Pirate's Cove

The very definition of “Progressivism” (nice Fascism): it’s for your own good

Your Gas Stove Is Bad for You and the Planet

We have some good news that sounds like bad news: Your gas stove has to go.

We know how you’ll feel reading those words. We used to love cooking with gas, too. But if our society is going to solve the climate crisis, one of the things we must do is stop burning gas in our buildings.

Nobody is going to shed a tear about having to switch to a more efficient furnace or water heater. But people feel emotional about gas stoves, and the gas industry knows it. Seeing this fight coming, the industry is already issuing propaganda with gauzy pictures of blue flames.

What the gas companies will not tell you is that your stove is a danger not just to the world’s climate but also to your own family’s health. We’ll explain in a moment.

First, here’s the larger situation: The need to tackle climate change is beyond urgent. We are running out of time. Within the next decade we need to cut climate pollution in half in the United States, roughly, to do our fair part in preserving a livable planet.

Burning gas is now a bigger source of such pollution than burning coal, and nearly a third of that gas is burned in homes and commercial buildings. But despite the rising chorus of climate pledges by state and local governments, none of them has really tackled the problem of gas in buildings. In fact, gas companies are still being allowed to spend billions extending new lines, connections that will have to be capped off long before the end of their useful lives if we are to meet our climate goals.

OK, so, let’s say this happens (and the only way to make it happen is through Government banning them): where does all the electricity for non-gas stoves come from? Warmists are mostly against nuclear. Extreme enviros, who tend to be Warmists, attempt to block all attempts at hydro-electric dams, which are only viable in certain areas, and want existing ones torn down. They sue over transmission lines from solar and wind farms, and also sue over wind and solar farms. So, how do we power electric stoves?

Why do all-electric homes make sense now? Because technology has come to the rescue, in the form of devices called heat pumps. They run on electricity, but far more efficiently than the electric appliances of our parents’ generation. So if we start installing them now, then as the electric grid gets greener, our buildings will be contributing less and less to climate change.

You might never have heard of heat pumps, but you already have one in your home. A heat pump is the core technology in your refrigerator. It is basically a loop involving a pump and a compressor that sucks heat out of the interior and blows it into the kitchen, and it can do this even when the interior of your refrigerator is colder than the air in the room.

A heat pump can replace both your furnace and your air conditioner. In the winter, it sucks heat in from the outside, even when the weather is cold, and blows it into your house. In the summer, a heat pump runs in reverse, cooling the house. Highly efficient heat-pump water heaters are also widely available.

If they were so great they would be placed in new homes at a high rate. Of course, there is the problem where most heat pumps can only work down to a temperature of 25-30F, then you have to have your furnace kick in, so, you need both, and a heat pump is way more expensive. Further, heat pumps aren’t even close to being as good as cooling as an AC, nor as inexpensive. One day, perhaps.

Regardless, again, the only way to really make this happen is through government force.

Read: Warmists Now Want To Get Rid Of Your Gas Stove »

See, on one hand, high ranking poobahs in the Cult of Climastrology have stated that ‘climate change’ will ruin wine (forgetting that previous warm periods saw great wines being produced in England). And the other hand

How Does Your Love of Wine Contribute to Climate Change?
Consumers don’t have access to much information about how businesses operate, but they can ask questions and focus on one tangible item, the bottle.

Consumers mostly do not care in the least, they just want some wine, not a lecture from anti-science buffoons.

Evil wine causes world to be hazy from carbon pollution

The exquisite vulnerability of grapes to nuances of weather makes wine both particularly susceptible to climate change and a harbinger of what’s to come for many other agricultural products.

Do wine consumers have a role in encouraging producers to take stronger steps to combat climate change? Some in the wine industry think they do, particularly by throwing their economic support to companies that are already acting decisively.

“The consumer is the key to this,” Adrian Bridge, the chief executive of Taylor Fladgate, the historic port producer, wrote in an email. “Changing our own behavior matters, and asking others to change theirs as well. This does mean buying from companies that are doing a good job and avoiding companies that are not.”

Things like grapes are always going to be vulnerable to things like weather. Always have and always will.

It’s equally important for consumers to make clear to the wine industry that fighting climate change is an urgent issue. Both through their buying decisions and through old-fashioned advocacy — which might include letters and emails to producers, importers and wine publications, as well as direct conversations with wine merchants and restaurateurs — consumers must demand that the wine industry take action.

Important to whom? Not the vast majority of people who buy wine, and do not give it any thought as to how it is supposedly linked to climate change, regardless of whether it is natural or man-caused.

That industry is simply a microcosm of larger society. Just as politicians have little incentive to address climate change unless voters require it, many wine producers are less inclined to reduce their own carbon footprints unless consumers demonstrate that such steps are important to them.

And few do, so, let’s move on from this stupidity. But, this is the NY Times, so, we haven’t even gotten a quarter way through the screed.

But how can anybody distinguish the environmental heroes from the do-nothings? That requires consumers to educate themselves in ways that are not easy, particularly because reliable information is difficult to come by. Many in the wine industry are notoriously opaque about their agriculture, their cellar techniques and their ingredients.

How dare they hide their trade secrets! Let’s skip to the end

As Gandhi suggested, no step is too small. The least we can do is make climate issues more urgent in our own lives, and to pass that message on to others.

“Things change,” Mr. Bridge said, “when society demands it.”

Society isn’t demanding it, nor are Warmists making changes in their own live.

Read: Your Love Of Wine Is Driving ‘Climate Change’ Or Something »