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Numbers Show We’re Not as Addicted to Fossil Fuels as You Think

Much of the energy from burning coal, oil and gas is simply lost as waste heat, meaning a switch to renewables isn’t that big a leap

    
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
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The way we think about how much fossil fuels contribute to our energy mix overplays its utility. That’s because much of the energy from burning fossil fuels is lost as waste heat and noise, or as BloombergNEF’s Colin McKerracher puts it: “just sound and fury, signifying nothing.”