Australia emits far higher greenhouse gas emissions than China...

Australia emits far higher greenhouse gas emissions than China and India on a per capita basis.

https://ourworldindata.org/per-capita-co2

This doesn’t mean Australians are “bad,” it simply reflects the fact that energy consumption per capita scales with GDP per capita. The rapid economic growth of China and India is enabled by equally rapid growth in their energy consumption. It’s not good that a lot of this new power production has been coming from coal fired power plants.

The fossil fuel industry has bought influence in government and the media worldwide. They want us to believe that our way of life depends on them, but this is a big fat trillion dollar lie. Politicians and businessmen bluster and fume on TV of the catastrophic future that awaits if we rely on solar power and electric cars. They cry crocodile tears for the birds slain by windmills. Think of the children of the coal miners!

This thinly veiled propaganda distracts from what boils down to a straightforward scientific, engineering, and economic approach to solving a serious existential threat. But it hardly matters anymore because the fossil fuel industry has already lost and the world will be better for it.

Renewable energy - solar and wind power - is cheaper to deploy than coal worldwide. Plans for building new coal plants are being scrapped in favor of renewable energy. Solar and wind power costs continue to drop every year. Gas power plants are becoming less competitive and will eventually fall victim as well. Watch the video below during a coffee break.



Battery electric vehicles are already at cost parity with ICE cars and continued cost declines will kill the ICE industry overnight. This is as inevitable as the death of VHS, flip phones, and film cameras.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk