this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2024
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It's not black and white. Renewable energy is better than burning oil, agreed.
But i.e. there is no recycling process for old wind turbines (carbon fiber) - they need to be replaced after 30 years or solar panels (composite material). And e-cars need batteries which need lithium (mines). Also rare earths are needed for generators and electric motors - rare earths are... rare and the production requires lots of energy and produces toxic waste (in China... which has kind of a monopoly on it. )
Maybe solvable problems in the long run but currently these are unsolved issues...
Hey you know which energy sources also have lots of unsolved issues with waste disposal and pollution? Fossils.
Often the issue isn't recycling. Under capitalism, it's not profitable. This is the issue.
Lol, ever seen a coal disposal plant? Not even nuclear disasters look as bad as your average coal disposal plant. Any green or even "green" solution is leagues better than our current fossil infrastructure.
Also way to pick some of the worse solutions, windmills are generally just bad and e-cars are largely just car companies going "car bad for life on earth? No...it's not...na~ah...see! Totally good now! :)", it's quite literally kicking a can down the road, or rather hiding from the gaze of the rich.
The problem with cars isn't necessarily that they're dirty, it's that we have soo god damn fucking many of em EVERYWHERE, which amplifies all of their small issue to such a degree it makes it a leading cause of emissions among others issues. Like once we get to car infrastructure, that's when it really takes a nose dive. It's a wonder anything still even works...
In case of solar panels, it's honestly not that bad, once we cut back the elephant in the room, makes plenty of space of solar production. Also nuclear should be the end all be all, and don't give me no shit about waste storage, countries like Finland are volunteering to be used as storage, because it generates business for em. As long as you don't store it in an old salt mine (like what the actual fuck were the Germans thinking there???), again it's not that bad, especially compared to the elephant in the room... I'd prompt ya to look at a coal disposal plant again.
There's a massive amount of ongoing research into lithium-free batteries. Sodium-ion has gotten a big boost recently and real solid-state batteries are starting to see commercialization.
There is no recycling of oil refineries either. So that argument is useless. Everything breaks down.
Don't let perfection be the enemy of good.