We had electric cars in the 70s before the oil industry (literally) crushed them. Solar advancements have been stifled by the same industry since the technology began…imagine if governments invested there instead of approving a thousand more oil rigs.
Cheaper for them doesn’t mean more profit. Like I said, they control the material required for energy creation - THAT’S the money maker. You can’t control the supply of solar and wind so you can’t control the prices. That is a problem for the capitalists in charge.
I think fission is better than fossil fuels but it’s not the perfect solution. I think fusion, when technology proofs it viable, will exist in tandem with green energy.
The “skepticism” I have toward oil and gas is based on evidence so it’s not at all comparable to the conservatives’ view on green energy which is based on…fear mongering I guess? Those industries have massive lobbies which have proven time and time again to be massive liars. This isn’t an opinion, it’s publicly-available information.
Pumped hydro and sand batteries are being used already, there just isn’t mass adoption. It goes back to my first point - there’s way less money to be skimmed off the top when an industry doesn’t have a monopoly. There is no reason to have these alternative batteries already out there when they’re not essential to fossil fuels production (they use “standard” storage technologies).
Sure, you could plant billions of trees to offset it…but there’s no profit there so they won’t do it. Emissions aren’t the only pollution coming from fossil fuels that poisons the environment. There’s liquid and solid pollutants coming out of those factories.
If you’re asking about the pollution from creating the solar panels…yeah that’s gonna exist. But it’s an infinitesimal amount compared to pretty much any part of fossil fuels production.
Fossil fuels will never go away because we need them for other things but we can - and should - move away from using them as actual fuels.
[Edit] I am not downvoting you and I urge anyone reading this not to, either. We’re having a discussion and OP is not being uncivil.
I’ve also heard EVs were a suppressed technology with documentaries like “Who Killed The Electric Car?”
A centrist take might be that both are just technologies, gas and EV… I think EV could become more popular but there are problems: lack of current infrastructure for EVs, they take longer to charge (range issues), seems like there would be a loss of energy transmitting to a battery and then using it versus the direct use of energy by gas vehicles when they burn it, and so on.
Right now ebikes seem like an uncontested efficient vehicle versus gas vehicles, where they can replace a car commute
The “skepticism” I have toward oil and gas is based on evidence so it’s not at all comparable to the conservatives’ view on green energy which is based on…fear mongering I guess?
It’s actually surprising that you have this view… seems lacking understanding of the other side’s perspective? The conservatives would say you’re fearmongering that there’s a climate emergency that justifies needing “green tech” to solve it that’s not at all based on evidence. They would point to evidence that there have been many failed climate predictions: https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/11/weve-had-six-years-left-to-save-the-world-for-the-past-50-years/
pumped hydro / sand
so is there somewhere I can buy them, or other consumers? So we can slowly begin the process of supplanting the “old tech” with the “new”?
plant billions of trees … no profit
I guess couldn’t you profit by selectively tearing down trees as they grow or harvesting from them as they grow (acorns or some thing that can be sold or wood?) to financially sustain such projects?
liquid and solid pollutants
Anything that could be done to mitigate these pollutants?
pollution from creating the solar panels…yeah that’s gonna exist
I think that’s probably a sticking point they’ll latch on to - “well solar pollutes too, so what’s the point?”
Fossil fuels will never go away because we need them for other things
Like a lot of the non-fuel uses? But could other plant-based plastics replace them?
The problems you described are the result of the oil/gas suppression. We’ve had no issues adding thousands of gas stations, why would it be so hard to set up EV infrastructure? It wouldn’t be - the industry just chose not to.
As for green fear mongering, you don’t even need to look at climate change to see the benefits of green energy. Fossil fuel is dirty and creates tons and tons of pollution - not just emissions as discussed. So what’s the downside to green energy if climate scientists are wrong? Cleaner air? Oil barons losing their power over government? It’s win-win. But still, there’s decades of evidence on the harm caused by fossil fuels. The other side of the debate says that not all of the predictions have come true as if none of them have come true. I don’t think the two are really comparable at all - it’s people wanting a healthier world vs people who only care about making money.
