Quote:
Originally Posted by Woodsy
While electrification might be the end game... until we get clean energy generation AND more importantly, clean battery/storage technology it is all for naught. Those lithium batteries in your EV are beyond hazmat! At best they can only recover 50% of the lithium when they are recycled... this will lead to a huge toxic waste management issue as EV's become more popular.
No matter what people say, there is no such thing as "green" energy. They all have serious downsides.... and a huge potential for unintended consequences.
As XCR pointed out, hydrogen is promising, but not there yet. IMHO, SMR's are coming, but they aren't quite there yet either. Will they get here soon enough to help? Doubtful. If we don't get India, China & Pakistan and most 3rd world countries on board... nothing we do is going to matter.
No matter what side of any issue you are on, there is an upside, a downside and worse yet... unintended consequences. Woodsy
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Woodsy, I think this is well stated, but the question then becomes, if it appears we're doomed---because we can't develop green energy fast enough to save the planet---what should we do? I feel like "nothing we do is going to matter" is just too pessimistic. We can't just keep living the way we "want" to live, driving unnecessarily large gasoline vehicles and burning oil to heat unnecessarily large homes, etc. Every one of us can do something to mitigate the climate crisis. Studies of mass movements (e.g. Ghandi) have shown that in order to get a large movement going, you actually don't need to convince more than 50% of the population to get on board. It's more like 30%, which feels doable. Convincing 30% of citizens, lawmakers, corporations, etc. to take action on the climate crisis feels doable to me. I believe that everything we do matters, every small action. It all adds up.