While we're talking about Things Sun ...
The Sun undergoes a proton-proton fusion cycle about 1038 (10 to the 38th) times per second.
Using the mass of a proton, multiplying by 2 (I think there are two involved in the chain, though Wikipedia's article suggests otherwise, see below), that's about 308 million tonnes of hydrogen fused per second.
(Wikipedia comes out with about double this, or 620 million tonnnes/s, I may have the number of protons wrong here...)
Humans consume about 104 million barrels of oil per day, which works out to 15 million tonnes, or about 175 tonnes per second.
Which means that on a mass basis, humans alone on Earth are burning through fuel at on the order of one millionth the rate of the Sun. One four-millionth if you're a stickler for accuracy, but I'm looking generally at order-of-magnitude here.
Mind that nuclear and chemical reactions differ tremendously in energy potential (that's why nuclear fission and fusion advocates are so gung-ho). But I still find it interesting that one species on Earth is even within six orders of magnitude of solar energy production in terms of fuel mass.
Data from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun) and Statista: (https://www.statista.com/statistics/271823/global-crude-oil-demand/), calculations using GNU Units.
Originally posted on Mastodon June 7, 2024.
Sent to the National Post and Suncor ([email protected]) June 8, 2024.
(this letter is more than 200 words… but so be it)
Dear Editor,
“Not one less lemming will jump off the cliff if we don’t also jump off the cliff”, so said the millionaire chief of the Proud Order of Lemmings Society, from his office in a high tower.
“The world will not consume one less barrel of oil simply because Canada chooses not to provide it.”, said Suncor CEO Rich Kruger over video conference.
It was in response to an MP who asked, non-rhetorically, how he sleeps at night knowing his oil company and industry bears primary responsibility for the climate induced catastrophes in Canada and around the world.
“You’re actually attacking hundreds of thousands of workers”, he predictably deflected, “I don’t know how to answer that question”.
And that’s perhaps the most honest answer he could give.
Because people like him, people who run these companies and make these deflections, can only do so because they cannot – they are incapable – of conceiving of anything else.
They are so beholden to their own wealth and the illusion that they are imparting wealth onto others by extracting oil, that they cannot possibly know how to answer a question whose premise is that their unearned wealth is inherently destructive.
Their appeal for empathy for the oil worker is a ruse because an empathetic person would know the oil worker is just as vulnerable, more so in many ways, to climate catastrophe than anyone else.
The worker or other energy dependant person is not a lemming because the average person understands consequence when they see it.
This CEO has no consequences for his actions today. He thinks he is safe in his tower but he and his temporarily powerful peers are the lemmings galloping to the cliff.
When the day comes that they near the edge, no oil worker or other person will stand in the way.
Chris Alemany
Port Alberni BC
https://chrisalemany.ca/2024/06/08/oil-ceos-wont-be-missed/
#Canada #ClimateChange #CrudeOil #Economy #emissions #Environment #FossilFuels #LetterToTheEditor #NDP #oilConsumption #oilpatch #PeakOil #Politics #Sustainability #TarSands
“Not one less lemming will jump off the cliff if we don’t also jump off the cliff”, so said the millionaire chief of the Proud Order of Lemmings Society, from his office in a high tower. “The world will not consume one less barrel of oil simply because Canada chooses not to provide it. That barrel will come from somewhere else”, said Suncor CEO Rich Kruger over video conference. It was in response to a Canadian MP at Committee who asked, non-rhetorically, how he sleeps at night knowing his oil company and industry bears primary responsibility for the climate induced catastrophes in Canada and around the world. “I would say, when you do that, you're actually attacking hundreds of thousands of workers”, he predictably deflected, “I don't know how to answer that question.” And that’s perhaps the most honest answer he could give. Because people like him, people who run these companies, and make these excuses and deflections, can only do so because they cannot - they are incapable - of conceiving of any other way. They are so beholden to their own wealth and the perception that they are imparting wealth by extracting resources, that they cannot possibly know how to answer a question whose premise is that their wealth is inherently destructive. In this state, their appeal for empathy for the oil worker is impossible because an empathetic person would know the oil worker is just as vulnerable, perhaps more so in some ways, to climate catastrophe than anyone else. In truth, the average worker, citizen, person, is not a lemming, because the average person understands consequence when they see it. This CEO has no consequences for his actions today. He thinks he is safe in his tower, but he and his currently powerful cohort are the lemmings galloping to the cliff. When the day comes that they near the edge, no worker or average person will stand in their way. #Rant #oil #canPoli #EndFossilfuels #canPoli #cdnpoli https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/oil-and-gas-ceos-testify-1.7226966
Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
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