Pumped hydro and sand are large-scale solutions so you can’t really buy them yourself. They’re for replacing industrial energy storage, way too big for a single household. Check this link out for more info on the latter. For personal use, “traditional” batteries are used.
We already cut down more trees than we plant. If that solution was profitable, they’d already be doing it and we wouldn’t even be discussing green energy right now
Not much can be done about the byproducts of fossil fuel aside from burning less of it
Saying “solar pollutes so why bother?” Is a bit asinine as it ignores the amount of pollution each causes. I don’t have the hard numbers but I’d imagine the pollution from producing enough solar panels to replace a gas power plant is significantly lower than pollution caused by one month of burning said gas.
The non-fuel uses im referring to are things like coal for making steel and some plastics. There’s been a lot of progress in making plastic from plants but I haven’t seen anything with coal. Steel is will remain extremely important for a long time.
why would it be so hard to set up EV infrastrcture.
fair, but I’d envision it being different. EV charging stations hook up to a power plant somewhere, or could to a big local battery. gas stations can be more flexible seemingly as they just can be a portable tank of gas basically.
The big problem I think is green energy isn’t efficient or as powerful of a resource at present. So it requires monetary or energy losses to make use of green energy? Are there also some unknown maintenance costs? The right seems to argue green energy is a net loss
people wanting a healthier world vs people who only care about making money
that sounds a little… limited in vision. the rejoinder is probably people think that the other side that’s for green energy is impractical and unprofitable. In fairness this reminds me that a lot of EVs seem poorly designed at present, in my view almost like they’re designed to make the technology fail in the public’s eye. Like say someone is a rightwing truck driver. Electric trucks are probably prohibitively expensive. So advocating for a trucker to use an unaffordable EV truck would seem harmful and impractical. This leads to dropping support for “green tech” that isn’t ready yet.
hydro and sand are large-scale solutions so you can’t really buy them yourself
oh… well again this becomes impractical for consumers.
For personal use, “traditional” batteries are used
Do you mean not green then? If true it would again sound like green tech isn’t there to be practical yet
We had electric cars in the 70s before the oil industry (literally) crushed them. Solar advancements have been stifled by the same industry since the technology began…imagine if governments invested there instead of approving a thousand more oil rigs.
Cheaper for them doesn’t mean more profit. Like I said, they control the material required for energy creation - THAT’S the money maker. You can’t control the supply of solar and wind so you can’t control the prices. That is a problem for the capitalists in charge.
I think fission is better than fossil fuels but it’s not the perfect solution. I think fusion, when technology proofs it viable, will exist in tandem with green energy.
The “skepticism” I have toward oil and gas is based on evidence so it’s not at all comparable to the conservatives’ view on green energy which is based on…fear mongering I guess? Those industries have massive lobbies which have proven time and time again to be massive liars. This isn’t an opinion, it’s publicly-available information.
Pumped hydro and sand batteries are being used already, there just isn’t mass adoption. It goes back to my first point - there’s way less money to be skimmed off the top when an industry doesn’t have a monopoly. There is no reason to have these alternative batteries already out there when they’re not essential to fossil fuels production (they use “standard” storage technologies).
Sure, you could plant billions of trees to offset it…but there’s no profit there so they won’t do it. Emissions aren’t the only pollution coming from fossil fuels that poisons the environment. There’s liquid and solid pollutants coming out of those factories.
If you’re asking about the pollution from creating the solar panels…yeah that’s gonna exist. But it’s an infinitesimal amount compared to pretty much any part of fossil fuels production.
Fossil fuels will never go away because we need them for other things but we can - and should - move away from using them as actual fuels.
[Edit] I am not downvoting you and I urge anyone reading this not to, either. We’re having a discussion and OP is not being uncivil.
actually I’ve read we’ve had them for a century: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/04/overview-of-early-electric-cars-1895-1925/
I’ve also heard EVs were a suppressed technology with documentaries like “Who Killed The Electric Car?”
