andyt andyt:
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Surprising new data from the International Energy Agency shows that while the global economy continued to grow in 2014, the amount of carbon dioxide produced didn't.
According to the IEA report, this is "the first time in 40 years in which there was a halt or reduction in emissions of the greenhouse gas that was not tied to an economic downturn."
The IEA found that while the rich countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development grew about seven per cent over a four-year period, emissions fell four per cent. And in 2014, when global carbon dioxide production stayed constant, the entire global economy grew a fairly healthy three per cent.
Seems like about as recent data as you can get, and none of your arguments disprove them.
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With startup encouragement by governments, (including the government of Ontario, much maligned by critics for its solar subsidies) the cost of producing electricity with solar has plummeted. In India, solar can actually match or beat other sources of power.
Maybe the solar subsidies had some effect in Ontario. Maybe not, since he's talking world wide - just because Ontario may or may not have been a success doesn't mean it wasn't anywhere else.
As I said, Britain, Germany, Holland and Denmark have all put a halt to any future green energy projects. Here's part of Germany's solution:
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Lignite, as this form of compressed peat is known, is becoming an increasingly important part of Germany's effort to phase out nuclear energy. It's also the reason why Atterwasch, a village that survived the Thirty Years' War, a Soviet onslaught at the end of World War II and four hard decades of communist rule is slated to be razed.
The village, with its volunteer fire station and old brownstone church, is to make way for a strip mine in the next decade. Dozens of other villages have fallen victim to the same fate, as coal once again becomes king.
That's from November 2014.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/german-v ... -1.2123665From Britain, ONE HOUR AGO:
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/03 ... er-warned/From February of this year:
http://www.euractiv.com/sections/energy ... ons-312497From Dec 2014: Spain scraps subsidies for green businesses
http://www.thelocal.es/20141209/spain-s ... renewablesI could keep posting these but you should know how to use Google by now.
Then there's China. A country with 3-4 times the hydroelectric capacity of Canada and yet until very recently, Canada generated about twice as much hydroelectricity as China.
Not to mention that China still derives 70% of it's power generation from coal. In fact China uses almost as much coal as the entire rest of the world, accounting for 49% of global coal consumption.
So, with the countries leading the way in green tech deciding that it's not worth the economic cost to keep subsidizing them, and China consuming half the global coal production, I'm not all that confident in the veracity IEA report.