflate the two for cultural and economic advantages.
Focus first on Africa. Africa needs electricity, affordable, reliable, and continuous energy to break the industrialization barrier. That means that coal must be the mandatory first step. As a fuel, it’s readily available, cheap, and requires minimum technology and capital investments. After all, that’s how the colonial west gained its economic and industrial dominance over the rest of the world in the last 150 years. But then, it was dirty, filthy coal that gave us the power to mine, smelt, forge, and cast steel into the magical machinery of industrial nations. From the forges, foundries, and mills from Manchester to Pittsburgh, steel and the ability to forge it, cast it, machine it that allowed the colonial west to leapfrog all other cultures and nations into the modern energy state. Thank God we have since learned how to burn coal cleanly and healthily.
Yes, for decades we turned our nations into ecological dumps in the process. I recall the soot and filth in the London air. I saw rivers in Pennsylvania catch fire. I felt the acid air of Taipei and Seoul burn my throat and lungs. But there was a long-range, unspoken view that this is what had to be done to better humanity. So these countries built the industries and commerce that gave us the foundation for our modern world and the health and prosperity it empowered. But, in these past few decades, these former colonial powers are preventing developing nations from using this same mechanism from advancing their countries into the industrialized world. And the UN and the World Bank, charged to assist these nations in developing, are using “ecological obfuscations”
to retard their development and prevent them from competing for wealth and political influence.
Look, forcing African nations to build their future on unreliable and intermittent “green energy,” meaning solar and wind, is to deny them entry into the modern-industrialized world and keep them in “their place” as serfs and subservient to our needs. How can an emerging nation ever hope to compete if their only energy source is intermittent and unreliable solar and wind? How can they keep their factories working 24 hours a day, their schools and hospitals open, and students do homework at night when the sun is not shining and the wind not blowing?
Look at China and India, who have rejected the “colonial” model for industrialization. They told us colonialists screw you and your impositions. We are going coal as fast as we can AND after which we are going nuclear as fast as we can. Keep up with us now if you can.
Again, thank you and best regards Terigi
On Wed, Feb 2, 2022 at 8:14 PM John Shanahan <acorncreek2006@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear colleagues:
In 2022, I am launching a campaign with the title: "When will nuclear power get going again?" Letters will go individually to many energy organizations, companies, government agencies, Congress, the White House, and the same in other countries. The first letter is attached for your review. It is going to the Nuclear Energy Institute.
I've asked the ten of you to join me as authors.
We established a BACKGROUND document with you as authors. See here. It is only two pages long. It includes hotlinks to 12 organizations that defend carbon dioxide, fossil fuels and nuclear power. It includes two hotlinks to the website; allaboutenergy.net with documents PRO and CON carbon dioxide, fossil fuels, and nuclear power. These 14 hotlinks represent more than ten thousand articles, reports (longer articles), PowerPoint Presentations, eBooks, and videos, most of them not too
technical for the benefit of the public, students, teachers, professionals in all fields, government officials, and elected leaders.
This document also includes a hotlink to signers who simply support carbon dioxide as the molecule of life, and support fossil fuels and nuclear power as essential for the modern world in the long run. It has seven pages of highly qualified and motivated signers now. We will collect signatures for several years. This signer document should become a world reference of people who support carbon dioxide, fossil fuels, and nuclear power. Because of the definition of who can sign, the alarmist forces have nothing they really can say about it. As the list gets longer, we will use organizational techniques so that people will be able to quickly navigate around it.
List of signers of the BACKGROUND document for "When will nuclear power get going again?"
Here is what I am asking you to do now.
I've attached for your review the first letter that will use this BACKGROUND document and signer list. It will go to the Nuclear Energy Institute. They are one of many organizations who are responsible for the lack of progress. The letter summarizes the situation and makes recommendations on what they should do to "get nuclear power going again."
You are listed as authors. So far, Howard Cork Hayden and I have contributed to establishing the message. Now it is your turn to recommend changes, additions, and deletions. Please reply to this message with your comments. I will resolve your ideas.
Should you decide any time in the future to not participate as authors, your name will be removed. These documents will be posted on allaboutenergy.net where they can be read but not downloaded. So, if you want to remove your name, it will be done from the beginning and forever in two easy steps.
Otherwise, the eleven of us will be major contributors to getting sound policy established worldwide for carbon dioxide, the molecule of life, and fossil fuels and nuclear power as the most important energy sources.
Please send your comments by February 6.
Many thanks for your participation since 2010, when the first letter went to President Obama's Science Advisor, John Holdren.
Best wishes, John John A. Shanahan Civil Engineer
Founder, website: allaboutenergy.net
Denver, Colorado, USA 80210
E-mail: john.shanahan@allaboutenergy.net