This 7% of Earth’s surface burns more fuel than anywhere
The ruling class trades in carbon outrage like it’s gold. Sanctimony fuels its crusade against oil, gas, and coal — never mind that those very fuels built the modern world. The comforts we take for granted — from longer lives and stocked shelves to clean water and lifesaving medicine — all trace back to the energy abundance that hydrocarbons made possible.
Still, the decarbonization faithful press forward. They dream of a carbon-free Eden, even as the global power grid, still humming on fossil fuels, refuses to cooperate.
Critics keep forecasting a shift away from fossil fuels. Reality keeps proving them wrong.
You won’t find a clearer contradiction than in the Yuxi Circle.
Draw a circle with a 2,485-mile radius around the southern Chinese city of Yuxi. British geographer Alasdair Rae did just that — and inside it resides 55% of the world’s population: some 4.3 billion people crammed into just 7% of Earth’s surface. The region includes China, India, much of Southeast Asia, and parts of Pakistan. Some of it — like the Tibetan Plateau and the Taklamakan Desert — is barren. But the rest is packed with cities, factories, and the aspirations of hundreds of millions clawing their way toward modern life.
Why does this matter? Because this region now anchors the world’s biggest fight over energy, growth, and climate policy.
While bureaucrats in Brussels sip espresso and activists glue themselves to the pavement in London, the real action plays out in Asia’s economic engine. In cities like Shanghai, Delhi, and Tokyo, energy demand soars — and fossil fuels do the heavy lifting. Coal and gas plants keep the lights on, while wind and solar trail far behind.
China burns more coal than the rest of the world combined. India burns more than the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom combined. The 10 ASEAN countries rank third. Oil use tells the same story: China and India sit alongside the U.S. atop the global leaderboard of consumption. Economic growth, it turns out, runs not on hashtags but on hydrocarbons.
Critics keep forecasting a shift away from fossil fuels. Reality keeps proving them wrong.
Hundreds of millions in the Yuxi Circle are still striving for what Westerners call a “decent life.” That means refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioning — and with them, a dramatic spike in electricity demand.
RELATED: Climate orthodoxy punishes the West
For context: The average American consumes 77,000 kilowatt-hours of energy each year. The average Indian uses a 10th of that. A Bangladeshi? Just 3% of what the average Norwegian consumes.
Now multiply that gap by a population of billions, and you begin to understand what’s coming.
The living room revolution is only the start. An industrial boom is building behind it — factories, office towers, and shopping malls all hungry for electricity. The coming surge in energy use across the Yuxi Circle will make the West’s climate targets look like a quaint relic of the past.
In this part of the world, the green fantasy runs headfirst into human need. Wind and solar can’t meet the moment. Coal, oil, and gas can — and do.
Just as they did for the West, these fuels now power the rise of the rest. And no amount of Western guilt or climate alarm will change that.
www.theblaze.com
Kamala Harris embarrasses the US AGAIN with yet another word salad
Vice President Kamala Harris is not known for her silver tongue.
In an interview with the Associated Press, she tries to explain what she thinks about Southeast Asia, but instead creates her latest word salad that has all Americans cringing with severe second-hand embarrassment.
“When I think about Southeast Asia and this region and the Indo-Pacific, first of all, Southeast Asia, you’re looking at a population of over 600 million people. At least two-thirds of which are under the age of 35. Think about what that means,” Harris tells her interviewer. “Especially when you look at so many of these countries that have thriving economies,” she adds.
“What does that mean?” Pat Gray jokes. “It means they’ve got a young population,” Gray says, answering himself.
But there’s more.
Harris had not had enough of her own word-salading yet, telling the interviewer, “I feel very strongly about the importance of the general matter of engaging in U.S. policy as it relates to foreign affairs. In a way that we pay attention, of course, to immediate concerns and threats if they exist. But that we also pay attention to 10, 20, 30 years down the line and what we are developing now that will be to the benefit of our country.”
“She talks so much and says nothing,” Gray laughs, incredulous.
“We’d be better off as a nation with Miss Teen South Carolina as our vice president,” Keith Malinak adds.
Harris then goes on to tell the interviewer that Joe Biden has been “an extraordinary leader who has accomplished things that previous presidents hoped and dreamed and promised they would do and did not.”
“A substantial amount of time we spend together is in the Oval Office, where I see how his ability to understand issues and weave through complex issues in a way that no one else can, to make smart and important decisions on the behalf of the American people have played out,” she added.
Harris also claims that she is ready for the presidency if she were required to step up and into the role.
“Every vice president understands that when they take the oath, that they must be very clear about the responsibility they may have to take over the job of being president. I am no different,” she says.