Global Warming Paris Conference: Our Take? If the planet serves you lemons? Make lemonaid of course. Or in other words: time to move to Finland!

So while everybody else is moping and griping about how the climate is changing and the temperature is getting hotter and the sea-levels are rising and pollution is ruining our air and water. I say if they serve you lemons, don't cry; make lemonaid. Use the opportunity. Global warming is a real thing and of course this blog fully supports the immense initiatives out of Paris. But this blog is also about the future and helping those who have a smart nose about the future. So yes, global warming is clearly happenin'. So whats the smart money gonna do about it? Lets see.

ARE RISING TEMPERATURES A HASSLE? - SOLUTION? MOVE TO FINLAND

So yeah. The global temperature is rising at an alarming rate. Nasty nasty thing. Soon parts of the Middle East will become too hot to live and areas that were seen as pleasant for holidays like say the Riviera in France and Italy, or the Caribbean, will become too hot to be comfortable. So what is the solution? Its easy actually. The COLDEST parts of the planet will get ... warmer too. So what was previously unbearably bleak and nasty and cold and chilly and miserable. Think of say Winnipeg in a very bad year - or typical Finland winters - will become warm and comfy instead. This is simple science and very very obvious. Look at the recent winters in Finland. Last year they had almost no snow in Helsinki the capital, in the south. Helsinki winters NOW are about as 'nasty' as those of New York City or Berlin, in a decade or two, snow in Helsinki winter will be as rare as snow in Houston or Johannesburg (I've actually seen both happen..). So yeah. You could, if you were so inclined, an 'intellectual' and 'geography nerd' pick up a map and look for what is the Northernmost country but you don't need to. Your friendly consultant and friend of Finland is here to bring you the good news. The Northernmost country (when measured by the geographic mid-point of the nation, not its Northernmost point obviously) is... FINLAND.

Just how far to the North is Finland? Well, the Americans like to think that Canada is 'way up North' and most Canadian cities like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver etc are actually not that far to the North. But Toronto is at the 43rd Parallel (those lines on the planet that go horizontally, ie do not touch the North Pole or South Pole). Montreal is at 45th Parallel and Vanvouver is at 49th Parallel. Fine. But compare Europe. Europe is far more to the North than that. Toronto is at same latitude as Florence Italy! Montreal is aligned with Venice in Italy. Vancouver is just slightly more to the North than Paris. So Europe has whole COUNTRIES further North than those famous 'cold' Canadian cities. So Belgium is to the North of Paris. Netherlands to the North of Belgium. Denmark is to the North of Netherlands and where Belgium ends, is not even 'North Enough' for where Finland STARTS. Brussels the capital of Belgium is at 50th Parallel (incidentially that is the same as Winnipeg the most godforsaken hole in Canada's coldest parts, this side of Moose Jaw obviously). London, Amsterdam, Berlin come in around 51st and 52nd Parallel. Copenhagen the capital city of Denmark comes in at 55th Parallel aligned with Edinborough of Scotland and Moscow in Russia. Oslo and Stockholm are far more to the North of that (Norway and Sweden capitals respectively) at 59th parallel. Helsinki clocks in at 60th Parallel. And its our SOUTHERNMOST city. Our cities then 'go all the way to eleven'. If Helsinki is too warm for you try Jyvaskyla or Kuopio or Oulu or Tornio or Rovaniemi or Ivalo...

ARE RISING SEAS BUGGING YA? - SOLUTION? MOVE TO FINLAND

So yeah. We know by now that it is not the Northern Polar ice that causes global oceans to rise. It is the ice stored on glaciers over land, in Antarctica and in land mass near the North Pole like Greenland, when that melts - due to global warming - it causes oceans to rise. Nice as long as you don't live near an ocean. Too bad for you living in say Florida or Holland or the Philippines. So whats the solution? Find a place to live that is RISING to counter the rising water, of course! Duh. You don't need to be a 'geology geek' to figure that one out. Now, there are two options. Pick a country that is rising due to volcanic activity like say new islands in Hawaii and in Iceland. Yeah, ok, but those islands tend to be unstable and hot and full of lava flows and you don't get good WiFi or even not a Starbucks. But the other option? Find landmass that is rising due to the planets geological maturing. FINLAND. Yes. Finland is where the last ice age ended, ten thousand years ago. And as the earth's mantle is made of rock (we knew this, right?) it takes a long time for it to settle. When that ice at 10 kilometers thick (6 miles) was growing upon Northern Europe including Finland, it pressed down and after the ice left, the mantle has been adjusting - UPWARDS. Yes I am not making this up, still today, Finland grows out of the sea at the speed of 1 cm per YEAR. We are rising out of the sea FASTER than the global oceans are rising... So if you want your cabin or villa by the sea, and not be swallowed by the sea, buy some sea-front land NOW. And trust me, Tornio, the Northernmost sea front of the Baltic sea, right there were Finland meets Sweden at the Gulf of Bothnia. In a century, Tornio will be the new Venice or Amsterdam where everybody wants to go visit, by the sea...  But kind of the anti-Venice as Venice slowly sinks into the sea, Tornio will be still rising from the sea haha...

