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hunter

(40,667 posts)
4. For now wind energy is simply digging the hole deeper.
Thu Jul 30, 2015, 01:00 PM
Jul 2015

The only way to quit fossil fuels is TO QUIT FOSSIL FUELS.

Otherwise you get these market distortions where cheap and dirty fossil fuels are used to refine materials for wind and solar power systems.

Welcome to the worst place on earth...



The way "free" markets work fossil fuels will not be "replaced" by any competing technology. Rather, total human energy use will simply increase.

The only way to stop this cycle is to increasingly restrict the use of fossil fuels until the extraction of them reaches zero, and then let the consequences of that (probably great "austerity" at first!) be dealt with as the current economic system collapses.

We're not going to quit fossil fuels in that manner, but nevertheless the current economic system will collapse as earth's climate changes.

Furthermore, a world economy powered by wind and solar would look nothing like the economy of today. Wind and solar will never be a "drop in" replacement for fossil fuels.

The same is true of nuclear power, especially in this age of fossil fueled transportation, but a nuclear powered economy is the one most similar to today's economy. That's why Japan is restarting its nuclear plants. Importing fossil fuels was bad business, bad for their trade balance, bad for the environment.

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Excellent! GliderGuider Jul 2015 #1
Thanks for your kind words. Regrettably anything I might do to fight magical thinking... NNadir Jul 2015 #3
Jeb Bush assures me that some garage tinker is going to solve all this phantom power Jul 2015 #2
For now wind energy is simply digging the hole deeper. hunter Jul 2015 #4
^^^ That GliderGuider Jul 2015 #5
The main technical advantage - and it's huge - that fossil fuel have over so called... NNadir Aug 2015 #6
So, I guess you would disagree, then, with this from Nat'l Geographic~ RiverLover Aug 2015 #7
I certainly would. GliderGuider Aug 2015 #8
Thanks for the link. You just busted my beliefs, as I google EROI, so there's that. RiverLover Aug 2015 #9
Despite what some here suspect, I have nothing against renewable energy. GliderGuider Aug 2015 #10
Forgive me if I missed it but water about the water needed for cooling power plants? Finishline42 Aug 2015 #11
Funny you should mention it... NNadir Aug 2015 #12
What do you think of this author's take, basically a rebuttal of a German study...and it seems RiverLover Aug 2015 #13
I didn't catch this comment for a while... NNadir Aug 2015 #14
Thanks for your reply. But before I stick my head in my fossil fueled oven, (because if what you RiverLover Aug 2015 #16
nnadir has one objective on DU kristopher Aug 2015 #17
Well...if you have no hope because so called "renewable energy" is an expensive failure... NNadir Aug 2015 #18
Still making shit up, eh? kristopher Aug 2015 #19
I've provided lots of references from the primary scientific literature, for the... NNadir Aug 2015 #20
You embrace deception and thrive on decrepit logic kristopher Aug 2015 #21
Whatever. I think it's pretty clear what we think of one another. NNadir Aug 2015 #22
It isn't what people think of you that you should heed, it is what they think of your reasoning. kristopher Aug 2015 #23
Just as a broken clock is right twice a day, one of you sentences is actually right. NNadir Aug 2015 #24
Coal and nuclear, two sides of the same coin kristopher Aug 2015 #15
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