Sorry but that’s not going to solve all of the problems. Microplastics pollution and freshwater shortages won’t be solved by renewables. Copper prices and critical minerals shortages will only get worse as the push to more renewables accelerates. Problems with grid loading, grid forming, and grid energy storage only get more challenging with more renewables replacing base load fossil fuel plants and more EVs and electrified household heating and cooking come online.
And last but not least is the issue of NIMBYs who will not go away if all the billionaires suddenly disappear. “Let’s get rid of a few thousand rich guys” is now looking more and more like “let’s get rid of half the population” which really means a brutal civil war with the billionaires siding against you. Sounds pretty bad!
The general method of problem solving doesn’t put more copper in the ground for us to mine. It doesn’t get rid of all the toxic slags produced by refining electronics critical minerals (which is why no Western country wants to touch them; the reason China has cornered the refining market).
Microplastics come from a lot more than food packaging. Car tires, for example, are a major source of microplastics.
What happens when fresh water ends up in the ocean? Or polluted with microplastics or other forever chemicals? Now we need to put in more energy to clean it up. That may be affordable for drinking water but it’s absolutely not so for agricultural irrigation. And guess what? Climate change alters rainfall patterns which ends up drying up the freshwater reservoirs.
Anything synthetic - especially but not limited to microfleeces we’ve been collectively adoring for 30+ years now - constantly breaks down into microplastics which are embedded in your lungs, your loved one’s lungs, and every water source on Earth. Damn depressing. Try not to let your young kids around microfleece, we put it everywhere around their mouths :(
Sorry but that’s not going to solve all of the problems. Microplastics pollution and freshwater shortages won’t be solved by renewables. Copper prices and critical minerals shortages will only get worse as the push to more renewables accelerates. Problems with grid loading, grid forming, and grid energy storage only get more challenging with more renewables replacing base load fossil fuel plants and more EVs and electrified household heating and cooking come online.
And last but not least is the issue of NIMBYs who will not go away if all the billionaires suddenly disappear. “Let’s get rid of a few thousand rich guys” is now looking more and more like “let’s get rid of half the population” which really means a brutal civil war with the billionaires siding against you. Sounds pretty bad!
I’m talking about the general method of solving problems.
Just use biodegradable packaging. No need to live like a monk
This is a renewable resource. We will never “run out”
The general method of problem solving doesn’t put more copper in the ground for us to mine. It doesn’t get rid of all the toxic slags produced by refining electronics critical minerals (which is why no Western country wants to touch them; the reason China has cornered the refining market).
Microplastics come from a lot more than food packaging. Car tires, for example, are a major source of microplastics.
What happens when fresh water ends up in the ocean? Or polluted with microplastics or other forever chemicals? Now we need to put in more energy to clean it up. That may be affordable for drinking water but it’s absolutely not so for agricultural irrigation. And guess what? Climate change alters rainfall patterns which ends up drying up the freshwater reservoirs.
Anything synthetic - especially but not limited to microfleeces we’ve been collectively adoring for 30+ years now - constantly breaks down into microplastics which are embedded in your lungs, your loved one’s lungs, and every water source on Earth. Damn depressing. Try not to let your young kids around microfleece, we put it everywhere around their mouths :(