{"id":65262,"date":"2023-04-11T05:38:30","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T10:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=65262"},"modified":"2023-04-11T05:38:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T10:38:30","slug":"the-rising-chorus-of-renewable-energy-skeptics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=65262","title":{"rendered":"The Rising Chorus of Renewable Energy Skeptics"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"article__header\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__header\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<h3 data-bind=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2023\/04\/07\/Rising-Chorus-Renewable-Energy-Skeptics\/\">The Rising Chorus of Renewable Energy Skeptics<\/a><\/h3>\n<p data-bind=\"teaser\"><strong>The green techno-dream is so vastly destructive, they say, \u2018we have to come up with a different plan.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"featured-media\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"02-organisms\/article\/featured-media\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<figure class=\"figure \" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/figure\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-img\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2023\/04\/06\/KaraSiddharthaSpeaking.jpg\" alt=\"A person of colour in a suit speaks into a clipped-on mic on stage.\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">Cobalt mining in Congo, says journalist Siddharth Kara, \u2018drags humanity back to a time when the people of Africa were valued only their replacement cost.\u2019\u00a0<span class=\"caption__media--credit\">Photo via\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hks.harvard.edu\/research-insights\/policy-topics\/human-rights\/siddharth-kara-persistence-modern-slavery\">Harvard Kennedy School<\/a>.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<article class=\"article__body main-col-container\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__body\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid clearfix \">\n<p class=\"lead-in\"><i>\u201cSometime during this century, it is highly likely that worldwide depletion of natural resources will force an entire reorganization of social and economic structures, perhaps violently.\u201d \u2014 Walter Youngquist, \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/npg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/OUR-PLUNDERED-PLANET-2014.pdf\"><em>Our Plundered Planet<\/em><\/a>\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n<aside class=\"aside hide-on-narrow-vp\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/aside\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"presents-box text-block-container\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/presents-box\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<p>Help youth imagine their creative future with a course bundle and gift certificate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>We are going to have to dramatically downsize the dream of a future in which we replace 150-year-old fossil fuel infrastructure with \u201cclean energy\u201d by 2050.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the message in a number of recent important reports and books. They underscore a number of problems with the renewables illusion, including the complexity of the task, the toxicity of rare earth mining and the scarcity of critical minerals.<\/p>\n<p>These grounded realists, including the French journalist Guillaume Pitron and the Australian geologist Simon Michaux, all have three basic messages:<\/p>\n<p>There are dramatic limits to growth.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"aside \" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/aside\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<section id=\"sidebar_ab\" class=\"messaging-block messaging-block--ask\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/messaging-block--ask\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\"><\/section>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Truth and reality are not linear.<\/p>\n<p>And the world needs a better plan to avoid collapse other than replacing one unsustainable fossil fuel system with another intensive mining system powered by even more extreme energies. In other words, electrifying the Titanic won\u2019t melt the icebergs in its path.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u2018Doubling down on the wrong thing\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n<p>For largely ideological reasons many greens and \u201ctransitionists\u201d have presented the transition to renewables as a smooth road with no potholes.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Rising Chorus of Renewable Energy Skeptics The green techno-dream is so vastly destructive, they say, \u2018we have to come up with a different plan.\u2019 Cobalt mining in Congo, says journalist Siddharth Kara, \u2018drags humanity back to a time when the people of Africa were valued only their replacement cost.\u2019\u00a0Photo via\u00a0Harvard Kennedy School. \u201cSometime during [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[11836,5549,5930,391,485,674,31549,5499],"class_list":["post-65262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-alice-friedemann","tag-andrew-nikiforuk","tag-energy-transition","tag-growth","tag-limits-to-growth","tag-renewable-energy","tag-simon-michaux","tag-the-tyee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65263,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65262\/revisions\/65263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}