SO IS DRINKING WATER A PROBLEM? - SOLUTION? MOVE TO FINLAND

So Paris and pollution and water? This is just too easy. If you want to ensure you will never suffer from droughts or scarcity of water, don't move to a desert. Move to the country who has the highest proportion of fresh water surface water out of its land area. And yeah, you don't need to be a hydrologist freak to know, Finland is the nation that has the highest proportion of lakes and rivers (freshwater) as proportion of its total landmass. Ten percent of total Finnish land area is WATER. Over 100,000 lakes, plus countless more ponds, plus dozens upon dozens of rivers and creeks. Water aplenty. And its all clean. Most - not quite all - but MOST of Finnish lakes are so clean, you can DRINK from the lake without danger. Try that in 'the lakes district' of Michigan haha. American rivers are known for being so polluted they often catch fire. Seriously the cleanest water, and the largest water area. There will never be a lack of fresh water in Finland. Fresh CLEAN water... Duh.

SO SMOG BOTHERIN YA?  - SOLUTION? MOVE TO FINLAND

Gosh clean air? Finns are absolutely anal about clean air (because Finnish industry is so clean, almost all of Finland's pollution comes from some of its - ahem - more polluting neighbors and I am not talking about Sweden or Norway haha, look more to the East and South...). They say forests are the lungs of the planet. Yes, Brazil has the largest rain forest, but Europe's largest pine forest is... in Finland. Actually 70% of Finnish surface area is TREES. Its more than the 'jungles' of Vietnam if you studied that war. You want the CLEANEST part of the planet, I say its generally the Nordic/Scandinavian area including Norway (ok, and including Sweden) but for the total package, you can't beat Finland! Not to mention, its the home of Santa Claus. And Angry Birds. And Moomins. Now, what can possibly be wrong in a country that did all that for us? And gave us the sauna. Ok I'll grant you that Antarctica the uninhabited continent will probably have more clean water and more clean air than Finland but there is no train to the airport. Or to be more precise on Antarctica there is no airport. There is a scientific base where there is some scheduled flights on military transport planes if that is your thing. For most other people.. take the Finland option instead.

WHERE ELSE WOULD YOU GO?

Imagine if your great grandparents had been smart enough to invest in San Francisco land at the sea, something like a century ago. It would be priceless property today. So yeah who doesn't love the USA? Great place. But look at it a bit more carefully. The East Coast, from Florida to Boston is always hit by Hurricanes, several per year. Always getting worse with global warming, bigger storms, more rain and rising sea levels (Finland doesn't get hurricanes but we had once an awesome rock band called the Hurriganes). So then what if you move inland. The midwest. Then you get those nasty tornadoes we always see in the news (no tornadoes in Finland). Ok, what about the West Coast? Ah, lovely California which gets mudslides and droughts and one day will be swallowed by an nasty earthquake that sinks half of the state into the Pacific ocean (that half which is by the sea, by the way -which will then FURTHER raise sea levels, obviously). Oh, we in Finland don't get mudslides. We also don't get earthquakes. Hey, how about that lovely South? Texas or Louisiana or Alabama. Well, apart from the rednecks (we don't have those either in Finland) they do get hurricanes AND tornadoes. And what with the oil industry fracking, they've even started to have earthquakes.

