Why Electric Vehicles are Not Renewable, Clean or Green

Written by John O'Sullivan on November 20, 2017. Posted in Current News

Last week the BBC proclaimed the Bonn Climate Talks (COP23) as ‘small steps forward’ in eliminating ‘fossil fuels’ in the push to cut emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2).

But the emerging science of geomicrobiology, along with revelations about the true environmental cost of electric batteries, are changing scientific opinion. Such fresh insights are overturning conventional ideas of what ‘clean and renewable’ really means for mass energy generation.

First, let’s start in Bonn, Germany. Here the BBC’s environment analyst Roger ‘Goebbels’ Harrabin’s confirmed coal remains the greens’ biggest enemy:

“In a further rebuff to those who came here to promote fossil fuels, the UK, Canada and Mexico, close allies and neighbours of the US, led a new global alliance to move away from coal.”

But Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump aren’t quitting on coal. And China is busily building a staggering 1,600 new coal plants in 62 countries!

Now emerging new science and engineering is proving Asia, Merkel and Trump will be true environmental champions for choosing oil, gas and coal power over electric. For starters, according to Nikkei Asian Review, 6 June 2017 the new Osaki CoolGen coal-fired power plants are cutting emission of CO2 per power output by about 40 percent.

Now take a look at where else the conventional green narrative is falling apart:

In the west, for over a century, hydrocarbon fuels have been termed ‘fossil fuels’ even though we now know they don’t come from fossils, being abundant in our solar system (beyond dead dinosaurs or rotting vegetation);
It is a lie that ‘fossil fuels’ are bad for life on our planet. In fact, there is a rising scientific argument that ‘fossil fuels’ are green energy; geomicrobiology now proves microbes consume them as food, thus not toxic to life;
Cambridge Energy Research Associates among many independent studies, have debunked ‘peak oil’ fears that the world is running out of oil.
Abiogenic (or Abiotic) oil theory proves hydrocarbons have geothermal origin, regenerate continuously and naturally from rocks under pressure, thereby truly renewable;
Greens claim better, ‘cleaner’ energy sources are available, even though electric vehicles emit double the CO2 emissions and their batteries require never-ending quantities of toxic rare earth metals that, for industrial use, are in short supply;
Greens claim ‘poisonous’ carbon dioxide is harmful to the biosphere, but empirical evidence proves the opposite – more CO2 is spurring global plant growth – it is essential plant food!

As anyone can find out by doing a diligent search online, being green only makes sense if cherry picking the evidence you rely on. One of the biggest falsehoods is the fossil fuel narrative that tells us that oil, gas and coal derive from irreplaceable pre-historic rotten vegetation and dead dinosaurs.

Today, ever-more scientists are discovering fossil fuel theory is wrong. If it is wrong then it’s evil twin brother, peak oil theory (limits to usable oil reserves) fails as do many negative concepts around oil, gas and coal. Indeed, as indicated herein, there is a rise in science studies showing oil, gas and coal are hugely abundant, renewable and essential as food for microbes and, by implication, higher lifeforms such as ourselves.

With these connected fallacies we get the Big Lie i.e. that it is bad for Mother Earth for humans to be burning more fossil fuels and supposedly raising global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

As climate researcher, Carl Brehmer bemoans:

“There are people in this world who, even though CO2 levels are ~300{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} lower than optimal levels for robust plant growth, insist that humanity should develop methods of artificially reducing the atmospheric concentration of this vital airborne plant food.”

The recent modest rise in atmospheric CO2 is said to have caused much of the new greening along arid areas such as the Sahara Desert (see below).

As the dust settles and the Bonn climate delegates go home perhaps the world will take stock of what is going on in the wider world of peer-reviewed science?

Only last month (October 2017) two Stanford geologists, Associate Professor Kevin Boyce and Post-doctorate Research Fellow Matthew Nelsen, in collaboration with other scientists, published an astonishing new paper casting grave doubt on the traditional idea of coal formation. They found that tectonic activity was key to coal formation, not decayed fossils. Like a growing number of scientists, they admit that ‘fossil fuel’ theory, which prevailed for over a century, is busted.

