Where are the wild things – Exposure to the “Working Classroom” will solve the global energy crisis – Will it be solved?
“Because one believes in himself, one does not try to convince others.” Lao Tzu
Education or propaganda?
Information or communication strategy?
Clarity or daydreaming?
Quick Dick McDick or Gerald Butts?
Homer Simpson or Al Gore?
What is the purpose of speaking out in a public square? To influence ideas? Support the army? Bend policy? Entertainment? Elevate morale? Conceited?
In a sense, the bad guys cheat – they control the microphone, control the loudest microphone, rendering others ineffective. They control the airwaves and flood message boards with sensation. Fear is always active. Always. They create stereotyped villains, bad guys, a symbol to focus anger and feelings of injustice.
That tactic, though not new, is no less competitive. Anger can be transformed into miracles, to create positive change, to get rid of corruption and incompetence. Anger can drive apathy and isn’t always bad.
But beware of loud voices that dominate the search for control. They want people to do this or stop doing it to achieve some desired state. Desires about who and why are the top important questions, but are difficult to clarify, because actors are not always open about the actual goal.
Voices in public squares used to be restricted. Not everyone can scream at the same time. No one will be heard.
Now everyone screams all the time, digitally speaking. And politics has prevailed, which means not following reason or facts or tangible things, but emotion and ideology and control.
What should you listen to? And why do you still listen to me even though I told you? It is often said that opinion is like a flaw, everyone has a flaw. Wrong. Each of them has fifty thousand of them.
Anyone worth listening to?
I think yes. There are ways to get rid of the nonsense, to find the signal in the noise.
The first path is to listen to those who connect with reality. Now, you might think that’s a challenge, and it can happen, depending on the facts one listens to. That’s the problem with concepts like climate change, whereby a scientific phenomenon can be observed/measured with caveats that the system under study is complex beyond belief, or it can is “used” as a tool for social engineering, a situation in which objectivity goes out the window and conversation disintegrates into the political theater.
Fortunately for those of us in the energy industry, the evidence is pretty good. There’s no ax sharpening thought associated with a statement like: We’re running out of fuel.
we to be out of fuel. Metaphorically speaking, we sold off the furnace because the local seller said a much better model would be here before winter, cheaper and cleaner.
He’s wrong. New ovens are not simply in return order; it is still in the design phase back to the lab. And winter comes early.
Without metaphor, here’s a slightly more eloquent statement, from the head Saudi Aramco: “As historians reflect on this crisis, they will find that the warning signs in global energy policies have been flashing red for nearly a decade. Many of us have emphasized for years that if investment in oil and gas continues to decline, global supply growth will lag behind demand, impacting markets, the global economy and lives. People’s… Meanwhile, the energy transition plan has been undermined by unrealistic scenarios and false assumptions because they have been misinterpreted as fact… Perhaps most disastrous is the idea. think that contingency planning can be safely ignored. Because when you embarrass oil and gas investors, tear down oil and coal-fired power plants, fail to diversify energy supplies (especially gas), oppose terminals take in LNG and reject nuclear power, then your transition plan is better right. “
Many people have said this over the years with voices that can’t compete – no one worries about the stove in the summer heat, not when the symphony warns everything else but.
Winter is almost here. The man in the corner, the man who was slandered, the one who used to be strong, came back strong carrying all the food to the market, who still does, is telling you: we are running out of fuel. Pariah says he also won’t bring much food to market, he has been ordered to retire. Those who will replace claim do not need strength to perform, they have spent the summer on a new short. An experienced person, planning to retire, said that it won’t work in the winter.
He said that no one could shoulder the burden once he was gone.
No one listens. Yesterday’s fool. Outdated, out of place, dirty. Our way will work. Go away. The world has been listening to that message for so long, and now there is a problem so great that we can’t even imagine.
Hear who?
Find reality for yourself. That is possible.
You don’t have to travel long distances through the countryside to feel reality (though it’s a great way to do it, contemplatively speaking). You can go to the “other side” of a city, see everything being built, repaired, bought, sold. You will see armies of humans doing everything, all the little things that we don’t even know exist but still keep our world running.
Dave Yager wrote a great thing pillar the other week, about a road trip from Calgary to Lloydminster. He listed the wonders visible along the back road of a six-hour journey through some of Canada’s true heartlands: countless farms, small towns, small businesses, establishments. energy infrastructure, great open space that is both empty and filled with abundance that most of the world would kill. . Time and space to make people think and appreciate.
It’s a view that if we can’t have, we should at least consider the relevance of. All of our things that come from somewhere, created by someone, use energy, labor and raw materials need to be put together in a very specific way.
Maybe you don’t feel like walking around the landscape in search of truth versus theoretical luck. There are roads. Instead of reading articles from, say, Stanford University professors about how they have modeled a realistic path to pure zero whenever you like, try reading mining journals and tables Score conference calls from global mining giants and follow metallurgists on social media.
Instead of reading WEF/UN/anyone articles about how bugs really aren’t that bad and how bad modern agriculture is for the environment, read The Western Producer or follow soil agronomists or dare I say even the grain traders, all make a living out of the actual food chain itself.
Instead of hearing power conversion peripherals blaring about how the oil and gas industry is a sunset industry but it’s still not enough to die for to reduce emissions, try reading… Report BOE (!), and other energy publications, and check out oil/gas producer websites and jump to their sustainability sections. Every company has one, and the developments going on are huge. In fact, new energy developments are being held back by the very governments that insist on rapid change because they themselves do not understand the requirement of actually doing something. Making random claims like “reduce national emissions by 40 percent x days” is the opposite of helpful; such slogans empower laptop-class ways of thinking but have little to do with the cold reality of building things.
Talking to the “doers” is eye-opening. They will have views that could not otherwise be learned (and obviously the opposite is also true – those on the front lines are often unaware of the views of the “back office” et al.; but the relationship If you don’t believe me, ask yourself who would you want to be in the bunker with you when, like your father, warned you that the whole world was going to go to hell (via Putin or otherwise) – someone who can do anything with their hands, or who deals with Wall Street).
In the laptop-level modeling world, every variable is reduced to a single cell. Supply chain challenges are faced with “Hmmm, maybe I should put 0.97 in the supply downtime box rather than 0.98…that should do”. For those who actually do the work, a shortage of parts can destroy a business, a shipment, or a reputation. Theorists do not understand nightmares or logistical impossibilities; Only those who live them know what they mean.
It’s easy to lose sight of that, especially in the social media/mainstream media jungle. To borrow a phrase from the immortal Seinfeld, we are breathing every day, in endless quantities, the Air of Complaints.
But there is hope, and positivity. Find channels that talk about jobs, things that actually don’t depend on some government fantasy. Read about real people making something happen as real businesses – not through artificial markets created by governments, and listen to their challenges.
You will encounter a human spirit that can make your mood less painful but more uplifting.
Recent studies show that some people have yet to buy this book. That could explain a lot of the chaos. Watch “Fossil Fuel Madness” at Amazon.ca, Indigo.caor Amazon.com. It’s not late yet. Thanks for the support. And hang there Ukraine! The world is cheering for you.
Read more insightful analysis from Terry Etam here, or email Terry here.
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