I get that solar POWER is infinite and clean, but the panels used to harvest it are anything but that, aren’t they? Aren’t solar panels just another way to pollute the earth because of their production and inevitable mass discarding?
Isn’t it the exact same problem for wind turbines? Won’t we eventually run out of material/resources to make those as well? Not to mention the noise pollution and the killing of avian life.
Could these alternative sources really be considered clean? If so, why?
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If we want to talk about eventualities, the sun will eventually consume the Earth and further still down the line our entire universe will run out of useful energy as it expands towards timeless oblivion.
I say this to point out that not all eventualities have equal importance for planning. Some things may be today’s problem, some things may be tomorrow’s problem, and some things may be our great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren’s problem. For now, we work on the problems that need fixed *now*, and that takes priority over problems that may need fixed later.
The amount of energy available to us through fossil fuels is finite. When we run out of them, we can’t get more, and the changes caused to our planet will be (at best) a *huge* energy-debt we need to work off. At worst, a near-apocalypse. That isn’t a problem we need solved *today*, but it is a problem we need solved as soon as it can be. It is a problem inherent in how fossil fuels work.
There is nothing about solar or wind power which fundamentally requires scarce resources, as opposed to fossil. We already have solar power plants (specifically, CPP) which use only the most common of materials. Things which, yeah, are technically finite, but we won’t be running out of any time soon. Currently, photovoltaics are cheaper. If we eventually run low on the things needed to produce photovoltaics, we can either develop better photovoltaics (which we’re already working on), develop better recycling methods (which we’re already working on), or start using more CPP (which we already have the tools to do). The same argument works, even better, for wind power. Significantly less black magic is involved in the production of wind turbines.
So while we may have to continue working to keep things running, there is something of an end in sight; the future is bright for renewables. There is no future, not even an imaginary one, where fossil fuels keep us going.
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