Today’s post is by regular contributor, Richard Jurin. Before his retirement, Richard led the Environmental Studies programme at the University of Northern Colorado, where he launched a degree in Sustainability Studies. His academic interests are environmental worldviews and understanding barriers to sustainability. As ever, with our blogs, the views expressed are not necessarily shared by NAEE.
“As our own species is in the process of proving. One cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.”
Arthur C Clarke
In my last post I described the joys of driving long-distance in an electric car. I have talked with many EV owners and they say the inconvenience is worth the knowledge that EVs are friendly to the environment. It is at this point I ask the inconvenient questions, “where did the electricity that charged your car come from and what difference is there in the manufacture of your EV and a regular petroleum driven vehicle?” I offer a simple view here, but simple, seems easier to make a point.
My environmental views are not always popular with environmental true believers as we are now enveloped in a Gadarene rush to ‘Net-Zero’ with all the expectation that we can actually achieve such a goal, and that this policy rush will actually solve the climate disruption we find ourselves within. I think we can get reasonably close in time, but the laws of physics at our level of quantum reality dictate that we recognize the limitations before rushing headlong to get everyone on the planet mandated to use electricity as our only source of energy.
When I lectured on energy, I would explain the benefits of renewable energy sources, pointing out their pros and cons. Then I would ask the inconvenient questions and discuss the realities of current renewable energy. There are three basic phases of energy generation:
1) Obtaining the energy source and building the technology to utilize it;
2) using the source to generate energy; and,
3) disposing of the waste or technology once it stops working efficiently, and replacing it. The only thing green about renewable energy is the utility phase.
If we dismiss the not-so-minor problem of reliable consistency (e.g., the wind blowing, the sun shining, and water falling from the sky) that make renewable sources the wonderful thing we think they are, then we can compare the first and third phases more clearly.
The first and the third phases for fossil fuels and renewable resources, if we are kind, are equivalent. The fact that renewables and their related ‘green’ technologies use many more rare Earth elements, toxic metals, and many minerals actually renders renewables a bit more polluting and toxic, even if the utility phase is essentially carbon free. Third generation renewable energy promises great reductions in both waste and pollution, while potential fourth generation quantum energy should be our ultimate goal, if we would only fund research to explore it.
“We’ll go down in history as the first society that wouldn’t save itself because it wasn’t cost-effective.” Donella H. Meadows
Net-zero is a dangerous myth that threatens economic stability and further increases extreme poverty for the both the more-developed and certainly the less-developed world. Human technological success and lifestyle improvements have been predicated on the availability of easy-to-use energy. For the past two hundred years in developed countries that has been with fossil fuels and now renewables.
Energy Access is crucial for further development in the less developed countries, which account for perhaps 75% of humanities numbers. But to build the renewable energy infrastructure globally will require the continued use of fossil fuels for mining and transportation at an increasing exponential rate for years to come. Whether we can build this renewable infrastructure before fossil fuels themselves become severely limiting and where they may not last beyond the end of this century for anyone but privileged elites, is a global discussion that must be addressed now.
Metaphorically we rush towards ‘remodeling the plane while flying it,’ but so far all I see is the changing of the type of fuel and not the plane or the mindsets of the pilots and passengers. Investment in humanity’s future should be more than just creating renewable markets to make profits for the corporate system, and instead on working towards a true green-energy future that benefits all of humanity. There are ways to build both a better near-term and long-term energy future, and none of them are likely to occur at the country level. We must develop better energy options at the local level and not systems that maximize for-profit banking and profit-driven corporate systems at the expense of everyone else. There are ways to do it locally and more effectively.
To Be Continued …………..
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Richard can be contacted at: richardjurin@gmail.com