It doesn't matter how many of my neighbors have put solar panels on their roofs.
The sun is shining here now, past noon, fog cleared, so I'm guessing this post from my little chromebook and dsl modem is solar powered, courtesy of my self-righteous neighbors whose credit ratings are not in the toilet. (My own credit rating is in the toilet owing to various medical misadventures, and I don't use much electricity as it is, so the solar-selling guys driving their white gasoline powered vans are definitely not interested...)
When the sun's not shining our house power is "natural" gas all the way. "Natural" my ass. There's nothing good or natural about gas. It's not even better than coal when it's fracked.
How do you propose we change that?
The only way to quit fossil fuels is to quit fossil fuels. Has anyone posting here in E/E quit fossil fuels?
A fully "renewable energy" or "nuclear energy" society would look nothing like our current high-energy fossil-fueled society.
I can quit using electricity any time I like. All I have to do is quit paying the electric bill. The new smart meters allow the electric company to shut off my power remotely. They don't even have to send a guy out anymore.
I can quit driving too. All I have to do is quit buying gasoline. My car won't run without gasoline.
I'll confess, I'm not in the market for whatever it is you are selling, Kristopher, I don't have any extra dollars sloshing around.
Once upon a time I was living in a shack in a crazy Vietnam war vet's backyard. I rode my bike wherever I needed to go. I used trivial amounts of electricity lighting the shack, connected to the house with a 16 gauge extension cord. That, today, is higher than the basic standard of living for billions of people.
Those of us now living as one-percenters don't know shit. I'm a one percenter, and so it seems are you.
We humans will survive this global warming catastrophe, and it will mostly be those now living in poverty surviving, but only because there are so many people living in poverty.
If I'm selling anything then it's education and empowerment, especially for women, and planned parenthood for all. (I'm a radical Social Justice Catholic heretic who hasn't been expelled from the church yet.)
Alternative energy schemes, solar wind or nuclear, will not magically make the world a better place. Unless fossil fuels are simply banned, then renewable and nuclear energy schemes will merely be supplemental. The truth of that is measured at Mana Loa.
Knowing that climate change catastrophe is upon us doesn't make me a "doomer" and it doesn't turn me into any kind of backwoods survivalist. I'm an perverse optimist, I think we can still crash land this world civilization gracefully. But I'm not interested in false hopes.
The only way most of us this civilization survives is by establishing robust local communities and a peaceful world. The gadgets -- solar, wind, or nuclear power -- simply don't matter.
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