Ok, how about Dubai. Its a hot growing new city yes. Or its neighbors like Abu Dhabi or Kuwait or Qatar etc. Nice new glass tower glitzy cities. In the desert. Where you get sandstroms (We don't have sandstorms in Finland but a dance band called Darude from Finland had a global dance hit instrumental called Sandstorm some years ago). And those deserts where the heat can kill you at daytime and the cold can kill you at night. (We don't have deserts in Finland). Ok, what about Singapore and Indonesia and Malaysia. Well, you get typhoons which are a Frankenstein's monster up-sized version of the modest hurricanes that the Americans get (we dont' get typhoons in Finland). And you get the monsoons (or maybe not) with drenching rains and floods (We don't have monsoons in Finland, we don't get drenching rains and we don't get life-threatening floods either). And they get earthquakes and the lovely smog ruining vacations from the regular wildfires (we don't have earthquakes and haven't had wildfires in probably a century). And they get volcanoes. (We don't have volcanoes in Finland). And tsunamis (we dont' get tsunamis either).

How about the cool sexy cities of Asia like Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Bangkok? Yeah, squeeze 20 million people into a few square kilometers into concrete jungles and await the next bird flu or SARS or MERS or Ebola or whatever global pandemic illness hits the world next month. We don't do concrete jungles in Finland. Come see our most densely populated city, Helsinki - there are more forests and woodlands and parks and playgrounds and water - ponds and small lakes - than area allowed for housing. EVERYWHERE there is wooded area to be seen and experienced. Yes, its a city, but if you want a livable city, Helsinki regularly ranks among the best in the world and for land area use - we mix nature with housing. And then add to that the best healthcare system in the world and you have about the safeest city to live in, when the next health panics happen. Some tightly-packed Asian cities, I am not quite so sure about... (also we do get the typhoons and earthquakes and tsunamis also at most Asian coastal big cities). Africa? Latin America. Yeah. Even the local mosquitos can kill you with their bite (we do have mosquitos also in Finland, quite a lot in fact during the summer months, but none of the deadly kind like malaria or dengue fever or any other deadly insects - thanks E in comments for reminding me about the mosquitos).

Ah, you then say Australia! Ok, lovely people yes. But they do get their variant of the hurricane they call the cyclone, similarly deadly. They also have their natural dangers but the ones most perilous are the indigent flora and fauna. Anything alive in Australia can kill you. The snakes, the spiders, the sharks, gosh, I am pretty sure one day they will find that there is a killer species of Koala Bears. (We have no wild animals outside of the zoos that are any significant danger to humans, even our 'most deadly' snake has such a weak bite that it can only make you sick, and our most dangerous mushrooms won't kill you but can give you quite a nasty hallucination. I prefer drinking Single Malt scotch whiskies instead, much more controlled process of getting drunk). So you like Switerland then? Avalanches. (we don't have avalanches either in Finland). Canada? Avalances, and tornadoes. Oh, and with that tar sands oil they are now fracking for in Alberta, there are also an alarming amount of oil spills (no oil in Finland, no oil spills either). New Zealand? Apart from being miserably in the middle of nowhere, they have their hobbits (we don't have hobbits in Finland but we have a troll park (peikkometsa) and the Moomin park and of course the elves at Santa Claus park)

Finland is about the nicest, most serene and pleasant place on the planet (best education system too, for your kids) but for one nagging problem - it was too damn cold always, even summers were cool.  But now. With global warming also Finland is warming so what was too cold becomes nice, and as the rest of the world becomes positively uninhabitable, there will be a rush to get into Finland. A nice peaceful EU nation using the Euro? Whats not to like. Did I mention we have Starbucks too? Get in before the rush. Oh, and consider this. Most people 'only' get Christmas in December. We in Finland also get 'Little Christmas' ie Pikkujoulu. LIttle Christmas is obviously not a Christian religious custom, it is purely a Finnish invention as an excuse for drinking. Like our midsummer night bonfires. Most nations do not have national celebrations for midsummer night. In Finland we do, and it is.. and excuse for drinking. Like May Day. Some countries celebrate the day as the day for labor. In Finland we call it Vappu and its an excuse for drinking. New Year's? Excuse for drinking. Almost any holiday in Finland is created for the purpose of drinking. We do, after all, have very strong alcohol content in our beers and some very fine vodkas including the black sweet poison of Salmiakki Kossu (try it with moderation and warning). Now what kind of nation creates a whole series of holidays just to get drunk? Either a very happy nation or one that is morosely suicidal (oops, no, I didn't mean to mention our suicide rates).

