Load shedding is awesome. (Don’t hate me). Here is a counter view. South Africa has probably halved the amount of coal that it’s burning. As the seventh largest polluter in the world this is awesome news for the future … of the planet. Firstly we have all started using much less electricity and are much more conscious of the need to use it sparingly. That’s amazing. You could not have engineered this even if you had had a massive promotional campaign. Secondly Burning coal, gas or wood directly to cook with is far smarter than generating power by burning fuel to make steam for a generator to produce electricity and then transmitting it to you for you to boil water on an electric stove. The thermal efficiencies of that process are less than thirty percent. We are the most improved nation on the planet in terms of reducing our collective footprint. That’s amazing news. Long term that benefit may more than pay for any GDP declines. Increasing amounts of demand are moving permanently off grid. That’s amazing too. Finally the economy is moving rapidly away from energy intensive industries to more efficient ones. Every cloud does have a silver lining.