My good friend William Teach noted, ten days ago, an article by Saul Griffith, in which he claimed that, to save Mother Gaia, there was one thing that we absolutely had to do:

Now, finally, much of the world has become convinced, first-hand, that global warming is not only real but heating up more rapidly than we expected, unleashing irreversible impacts. Many people feel despair and helplessness in the face of doomsday predictions already in evidence. And yet, I’m optimistic that we can solve this problem in time to keep our planet livable for future generations.

I have to be optimistic. I’m the father of young children and I want them to not only survive what humanity has done to our planet, but experience the awe of the natural world that I enjoyed as a child. But I’m also a scientist, and I approach the problem like an engineer. What do we need to build to fight global warming? Can we do it in time to keep the planet under the 1.5-2.0 degrees centigrade warming that can avoid a tipping point toward climate disaster?

Squinting at the data, I see a way forward, but the urgency can’t be underestimated. The answer is actually quite simple and requires no miracle technology: we must electrify everything, fast. That means not just the supply-side sources of energy; we’ve got to electrify everything on the demand-side—the things we use in our households and small businesses every day, including cars, furnaces, stoves, water heaters, and dryers. I’m optimistic because over the last two decades the advances and cost reductions in electric vehicles, solar cells, batteries, heat pumps, and induction cooking mean that what we need can now be purchased at roughly price parity with the fossil fuelled incumbent.

Mr Griffith doesn’t bother to tell us just how poorer Westerners, much less poorer people in the rest of the world, can simply afford to go out and replace working gas ranges with electric induction cooktops, or gas or heating oil furnaces with electric ones. Even the environmentally-conscious show, “This Old House,” showed remodeling of a house, in cold Massachusetts, adding a new gas-fired furnace, in 2018, because gas heat is simply more reliable and efficient in New England. I did have to replace my electric HVAC system last spring, as the old one was destroyed in the record flooding last March.^[1]The river gauge jammed at 28.18 feet, so the flooding crest was guesstimated, but it was the historic crest, topping the previous record of 39.37 feet. The flooding got into the crawl space … Continue reading That was $5,896.00, and fortunately we had the money, but a lot of people around here did not.

In January of 2018, our first winter here, an ice storm knocked out the electricity for 4½ days . . . and our house was ell-electric. Electric heat pump for heating and cooling, electric range for cooking, and an electric water heater for hot water. My wife headed to our daughters’ apartment in Lexington and stayed there, nice and comfortably, but I had to stay at home, to take care of the critters, and make sure the plumbing didn’t freeze. I was able to get a lukewarm shower the second morning, as the water in the tank had cooled but wasn’t cold, but that was the extent of it.

By the time the sparktricity was restored, it was down to 38º F inside the house. Fortunately, the weather outside was in the upper twenties to mid thirties that week; had it been down in the teens or lower, it could have been a much worse problem.

Now, our house is a fixer-upper, which we knew when we bought the place. One thing my darling bride (of 42 years, 5 months and 27 days) wanted was a gas range; almost everybody wants a gas range! But, after that first winter, and 4½ days without electricity, and a farm which is at the end of the line as far as Jackson Energy Cooperative is concerned for restoring power, we decided: a gas — propane in our case — water heater and fireplace for backup heating would be a very wise thing.

Yesterday evening, they came into play! A serious storm knocked out power not just to us, but much of the county. It was raining hard, and was very windy. But that propane fireplace did its job, keeping the house warm.

Mrs Pico was not at home at the moment; a hospital nurse, she wouldn’t get off until 7:30 PM, so supper hadn’t been cooked when the electricity failed. It was when she arrived home that she told us how widespread the power outage was. But, with that gas range, supper was no problem.^[2]The electric pilot didn’t work, but the caps could be easily lit with a match. The oven will not work without electricity. It wasn’t the supper we had planned, hot wings, because we cook those with an electric air fryer, but my younger daughter — our daughters were visiting for the weekend — whipped up bacon and eggs on the range top.

Of course, it was dark in the house, but candles, and a oil lamp — more fossil fuel there! — provided illumination.

Had Saul Griffith had his way, the house would have cooled down uncomfortably, and there’s have been no cooked meal for us. Morning showers? He’d not have wanted us to be able to take them.

As it happened, the sparktricity came back on a few hours later, but I remembered January of 2018; since Mrs Pico was had volunteered for an extra shift this morning, a shower was necessary for her.

Still, to quote Game of Thrones, winter is coming. My closest neighbor has told me that the power has been out here for as long as two weeks in the past, when bad snow and ice storms have brought down power lines. We are now prepared, though Mr Griffith doesn’t want us to be.