So yeah, the language is a bit on the diffucult side, sure, but all Finns speak English anyway. Reliable electricity and wireless broadband everywhere. The prototype 'Information age' nation. McDonalds, Pizza Hut, WiFi. Even on TV all English-language programs are broadcast with the actors speaking English (with Finnish and Swedish subtitles underneath) so you can watch the Bond movie marathon and understand it, differing for example from several European nations like Germany and France where they dub the movies with local actors speaking in their languages (seriously? In this century? Are the Germans and French populations so weak at reading that they can't handle subtitles? Did I mention world's best education system). What more could you ask for. We also have the worlds' largest volume of library shelf-space per capita so if you want to read and learn, Finland's your country. So yeah. If Paris is on your agenda. If climate change is bugging you .If rising temperatures are boiling your brain, if clean water is the problem, if pollution is ruining your eyesight, if rising seas are spoiling your summer cottage investment - its time to move to Finland. Do it now, while nobody else has thought of it. Take a city home in Helsinki (good airport too) and then pick a nice cottage further up North. Raahe is a nice coastal town, or if you're really adventurous, go to Lapland. Utsjoki, Nuorgam. Thats the way out of climate problems for smart money. This blog provided to you courtesy of the Communities Dominate blog and your friendly Finland Tourism office, conveniently located in (warm) Hong Kong.

Comments

[Winter]

Tomi, if all 400 million EU citizens move to Finland, things might get crowded. And then there are also the 1 billion Africans. And not to forget the people still living in the Middle East. Does that all fit?

Actually, it does fit if you do the numbers. If we set aside 100,000 of Finland's 338,450 sq km aside for people, we can accommodate 1 billion people and give each of them 100 square meters. With 3 persons per household each home has 300 square meters Use half for living (~6x25 meters) and half for roads etc.. We can also spread out another billion over Sweden and Norway ;-)

See, easy.

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Winter - gotta luv the engineering mind. Thanks!

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[E.Casais]

All right, having lived in Finland and read about what climate change brings us, I will just warn people about a couple of things.

1) "our most dangerous mushrooms won't kill you but can give you quite a nasty hallucination".

Korvasieni. They take three days to destroy your kidneys, letting you die a horrible death.

They are edible though, if one -- very, very carefully -- processes them according to Finnish methods (boil and rinse several times with plenty of water in well-ventilated rooms).

2) Summers and winters. In summer, your main problem is to find a dark enough room to sleep. In winter, you get depressed because it is always dark. Nothing to do with temperature.

3) Mosquitoes. Yikes! If the country warms, then mosquitoes will plague Finns all year round! And if mosquito-borne diseases -- and specific species like the infamous tiger mosquito -- move up to Finland, then people will be in real trouble there.

4) Glacial age cold. Finland and other European countries are inhabitable though located far more northernly than American countries thanks to the Gulf Stream. A strong climate change will disrupt that stream and send it away from European coasts -- which means Finland will get colder...

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi E

I understand the pain. And as you know, I live in Hong Kong... :-)

So yeah, ok, one mushroom is deadly - but it won't attack you. You have to be dumb enough to pick it up in nature and then stuff it into your mouth. I decided when I was very very small, not to eat ANY mushrooms just to be safe. Blueberries, strawberries and raspberries only (ok, and apples from apple trees). Nothin else. Oh, wait, and rhubarb of course.

Mosquitos! Gosh I forgot about those deadly nasty flying killing-machines. Much of Africa and Latin America has mosquitos that are actually deadly - and obviously are dastardly in hiding among regular mosquitos so we the humans will never know which mosquito bite was the one that gave us the incurable disease haha... no deadly mosquitos (yet) in Finland but you're right. Yet another reason why I moved out of Finland were the mosquitos, gosh I hated them (and still do). But so far, Finnish mosquitos are mostly an irritant (unless hit by a massive swarm in Lapland) and won't kill you. However with climate change more nasty immigrant mosquitos might migrate to Finland and bring that plague to the nation. Even if that were to happen, the far more deadly parts of the planet in terms of mosquitos will be the more hot regions - all current deadly areas for mosquitos and other insect bites - and if they end up migrating with the climate change, then Europe will be worse than Finland haha as it will be hotter and those swarms will have come that way on their way to cooler Finland...

But very good point. Note E, I added the part about Africa and LatAm and credited you for reminding me about mosquitos.

