Some Important Matters On Which Vaclav Smil Is Ignorant

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(1) The earth is a giant thorium-fission reactor (further evidence that thorium cannot explode) which is why molten lava billows from any rupture in the earth’s surface and why the center of the earth is 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit which is hotter than the sun’s surface – please see our posting entitled “I Take Your Point That Thorium Is Incapable Of Exploding, But What About Uranium-Fission Accidents?” at viewtopic.php?f=699&t=2215&sid=8d060c8b ... 1cb8698b16.

Reference Smil’s section entitled “Why The Earth Is Not Permanently Frozen” at pp. 177-180.

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(2) California and Europe’s “Hydrogen Highway” & Proton Technologies’ Means of Producing Plentiful Hydrogen That Is Economic – please see our posting of that title at viewtopic.php?f=699&t=2213&sid=d5425a63 ... 22aa094442.

Reference Smil’s dismissal of hydrogen (p. 24) that hydrogen can be produced by electrolysis of water which is, of course, uneconomic.

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(3) Farming can only be improved – NOT REPLACED. Please see the section of the Suggested Discussion Outline entitled “Nuclear-Powered Food Factories That Make Farms Obsolete” which references a report of our 5/12/2021 meeting with the same title at viewtopic.php?f=639&t=2062&p=2820&hilit ... f17e#p2820.

Reference Smil’s continual proclamations, most specifically in Chapter 3 on “The Four Pillars of Modern Civilization” – one of which is ammonia for farming.

Smil is reminiscent of the myopia of Charles H. Duell in 1889 when, as Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office, he recommended closing it on the grounds that “everything that can be invented has been invented”!!!

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(4) Nuclear is less expensive than wind or solar. Please see our many discussions of this over the years based on U.S. Government studies – and the remarks of U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm that current gasoline prices of approximately $5/gallon are beneficial because if they can just be increased a few dollars more, wind and solar will become economic (for example most recently, at the Sydney Australia Energy Forum which began 7/12/2022).

Reference Smil’s claim on p. 40 that “wind and solar in Europe” are a “less expensive choice” – without citing any support for his claim.

But what can you expect of someone whose PhD was earned in 1971 from Penn State IN GEOGRAPHY!!!

He apparently knows nothing about economics, and knows nothing about accounting.

The charitable view would be that Smil thinks “wind and solar in Europe” are a “less expensive choice” for consumers – courtesy of hefty governmental subsidies.

But they are hardly a “less expensive choice” for the countries that are heavily subsidizing wind and solar.

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Conclusion

Prof. Smil is truly one of Leon Battista Alberti’s “Renaissance Men” who has an incredible curiosity about many things and, apparently, a limitless number of graduate students who can do the research prompted by that curiosity.

However, he does have a limited vision.

Accordingly, he should not be viewed as an oracle.