{"id":65470,"date":"2023-07-09T07:02:41","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T12:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=65470"},"modified":"2023-07-12T04:28:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T09:28:10","slug":"i-also-hate-this-conclusion-on-net-zero-posted-on-june-23-2023by-jembendell-i-begin-the-final-section-of-my-chapter-on-energy-collapse-with-the-subtitle-i-also-hate-this-conclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=65470","title":{"rendered":"I also hate this conclusion (on net\u00a0zero)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I also hate this conclusion (on net\u00a0zero)<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n
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I begin the final section of my chapter on Energy Collapse with the subtitle \u201cI also hate this conclusion\u201d. Because I did not want to discover that modern societies cannot continue their energy trajectories by simply displacing fossil fuels with new technologies. But that is what the sum of the relevant research shows us. In addition, the pursuit of the total electrification of economies will have hugely damaging effects on the biosphere, due to the mining involved. This is the awkward reality that most Western environmentalists are ignoring. The \u2018green\u2019 capitalists are extremely happy for us to keep ignoring that reality, as then any pressure for action translates into more money and pleasure for them. But if activism is about our personal commitment to higher goals, whether using moderate or radical tactics, then it must start with a fair assessment of reality and possibility. Otherwise, how is such activism not simply a mix of self-aggrandisement and emotional distraction by keeping busy?<\/p>\n

The book\u00a0Breaking Together<\/em>\u00a0is now\u00a0available in audio<\/a>, and Chapter 3 on Energy Collapse can be heard\u00a0for free on soundcloud<\/a>. To convey some of the arguments, below I share the first and last sections of the chapter. The image of the Kintsugi Tesla is from the\u00a0Kintsugi World art project<\/a>\u00a0which accompanies the book.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u2014<\/p>\n

I was wrong about Elon. Or to be more precise, I was wrong about Tesla, the car company\u2014not the physicist. Back in 2007, I included Tesla Motors in a report for the environmental group WWF, as one of a handful of companies that would be shaping our future. I was particularly impressed with how the company was tackling the stigma about driving electric vehicles and using a sportscar style and luxury pricing to shift those perceptions…<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I also hate this conclusion (on net\u00a0zero) I begin the final section of my chapter on Energy Collapse with the subtitle \u201cI also hate this conclusion\u201d. Because I did not want to discover that modern societies cannot continue their energy trajectories by simply displacing fossil fuels with new technologies. But that is what the sum […]<\/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":[3,4,7],"tags":[150,17972,33243,27581,536,30673],"class_list":["post-65470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-collapse","tag-electrification","tag-green-capitalism","tag-jem-bendell","tag-money","tag-net-zero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65470","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=65470"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65480,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65470\/revisions\/65480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}