Is Good News always in our best interest?

Good News is all over the environmental press at the moment. Renewable Energy has made vast inroads into the UK Electricity mix and the highly polluting coal has just been absent from the generation mix for a record 55 hours – great news!
However the reporting has shown some unfortunate inaccuracy which may give people the wrong impression of the problem. Reports have been stating that the UK has been coal free and that renewables have been responsible for the majority of our energy needs. Well that is NOT true. The electricity grid has been coal free but there will still be some coal used in the UK – in industrial plants, steam engines, coal boilers and even crofters cottages there will still be Carbon Dioxide entering the atmosphere within the UK from the burning of coal.
OK but we have got rid of the biggest coal usage and renewables are providing much more of our needs.
Yes, but even if renewables are providing the majority of electricity generation, that is not the same thing as “The Majority of the UK Energy Demand”. It’s a common misconception but energy does not equal electricity. The majority of our energy needs are actually for heating and transport and are not provided by electricity (yet) and those loads (on mains gas and various oils predominately) are much greater than the load delivered via the electricity mains.
Given the public “mayfly” attitude to the big issues, by justifiably praising the success that is happening we take the risk of giving the impression that the problem is solved, when we have just starting on the long road to saving the planet from our reckless actions of the past.
We need to keep our heads down and keep working to reducing our emissions across the whole range of our activities.
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step – we at least have started walking…