Democrats dream of powering society entirely with wind and solar farms combined with massive batteries. Realizing this dream would require the biggest expansion in mining the world has seen and would produce huge quantities of waste.
“Renewable energy” is a misnomer. Wind and solar machines and batteries are built from nonrenewable materials. And they wear out. Old equipment must be decommissioned, generating millions of tons of waste. The International Renewable Energy Agency calculates that solar goals for 2050 consistent with the Paris Accords will result in old-panel disposal constituting more than double the tonnage of all today’s global plastic waste. Consider some other sobering numbers: …
When electricity comes from wind or solar machines, every unit of energy produced, or mile traveled, requires far more materials and land than fossil fuels. That physical reality is literally visible: A wind or solar farm stretching to the horizon can be replaced by a handful of gas-fired turbines, each no bigger than a tractor-trailer.
Building one wind turbine requires 900 tons of steel, 2,500 tons of concrete and 45 tons of non recyclable plastic. Solar power requires even more cement, steel and glass—not to mention other metals. Global silver and indium mining will jump 250% and 1,200% respectively over the next couple of decades to provide the materials necessary to build the number of solar panels, the International Energy Agency forecasts. World demand for rare-earth elements—which aren’t rare but are rarely mined in America—will rise 300% to 1,000% by 2050 to meet the Paris green goals. If electric vehicles replace conventional cars, demand for cobalt and lithium, will rise more than 20-fold. That doesn’t count batteries to back up wind and solar grids.
I have become increasingly concerned about the media and the state of the internet. I think the proliferation of short bits of information on social media are causing people to ration (way too much) what they read. Twitter, Facebook encourage one to read bits, not full articles. More scholarly articles now may come labeled with minutes and seconds, to say how long it will take to read the piece so the reader will not be too soon discouraged. We are getting stupider.
I just wrote a bit on climate confusion or rather, climate panic. The Earth has been far warmer in the past, and far cooler as well. There is nothing to worry about in today’s climate science. The climate always changes as it has done for millions of years.
A woman at Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s town hall today took climate extremism to the next level. She likes AOC’s Green New Deal, but it isn’t fast enough. We have only weeks and months before it’s all over. We have to start eating the babies.
How could this young woman get such utterly goofy ideas in her head? AOC’s “Green New Deal” was the epitome of ignorance, and utterly impossible. Based on scaring people into accepting unacceptable socialist government, even admitted to by AOC’s former chief of staff. Have we reached such a state of ignorance that we just accept what is said by someone with no particular qualifications? There are highly qualified climate scientists. This young woman even had tee shirts printed up. Unbelievable.
ADDENDUM: Tee- Hee! Alexandria Occasia-Cortez insists, today, that the baby-eating supporter at her town hall was really a Trump supporter. Why am I not surprised?
American Elephants 