When I think of energy, I think of all the sources and uses. It’s like a living cash flow statement for the world. Which makes sense since 10% of global GDP is spent on energy uses. As I’ve posted in the past on the subject of coal, that source presently provides 27% of the electrical generation in the US and that is in spite of there being a fairly active campaign to transition away from coal into other sources of electricity.

At the same time as much effort goes into the vilification of fossil fuels including coal, Asia is now responsible for 73.8% of coal fired electricity generation in the world. Which got me to thinking: if we need electricity (we do); and we want to start positively impacting emissions and CO2 release (we do); why doesn’t greenpeace and others, including the proposed carbon tax plans of many of the democratic presidential candidates instead take that money and invest in wind and solar in China?

The power is required. There are 1 billion people who want access to the same standard of living as we have. We can skip fossil fuels entirely by harnessing renewables. And we can retire coal plants where they are.

If we really want to solve a problem, fish where the fish are.