Millions of virtue-signalling, eco-woke words have been written about the Australian bush fires and how they are a signal for the climate change the world is not only facing but currently undergoing. But as we’ve reported here before and as is plain to everyone, it’s not yet enough to stop humanity burning fossil fuels, only to slow down the growth in their use. And, as this global map of fires from NASA shows, Australia’s bush fires are nothing like as big as those in South East Asia or Africa or even the Latin American rainforests.
To keep global warming to the 2.0 C limit agreed in Paris, we have to wean ourselves off hydrocarbons, as is now clear, and especially off coal. The world cancelled 1,756 Gigawatts of coal-fired power generation between 2010 and 2018 according to Global Energy Monitor, but China alone increased five-fold its coal burning power generation capacity between 2000 and 2018 to 973 Gigawatts. China now consumes half of all the 8 Bn Tpa world coal production. China...