It was back in the 1870’s that western geologists first documented the existence of biological debris in petroleum and coal deposits. They mistakenly thought that biology was the source of petroleum and coal. This is called the ‘biogenic theory’ (fossil fuel theory).

John D. Rockefeller Sr., the founding patriarch of the Rockefeller oil dynasty, who gained a virtual monopoly over the U.S. energy industry by the 1880’s, loved the story about oil coming from dead dinosaurs and promoted it. The idea oil was going to gradually run out guaranteed to make it an increasingly valuable commodity, as per the economics of supply and demand. The rest is history, as they say.

The Washington, D.C.-based watchdog Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) offers a great insight with The Rockefeller Way: The Family’s Covert “Climate Change” Plan. See also ‘New Report: Global Warming Is A Rockefeller Scam’ (January 2017)

‘So what?’ Our tree-hugging friends cry.

Well, join the dots and wake up and see the knock-on impact this has on your misguided Gaia narrative. The Stanford study and many others, undermines ideas of what constitutes renewable energy, along with the ‘evolutionary lag’ hypothesis for coal production. Dr Boyce says,

“The actual record of accumulation doesn’t really work for it being a biotic [biological] cause. It looks much more grounded in abiotic processes [from heated rocks].”

But the greenies want us, instead, to keep faith with biogenic theory which tells us that ‘fossil fuels’ retain CO2 inhaled by prehistoric plants and dinosaurs. The theory claims that as a result of this ‘capturing’ of CO2 (a ‘greenhouse gas’) Earth underwent global cooling. The biogenic theory proposes that the prehistoric lowering of CO2 had decreased the heat storage capacity of the atmosphere. These eco-warriors claim that when humans burn ‘fossil fuels,’ especially in cars and trucks, they are ‘re-releasing CO2.’ As a remedy, they tell us, we should go low on CO2 and move to all electric vehicles (EV’s).

Dirty Secrets: Electric Vehicle Batteries

But the greens have till now kept hidden two dirty little secrets. First, it is a lie that electric vehicles (EV’s) emit less CO2 than comparable petrol-driven variants. Last week, we revealed that EV’s emit DOUBLE the CO2. Using government data we showed that for the UK to switch from petrol cars to EV’s would require the nation to build 160 new Drax-type coal power stations.

Secondly, ardent greens don’t want you to know just how toxic and non-renewable are the rare earth metals and other raw materials used in the manufacture and maintenance of EV batteries (inc. neodymium, lithium, and cerium). Required in huge quantities, these materials are neither renewable, or clean. They are extremely poisonous.

On the other hand, hydrocarbons are fairly benign by comparison. Hydrocarbons are readily digested by microbes and used by humans for everything from laxative to cosmetics. But in our prevailing and perverse double-speak eco-world you could be forgiven for thinking lipstick (containing petroleum) and CO2 (exhaled breath/plant food) are poisons.

But to all die-hard greenies out there: Please do not try putting toxic rare earth metals like neodymium – essential in EV’s – into your body or on your skin!

Neodymium can cause lung embolisms and liver damage if ingested. When dumped in the environment neodymium leeches into ground water and poisons water animals damaging vital cell membranes.

Now contrast and compare that toxic lake of EV ingredients from Inner Mongolia with any common tar pit (full of hydrocarbon/fossil fuel). Think of California’s La Brea Tar Pits or those in Trinidad and elsewhere (photo above).

These tar pits are pure hydrocarbons, natural asphalt (bitumen, pitch or tar) that has seeped up from deep underground for tens of thousands of years.

Scientists have carefully studied the bacteria found in the La Brea Tar Pits. Life not only survives, it thrives in this environment! Scientists discovered these organisms when they noticed bubbles of methane coming out of the pits. In fact, the Helaeomyia petrolei, the petroleum fly, spends its larval stage within tar pits.

In Baotou, the largest industrial city in Inner Mongolia, the city-sized Baogang Steel and Rare Earth complex is the world’s largest artificial lake filled with a black, barely-liquid, toxic sludge.

Even the pro-green BBC calls this place “hell on earth.” Can’t eco-warriors see that this backdrop is what feeds their fetish for a Tesla or Toyota Prius?

