{"id":53076,"date":"2020-05-08T08:57:11","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T13:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=53076"},"modified":"2020-05-08T08:57:16","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T13:57:16","slug":"solar-wind-subterfuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=53076","title":{"rendered":"Solar, Wind, & Subterfuge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Solar, Wind, & Subterfuge<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Raw Realities of Renewable Energy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something that long hasn\u2019t set well with me in the green movement is that so much of it is based on marketable products. For example, not long ago, the world was set alight by the idea of plant-based soda bottles. It was as if making plastic from plants had solved all our issues, and suddenly, using these innovative new bottles made the plastic-bottle experience guilt-free. Of course, that wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bioplastics, in many ways, are likely more problematic than petroleum-based plastic. In the case of Coca-Cola\u2019s \u201cPlantBottle\u201d, the end result was the same non-biodegradable chemistry<\/a>. It just had to be derived from plant-based ethanol instead of fossil fuels. With that in mind, it\u2019s probably worth pointing out just how much fossil fuel was required to grow, harvest, transport, and process the plants to make that plastic. In reality, we\u2019d only found a new way to make the same old problem, which really boils down to the fact that disposable plastic bottles are detrimental to the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, the packaging both literally and figuratively changed, but the end product wasn\u2019t green at all. That didn\u2019t stop the marketing bonanza. Soon, \u201cplant-based\u201d, \u201cbiobased\u201d and \u201cbiodegradable\u201d plastics were everywhere, and the prefixes \u201cbio\u201d and \u201cplant\u201d persuaded consumers that now an end to the issue of plastics was in-hand. We were on route to a viable solution, and buying our water in biobased plastic bottles was aiding in this answer. What a sham!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is that we needed to (and still need to) drastically reduce our use of plastics and eliminate disposable plastics, but this would be detrimental to a convenience-based economy that hugely relies on fossil fuels, plastic packaging, and nonessential \u201cnecessities\u201d to survive. The answer isn\u2019t a new type of plastic, i.e. a new way to continue along the wrong route. Rather, it is a re-imagining of how we are living, a version of vitality not reliant of caffeinated cola products distributed in plastic bottles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n