The fact is that “green energy” can’t be made to fuel the engine of the modern world. And it isn’t just because we don’t have the tech. It’s actually a numbers game.
Green energy can’t fuel our modern world because we aren’t doing it right or don’t yet have the technology. It physically cannot be made to serve as our energy sources because the numbers just don’t add up.
Recently energy expert Michael Shellenberger posted an epic Twitter thread showing just why so-called green energy simply cannot replace fossil fuels.
This thread is packed with great info:
Wind/solar/batteries require: 1,000% more steel, concrete and glass; 300% more copper; and 4,200%, 2,500%, 1,900%, and 700% more lithium, graphite, nickel, and rare earths, respectively, than fossil fuels, to produce the same amount of energy, according to IEA and others. pic.twitter.com/ZkeWcSaYh4
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) September 7, 2022
Today, 40 CEOs of European metal companies warned of the “existential threat” to the industry due to energy shortages and the "extra raw materials needed to shift away from fossil fuels…50% of the EU’s aluminium & zinc capacity has already been forced offline due to the crisis” pic.twitter.com/TsMu49syM5
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) September 7, 2022
The proximate cause of the global energy crisis is Europe's over-dependence on Russian fuels, and yet Western elites are on the verge of repeating that mistake by becoming dependent on China for the extraction and processing of the minerals needed to make solar, wind, & batteries pic.twitter.com/9yLTiIHBE8
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) September 7, 2022
China dominates solar and battery production. Minerals = 60%–70% of the cost to produce solar panels & lithium batteries. And China's solar panel labor costs have been very low to free, considering that they have been covered as part of its genocide.https://t.co/Ffx5KwtjJe
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) September 7, 2022
We've known for 200 years that the industrial revolution was made possible first by coal and then by oil and gas. It simply wasn't possible with wood, water wheels, and wind mills. Scholars have now shown, using physical measures, why this was the case.https://t.co/YSt4mgZTNV
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) September 7, 2022
For a much more exciting, humanistic, and contemporary account of energy transitions, check out this 2020 best-seller 😉https://t.co/sVKlFIeYJd
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) September 7, 2022
But many others are nihilists who have turned nature into a god and have convinced themselves that civilization is destroying it. They are in the grip of a pathological dogma no different from the dogma that grips cult members. They dream of apocalypse.https://t.co/fDXslgUgwz
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) September 7, 2022
We are headed for recession and Europe may be headed for depression. Western civilization will be rocked to its very core. Most of the politicians in power today won't be in power three years from now. People will learn the physics of energy the hard way.https://t.co/Av8FL9bXuK
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) September 7, 2022
"Amazon experienced “critical fire” in at least 6 of its 47 sites with solar… By June last year, all of Amazon’s U.S. operations with solar had to be taken offline…. Those details didn’t show up in Amazon’s 100-page sustainability report"https://t.co/HLQleJuiP2
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) September 8, 2022
Change is cominghttps://t.co/j5gnxOTxuU
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) September 8, 2022
Shellenberger is a co-founder of the Breakthrough Institute, co-founder of the California Peace Coalition, and the founder of Environmental Progress. And, he is a Democrat, so you can’t accuse him of being a “fascist Republican” like Joe Biden loves to label opponents.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston
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