In 2009 China produced 95{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} of the world’s supply of these elements, and it’s estimated that the Bayan Obo mines just north of Baotou contain 70{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} of the world’s reserves. But at what cost, the BBC asks?

“For example, cerium is extracted by crushing mineral mixtures and dissolving them in sulphuric and nitric acid, and this has to be done on a huge industrial scale, resulting in a vast amount of poisonous waste as a byproduct.”

Perhaps the BBC’s Roger Harrabin should take a diversion in his journey back from Bonn and visit the Bayan Obo mines to see just what ‘clean, green’ energy really means?

And what about lithium batteries? Check out ‘The Trouble with Lithium Batteries 2.’ A 2008 study concluded that:

“realistically achievable lithium carbonate production will be sufficient for only a small fraction of future PHEV and EV global market requirements”, that “demand from the portable electronics sector will absorb much of the planned production increases in the next decade”, and that “mass production of lithium carbonate is not environmentally sound, it will cause irreparable ecological damage to ecosystems that should be protected and that LiIon propulsion is incompatible with the notion of the ‘Green Car.'”

But even worse, recoverable global Lithium Brine Reserves are lower than originally estimated, at a meager 4 million tonnes of Lithium. Where is the renewability there then?

Let’s contrast and compare some more:

The World Health Organization classifies untreated or mildly treated mineral oils (hydrocarbons) as Group 1 carcinogens to humans; highly refined oils are classified as Group 3, meaning they are not suspected to be carcinogenic; petroleum being a common ingredient in baby lotions, cold creams, ointments and cosmetics.

Fossil fuel theory (with the concomitant ‘peak oil’ narrative) is faltering under the glut of plentiful oil, gas and coal reserves now being exploited. Indeed, the endless, vast fuel sources located ever deeper in earth’s crust and beneath ocean floors in areas where no dinosaur or tree ever grew, compels a growing number of experts in conceding that abiogenic theory (not fossil fuel theory) better explains the origins of coal, oil and gas.

Moreover, the old idea that increased CO2 emissions for hydrocarbon combustion is bad for nature is proven bogus by the fact scientists have seen a considerable greening of the planet correlating with rises in atmospheric CO2. Ever more studies are proving horticulturalists are right to pump massive amounts of CO2 (2,000 ppm versus 350ppm in the atmosphere) into their greenhouses. Plants just love it and will produce 50 percent higher yields. Thus, feeding more of us and diminishing global malnutrition.

Hydrocarbons (‘fossil fuels’) Renew Themselves

The greens don’t want you to see the science that proves oil, gas and coal are regenerated within earth’s mantle from rocks. It is a natural and dynamic process occurring on earth and the far reaches of outer space. Saturn’s moon, Titan, has abundant oil and methane.

For a century, since America’s first oil magnate Rockefeller queered the scientific pitch, we have bought into the lie that oil comes from organic matter. But as all hydrocarbons migrate to the surface, they are attacked by bacteria (for food), making them appear to have an organic origin (Gold, 1999).

We know oil fields can and do refill from below, so that oil is renewable per se from the such evidence as the Eugene Island #330 oil field. Eugene Island is rapidly refilling itself with oil, perhaps from some continuous source miles below the Earth’s surface (Lakoski, 2011; Cooper, 1999). Stranger still, scientists studying the field say the crude coming out of the pipe is of a geological age quite different from the oil that gushed 10 years ago (Cooper, 2011).

But the list of such refilling fields is world-wide. Most notably are the White Tiger oil field in Vietnam (discovered by a Russian company, Vietsovpetro) in fractured basement granite; the Panhandle-Hugoton field (high helium content) in Texas-Oklahoma, the Shengli Field and Songliao Basin in Northeastern China (supposedly mantle derived natural gas), and the well-known Chimaera natural gas seep in Turkey. According to peakoil.com:

“This seep has been known to be continuously active for thousands of years and represents the largest cataloged emission of abiogenic methane on land. The vast amounts of methane released by the biggest mud volcano eruptions are allegedly greater than found in the most abundant natural gas fields in commercial production.”