Now nasty winter darkness (I hate that) and the corresponding can't-sleep-summer-brightness-at-night, those are not DEADLY problems while they no doubt contribute to suicides. But I think suicides by our new immigrant friends will be a positive, pro-active ending of a life, as opposed to being eaten by a tiger in Malaysia or by a lion in Tanzania or drowned in a Tsunami in Indonesia or buried in a volcano eruption in Guatemala or eaten by a shark in Australia haha.... So the occasional suicides by our new neighbors will just help even up the load, releasing more space for new incoming masses who want all to live in the wonderful nirvana of Finland :-)

Now on glacial age cold. Ok, fair enough. If the Gulf Stream is disrupted, then all of Europe will freeze and we'll have a new ice age. And Finland will bear it far more harshly than the other European nations as we are so far up North and with a frozen-solid Baltic sea, we'll just have an 'East Wind' as our daily delight of sheer misery. Then I think Finns will be better prepared to deal with those rapidly freezing conditions than most Europeans but also Finns would be very fast to move away to... say Hong Kong here in the tropics :-) But thats for another forecast maybe in the next decade or the one after that :-)

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[QtFan]

You're doing exactly what dumb climate deniers are doing. Pointing to a region/event and making broad claims. "Oh look, a record blizzard! Global warming is a hoax"

The globe is warming on average, but global warming usually leads to extreme weather, not nice weather.

[QtFan]

Wayne - It's hard to lighten up. This kind of naive amateur logic is widely used by climate deniers and it's the kind that gulible idiots love (not complex climate models developed by specialists).
Far to often have I heard idiots claiming "global warming will do wonders for the gloomy weather over here"

[Winter]

@QtFan
If you had followed Tomi's blog, you would have known he has ridiculed the global warming deniers in USA politics repeatedly.

I would file this post under "Humor".

[Cycnus]

@Tomi
> So yeah, ok, one mushroom is deadly

Just to point out that with the little knowledge you have left about it, you should focus less on Finland and more on U.S. politics:

Valkokärpässieni (a.k.a. "European destroying angel") is a Finnish deadly mushroom. More lethal than korvasieni and cannot be "purified" by boiling. Very easy to accidentally pick up as a champignon (the very delicious white mushroom).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_virosa

Kavalakärpässieni (a.k.a. "Death cap") is also found in Finland, one of the most poisonous of all toadstools. Extremely lethal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_phalloides

For berries we have Sudenmarja (a.k.a. Herb Paris) which looks like blueberry except it's - yes - poisonous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_quadrifolia

We don't have deadly spiders or snakes but ticks spread Lyme disease, louping ill, Q fever and tick-borne encephalitis.

And yes we still have regular sightings of bears, lynxes and wolves in Finland. Not that they have actually attacked people recently but loss of cattle and/or pets is known to happen.

[lisbethsalander]

Tomi you have forgotten to mention that

WINTER IS COMING

and

THE NIGHT IS DARK AND FULL OF TERRORS

are two extremely valid sentences in the land of Suomi!

[Winter]

If you want to have a look at the beautiful weather in Helsinki, here is your chance:

http://ek.fi/uutishuone/ek-nettikamera/

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi QtFan

I honestly thought the above was 'obviously' humor and didn't need the statement that its only a joke by a passionately nationalistic Finn so proud of his country he lives permanently on the opposite side of the planet... :-)

I am 100% in favor of the Paris initiative and fear that global warming may actually doom the human race if, as some scientists have said, we are near (or even past) a tipping point after which the earth's natural rhythms and climate will inevitably warm so much that humans cannot live on it (at least in numbers in the Billions) and before that moment comes, there would be a third world war for whatever clean resources are left. I am an extreme climate fanatic in that way, aligned with Greenpeace etc on those issues. I have seen a lot of smart (and some dumb) commentary about global climate change and whenever it made sense, I have added my little voice to the matters such as strongly endorsing the Pope's encyclical on climate change that came earlier this year - even though I am not a Catholic myself.

So on the pricincpals, I am 100% with you QtFan and totally agree on the seriousness of global climate change. I also occasionally write on those topics such as when I did some blogs about the US political race for President, I have mentioned how much the climate issue resonates with youth voters and skews very strongly Democratic for 2016 elections etc.

But this blog article was a 'Christmas joke' blog I try to do most year, like the one about Santa Claus doing his gifts on just one night, or the song about how Stephen Elop the past CEO of Nokia was giving us the 12 Days of Christmas (misery) with new lyrics to that song, or how I have fallen in love with my phone, or how the next year would become the Year of the Bond (that was 2007 obviously) etc etc etc. This was for my regular readers and for any Finns out there, pride in Finland even as I live in Hong Kong. But, I do appreciate it, that you might have read it and thought I was 'serious' and then became alarmed that this is not helping... I hear you. I ask you to give me a second chance, and read it bearing in mind, it was 'intended' as a joke. Then hopefully you'll be able to smile and find a bit to laugh about, even with this matter that may - indeed - kill us off before our time is due, and end humankind's existence on the planet, before we are set to expire naturally. Of course I hope that this will not come to pass and the Paris meetings and the global initiatives will reverse the course and give humankind more time..

