My computer ate my reply so I am not going to fix the URLs again!

From my Notes:
 This is what I posted back in 2011 (with the usual mangling of the URLs)  

 We get all types of “Soothing” crap from the propaganda machines and economic model projections about how it really is going to be “painless”
So Let us look at what real facts tell us.

The average for the USA is 335.9 million BTUs per person. (Total population: 246,081,000)
(wwwDOT)nuicc.info/?page_id=1467 or (wwwDOT)fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40187.pdf

In 1949, U.S. energy use per person stood at 215 million Btu. epb(DOT)lbl.gov/homepages/Rick_Diamond/docs/lbnl55011-trends.pdf
 epb.lbl.gov

The U.S. in 1800 had a per-capita energy consumption of about 90 million Btu. (Total population: 5,308,483) (wwwDOT)bu.edu/pardee/files/2010/11/12-PP-Nov2010.pdf

If the USA reduces its energy consumption by 80% it equals 45.18 million Btu. per person, given the increase in technology and hydro power, lets use the 1800 consumption level of about 90 million Btu. per person.

What does that mean?
The site inventors(DOT)about.com/library/inventors/blfarm4.htm helps us figure that out.

Farmers made up about 90% of labor force in 1790 and 69% of labor force in 1800. (2.6% in 1990)

About 250-300 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels (5 acres) of wheat with walking plow, brush harrow, hand broadcast of seed, sickle, and flail in 1830. (This is all by hand not animal power BTW) (1987 – 2-3/4 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels but that takes lots of oil.)

1810-30 saw the transfer of “manufacturing” from the farm and home to the shop and factory. It wasn’t until the 1840′s that we saw factory made farm machinery, labor saving devices and chemical fertilizers became at all common. It was in the 1860′s that kerosene lamps became popular. This was the First Agricultural Revolution where Factory made farm equipment was hitched to horses and oxen and animal power replaced human muscles. (And slavery became outdated…)

Also up until the 1850′s dung and wood were the major source of energy. dieoff(DOT)org/page199_files/image002.gif

http://dieoff.org/page199_files/image002.gif

In other words for the USA to use HALF the energy per person that was used in 1800 we must abandon ALL factories and 90% of the population must return to subsistence farming using animals if enough farm machinery can be produced.

Remember in 1800 there was only 2% of the current population in the USA. Solar and Wind just are not going to produce enough power to keep us in anything but a few lights, a few wells and if we are lucky a refrigerator for the entire town. FACTORIES use a huge amount of power and that is why cotton mills and other primitive factories were built on rivers.

Anyone who tries to tell you differently is talking bafflegab because at present less than 9% of the US labor force is in manufacturing. The USA got rid of most of its really energy intense industry like smelting the ores to make machines. The USA shipped its factories to China and I mean that literally because I knew a guy whose business was packing up and shipping factories in New England to Israel.

“Cut CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050???

What do they plan to do wipe out 75% of the population to do it?
[Well now we know the plan is 90% not 75%.]

What no one ever mentions is civilization is built on energy.
For most of history that energy was from slaves and animals. Only with the advent of machinery did abolishing slavery actually become a viable economic alternative. Get rid of dependable energy and the labor saving machines it powers and you have to substitute human and animal energy. Unfortunately this means a sharp reduction in food production, population and miserable living conditions for all but the select few.

It only takes a day trying to clear brush from land with loppers and a buck saw to really appreciate a tractor or bulldozer and the harsh reality of what labor saving devices really are all about.
…..

Here is one (greenie) paper on energy use (It under estimates the pre-industrial ag era energy use drastically)

Historical Perspectives of Energy Consumption
The above paper has Advanced Agricultural Man as 26,000 Kcal per capita (1850’s) and the technological man of 1970 in the U.S. consuming approximately 230,000 Kcal of energy per day. ~ 8.8 times as much energy consumed) Other sources have the per capita use for the USA as 333.8 million BTUs per person in 2006 before the economy crashed:
Congressional Research Service: U.S. Energy: Overview and Key Statistics 

 The U.S. in 1800 had a per-capita energy consumption of about 90 million Btu.

This is only 3.7 times as much energy consumed NOT 8.8 times If you are talking GREEN you cannot use the much lower energy demand in the UK.

Energy Transitions

Energy demand in the UK was lower, at about 26 million BTU per capita in 1800, and again most of this would have been for heating and cooking. The energy was largely provided by coal, which would be burned in stoves with higher efficiency than the open fireplaces of the U.S.

 This “Advanced Agricultural Man” of the greenies is when people were using 250-300 labor-hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat ALL BY HAND! Once you have factories that energy consumption is going to increase. The change from hand power to horse power (the first American agricultural revolution) INCLUDED FACTORY MADE FARM EQUIPMENT.

WITHOUT cheap energy you are NOT going to have STEEL FACTORY MADE ANYTHING!

Here is a question for your deluded liberal friends:

What are the forms of energy used by humans over history?

#1. Human muscle power aka slaves
#2. Water power
#3. Animal power (FIRST AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION)
#4. Fossil Fuels
#5. Nuclear.

They will of course try to answer Wind and Solar.

Ask them HOW will the metals and rare earths get mined and refined and then manufactured into wind turbines and solar panels?

Without fossil fuels and/or nuclear you COULD go back to animal and wind mills and water mills. That puts you back to the 1700s BEFORE the use of iron machinery in farming.

The Green New Deal = 90% or more of the population doing Subsistence FARMING.
NO metal machinery only wood
No fertilizers except for feces of various origins
No herbicides or pesticides lowering the yield per acre.

People forget that coal was very much in use in the 1800s and a lot of farm machinery pulled by horse, mule or oxen was factory made. (First Agricultural Revolution) Without coal you are back to charcoal as fuel for forges and metal implements will be very, very rare. Solar panels and modern wind turbines can not be replaced using the power they generate so you are back to hydro (If the eco-nuts allow dam building) and old fashion cloth and wood wind mills. And those wind mills would soon be raided for the wood to burn.