As researcher, Dr Steven Rowitt writes:

“Why would the fossil fuel camp defend against this not-so-new and well-documented hypothesis? One can only surmise that the view of ever-diminishing oil reserves fits into the green energy movement’s political views; therefore, the concept that oil and gas might be renewable resources is not politically correct.”

Russian geologists and engineers caught onto abiotic theory 50 years before the west. It explains why Russia is now a leading oil-producing country. Russian geologist Nikolai Alexandrovitch Kudryavtsev proposed the modern abiotic hypothesis of petroleum in 1951. But support first emerged in the 19th century when two very accomplished scientists, Alexander von Humboldt and Dimitri Mendeleev (of the Periodic Table fame) advanced the concept.

Since then, many scientists have embraced this theory citing compelling evidence (Abbass, 1996; Bergey, 2012; Pfeiffer, 2003; Losh et al., 2002; Olson & Ashworth, 2013). The Russians claim to have successfully drilled over 300 ultra-deep (around 40,000 feet) oil and gas wells through granite and basalt based on this theory. A leading voice in this building scientific consensus was the respected astronomer and professor emeritus at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, Thomas Gold (1920-2004).

The Rise of Geomicrobiology

Indeed, the only evidence for proof of fossil fuel theory is that organic material is sometimes found in oil, gas and coal. However, the presence of organic material may merely be as a contaminant, not a cause. This intriguing insight was given a huge boost, as revealed in ‘Science Daily,’ (March 14, 2013) with ‘Life Deep Within Oceanic Crust Sustained by Energy from Interior of Earth’ detailing important new findings

Therein, it identifies how a team of scientists from Aarhus University are making a compelling new discovery 2.5 km deep in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of North America. Examining rock samples from the depths on board the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program’s research vessel JOIDES Resolution was found evidence of life where it was once thought impossible – in rocks.

Thus, the emerging new science of geomicrobiology is possibly the biggest new threat to fossil fuel theory. Geomicrobiologists are proving bacteria at great depths is able to feed on the oil deposits and this accounts for the presence of biological debris in hydrocarbon fuels.

Hydrocarbons Beyond Earth

As on earth so it goes elsewhere in the cosmos. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute, Germany have discovered that the Horse Head Nebula galaxy in the Orion constellation contains a vast field of hydrocarbons Astronomer Jerome Pety told The Daily Galaxy, “We observed the operation of a natural refinery of gigantic size” (rotted dinosaurs there, too? Really greens?).

Saturn’s orange moon Titan was found to have hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth. This finding was from data obtained by the Cassini space mission and made known by a study led by Ralph Lorenz.

Hydrocarbons in the stars are very likely to be formed under considerable nuclear heat and pressure. Anywhere in the universe exists the preconditions (as per abiogenic oil theory) such that newly ‘liberated’ atoms from the fission reactions in planetary bodies in an environment of extreme heat and pressure can turn into ‘fossil fuel’.

Indeed, a research team at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, led by Vladimir Kutherov simulated the thermal and pressure processes that occur in the inner layers of the earth to generate hydrocarbons. Some of these daughter atoms are stable, non-reactive inert gases, others quickly find a matching atom and form a stable diatomic molecule. For the remaining atoms, the heat and pressure force new molecular bonding.

The Swedish team also noted that oil and gas has been found 7 miles below ground in Texas and fossil oil and gas could not, via, gravity have seeped down to such depths. As such, oil seems a truly renewable resource and man’s harvesting of this resource, may be of actual benefit, being in tune with earth’s broader eco-system.

No Peak Oil, No Fossil Fuel, No Fear

But, if you are one of those zealous greenies who buys into the fossil fuel argument then, of course, you would also need to argue oil reserves are finite and ‘peak oil’ is a real concern (‘peak oil’ believers say oil reserves are fast depleting because of human extraction). But if you hold the view that abiogenic oil is more likely then there is little reason to fear humans are going to run out of oil reserves any time soon. Indeed, if oil is formed continuously from hydrocarbons in rocks then the name ‘petroleum,’ literally meaning ‘rock oil,’ was well chosen by the Greeks and Renaissance thinkers.