A centrist take might be that both are just technologies, gas and EV… I think EV could become more popular but there are problems: lack of current infrastructure for EVs, they take longer to charge (range issues), seems like there would be a loss of energy transmitting to a battery and then using it versus the direct use of energy by gas vehicles when they burn it, and so on.
Right now ebikes seem like an uncontested efficient vehicle versus gas vehicles, where they can replace a car commute
It’s actually surprising that you have this view… seems lacking understanding of the other side’s perspective? The conservatives would say you’re fearmongering that there’s a climate emergency that justifies needing “green tech” to solve it that’s not at all based on evidence. They would point to evidence that there have been many failed climate predictions: https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/11/weve-had-six-years-left-to-save-the-world-for-the-past-50-years/
so is there somewhere I can buy them, or other consumers? So we can slowly begin the process of supplanting the “old tech” with the “new”?
I guess couldn’t you profit by selectively tearing down trees as they grow or harvesting from them as they grow (acorns or some thing that can be sold or wood?) to financially sustain such projects?
Anything that could be done to mitigate these pollutants?
I think that’s probably a sticking point they’ll latch on to - “well solar pollutes too, so what’s the point?”
Like a lot of the non-fuel uses? But could other plant-based plastics replace them?
thx for the non-downvotes :)
The problems you described are the result of the oil/gas suppression. We’ve had no issues adding thousands of gas stations, why would it be so hard to set up EV infrastructure? It wouldn’t be - the industry just chose not to.
As for green fear mongering, you don’t even need to look at climate change to see the benefits of green energy. Fossil fuel is dirty and creates tons and tons of pollution - not just emissions as discussed. So what’s the downside to green energy if climate scientists are wrong? Cleaner air? Oil barons losing their power over government? It’s win-win. But still, there’s decades of evidence on the harm caused by fossil fuels. The other side of the debate says that not all of the predictions have come true as if none of them have come true. I don’t think the two are really comparable at all - it’s people wanting a healthier world vs people who only care about making money.
Pumped hydro and sand are large-scale solutions so you can’t really buy them yourself. They’re for replacing industrial energy storage, way too big for a single household. Check this link out for more info on the latter. For personal use, “traditional” batteries are used.
We already cut down more trees than we plant. If that solution was profitable, they’d already be doing it and we wouldn’t even be discussing green energy right now
Not much can be done about the byproducts of fossil fuel aside from burning less of it
Saying “solar pollutes so why bother?” Is a bit asinine as it ignores the amount of pollution each causes. I don’t have the hard numbers but I’d imagine the pollution from producing enough solar panels to replace a gas power plant is significantly lower than pollution caused by one month of burning said gas.
The non-fuel uses im referring to are things like coal for making steel and some plastics. There’s been a lot of progress in making plastic from plants but I haven’t seen anything with coal. Steel is will remain extremely important for a long time.
fair, but I’d envision it being different. EV charging stations hook up to a power plant somewhere, or could to a big local battery. gas stations can be more flexible seemingly as they just can be a portable tank of gas basically.
well have you looked up “green energy is a scam”? Here’s one article, curious about your thoughts on it: https://corbettreport.substack.com/p/green-energy-is-a-scam-it-isnt-meant
The big problem I think is green energy isn’t efficient or as powerful of a resource at present. So it requires monetary or energy losses to make use of green energy? Are there also some unknown maintenance costs? The right seems to argue green energy is a net loss
that sounds a little… limited in vision. the rejoinder is probably people think that the other side that’s for green energy is impractical and unprofitable. In fairness this reminds me that a lot of EVs seem poorly designed at present, in my view almost like they’re designed to make the technology fail in the public’s eye. Like say someone is a rightwing truck driver. Electric trucks are probably prohibitively expensive. So advocating for a trucker to use an unaffordable EV truck would seem harmful and impractical. This leads to dropping support for “green tech” that isn’t ready yet.
oh… well again this becomes impractical for consumers.
Do you mean not green then? If true it would again sound like green tech isn’t there to be practical yet