{"id":65336,"date":"2023-05-17T06:33:14","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T11:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=65336"},"modified":"2023-05-17T06:33:14","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T11:33:14","slug":"i-warned-against-the-green-energy-boom-it-sparked-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=65336","title":{"rendered":"I Warned Against the Green Energy \u2018Boom.\u2019 It Sparked Debate"},"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\/05\/10\/Warning-Against-Green-Energy-Boom-Sparks-Debate\/\">I Warned Against the Green Energy \u2018Boom.\u2019 It Sparked Debate<\/a><\/h3>\n<p data-bind=\"teaser\"><strong>Challengers raised points that merit responses. Mine lead to one answer: degrowth.<\/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\/05\/09\/MiningMinerals.jpg\" alt=\"A machine leaves grooves in bare, red earth as it mines for rare metals.\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">Mining for rare earth metals for ever more battery-driven gadgetry is a vastly destructive and ultimately doomed response to the climate crisis argues the author.\u00a0<span class=\"caption__media--credit\">Photo via Shutterstock.<\/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\"><iframe id=\"ad-auris-iframe\" src=\"https:\/\/narrations.ad-auris.com\/widget\/tyee\/i-warned-against-the-green-energy--boom---it-sparked-debate--in-analysis-\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-org=\"9e544f185f852b113496053868f05de0.e2c21a\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"container-fluid clearfix \">\n<p><em>The best intentions in the world will not stop the inertia of a heavy civilization that is rolling on its way<\/em>. \u2014 poet\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecologicalcitizen.net\/pdfs\/v03n2-01.pdf\">Gary Snyder<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In a recent essay I\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2023\/04\/07\/Rising-Chorus-Renewable-Energy-Skeptics\/\">argued<\/a>\u00a0that replacing a 150-year-old fossil fuel system with a shiny electrical one in just 25 years to address climate chaos would come with monstrous ecological costs.<\/p>\n<p>I also said it won\u2019t get the job done given that climate change is just one symptom of a greater crisis: the excessive consumption of\u00a0resources on a finite planet. You had to read deep into the essay to arrive at what I proposed we must do instead of embracing \u201cclean tech\u201d as the blessed saviour.<\/p>\n<p>So let me put it straight here at the top, before I elaborate later: Any imperfect solution to our current civilization-threatening predicament must include dialing down our energy consumption rather than coming up with high-tech visions that keep accelerating it.<\/p>\n<p>And that means\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2021\/12\/06\/Andrew-Nikiforuk-Getting-Real-About-Our-Crises\">reasserting human control<\/a>\u00a0over the technosphere now fragmenting us and imposing real limits on the algorithmic conquest of our thinking.<\/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\">\n<div id=\"sidebar_a\"><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/aside>\n<p>In my article I summarized the work of geologists, journalists, physicists and energy experts \u2014 including\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.simonmichaux.com\/gtk-reports\">Simon Michaux<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/us.macmillan.com\/books\/9781250284297\/cobaltred\">Siddharth Kara<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/story\/2022-09-05\/the-energy-historian-who-says-rapid-decarbonization-is-a-fantasy\">Vaclav Smil<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.anu.edu.au\/events\/meet-the-author-guillaume-pitron\">Guillaume Pitron<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/energyskeptic.com\/2022\/why-how-mining-metals-for-renewables-will-destroy-the-planet-not-prevent-the-energy-crisis\/\">Alice Friedemann<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0921800919310067\">Nate Hagens<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dothemath.ucsd.edu\/\">Tom Murphy<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 who have done the critical math.\u00a0The ecologist\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2019\/11\/11\/Climate-Change-Realist-Face-Facts\/\">William Rees<\/a>, the physicist Antonio Turiel and oil analyst Art Berman also have all made important contributions to this conversation.<\/p>\n<p>Their calculations, which respect biophysical realities and limits, show that humans will have to mine more metals and minerals over the next 30 years than have been dug up over the last 70,000 to build a \u201crenewable\u201d transition.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I Warned Against the Green Energy \u2018Boom.\u2019 It Sparked Debate Challengers raised points that merit responses. Mine lead to one answer: degrowth. Mining for rare earth metals for ever more battery-driven gadgetry is a vastly destructive and ultimately doomed response to the climate crisis argues the author.\u00a0Photo via Shutterstock. The best intentions in the world [&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":[5549,27351,141,1406,485,5499],"class_list":["post-65336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-andrew-nikiforuk","tag-clean-energy-2","tag-climate-change","tag-green-energy","tag-limits-to-growth","tag-the-tyee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65336","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=65336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65337,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65336\/revisions\/65337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}