Thank you for writing

PS Wayne - thanks !!!

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[MixWithW]

Long time reader, first time poster. As a foreigner who has previously lived and worked in Finland for almost two years, I thoroughly enjoyed this blog Tomi. I love Finland and plan on moving back somewhere in the future. However you forgot to mention another, and perhaps the most important reason to move: Fins are among the kindest people on the planet (as far as I've experienced) and have a great sense of humor, as demonstrated by yourself. The common stereotype that Fins are cold people does not apply in my experience. Also... the women are among the most beautiful in the world. Thanks for an entertaining read that makes me miss my Finnish friends :)

[Catriona]

You want to reduce carbon emissions? Introduce nuclear power and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas to China and close their coal-fired power plants. Problem solved.

[Winter]

@Catriona
"Introduce nuclear power and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas to China and close their coal-fired power plants. Problem solved. "

Have you already calculated how long the world can run on the nuclear fuel that exists on the planet?
It won't even last for this century.

http://phys.org/news/2011-05-nuclear-power-world-energy.html

For all the money needed, it is cheaper to cover the Gobi desert with solar panels. And that even supplies much more power.

[Per "wertigon" Ekström]

@Winter:

That article has a huge flaw; it doesn't take into account modern generation IV nuclear reactors, nor does it take into account thorium reactors:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_IV_reactor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_fuel_cycle

I too think that nuclear power plants is the short-term solution. Long-term is fusion plants ofc. :)

[Winter]

@Per
"I too think that nuclear power plants is the short-term solution. Long-term is fusion plants ofc. :)"

Sorry, but breeder reactors are much more complex and much more expensive than conventional plants. A lot of that is also experimental technology. Except for the fuel part, all of the other problems are also true for breeder reactors.

In contrast, solar energy already works, and the Chinese are good at it.

A few numbers:

Let's assume we want to supply all 1.5B Chinese with the average power used by Germans.

Solar flux in desert regions is around 7kWh/m^2 averaged over a day, or around 300 W/m^2 (24 hours). Take a net efficiency of 5%, losses in surface use and transportation included.

The German per capita energy use is ~5.5kW. If we allow for growth and take a generous 7.5 kW as the norm, it would take 500 m^2 per capita to power a country like Germany.

For 1.5B people we would need 750,000 km^2. The size of the Gobi is 1,295,000 km^2, so we need around 60% of the Gobi to cover the energy use of China for most of the 21st century.

Increase the efficiency from 5% to 10% and you need only half. Btw, there is no problem with clouds and rainy days there.

Current energy use per capita in China is 2.5kW, that is, around a third of what I planned.

And there is no reason to not plant solar panels on every roof in China.

That is all with current technologies.

[Per "wertigon" Ekström]

@Winter:

Solar power does sound impressive, but it does have one huge disadvantage: Nighttime equals downtime.

Looking at energy efficiency, we do not need as much electricity at night than we do at day (not everyone is a basement-dwelling hacker with a full server rack). The less sun there is, the more electricity is neccessary.

Therefore, Solar is a nice complement but can never be a complete solution. However, Solar could power the entire industry, that's feasible (since industry operates mostly at daytime). But again, the industry wastes much more power than your average household, so... Solar plants on the roof is not quite going to cut it, you'd need like 10x that power.

So no, Solar is not the answer either.

[Winter]

@Per
"Solar power does sound impressive, but it does have one huge disadvantage: Nighttime equals downtime."

There are MANY storage opinions. Simply using part of the charge of electric car batteries at night (sale-back) covers a lot of night-time use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_energy_storage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_storage

[Winter]

@Per
"So no, Solar is not the answer either."

Compared to the problems of scaling up nuclear power to cover all energy use, the "problems" and "costs" of solar are peanuts.

[Winter]

@Per
"But again, the industry wastes much more power than your average household, so..."

I see that there is a misunderstanding here. My averages covered ALL energy use, including German industry. My calculations for China assumed triple the total energy use, domestic and industrial, of China NOW.