#ClimateStrike kids organized their march with smartphones. Electronic smartphones. Electronic smartphones that had to be charged. With electricity. From non-renewable resources because renewables can't satisfy the demand of our tech-heavy culture.
#Irony
It seems to me that nearly all the so-called "climate activists" think that "climate action" is a zero-sum game with respect to the economy and impacts on daily quality of life.
ReplyDeleteSupport of the GND is synonymous with holding up a big sign saying, "I have no idea how economies work."
"Electronic smartphones that had to be charged. With electricity. From non-renewable resources because renewables can't satisfy the demand of our tech-heavy culture."
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that's the best example to use, seeing as how the ideal application for renewables (like solar), is, in fact, for charging batteries to be used later. Indeed, it is hard to come up with a more appropriate use for a solar panel than charging batteries.
Tim, that would only be true if you were talking about something like a handheld calculator which uses a solar cell. The home AC electricity which smartphones rely on to keep charged is ultimately the product of "non-renewables" (I use scare quotes because that terminology is loaded and misleading, intentionally so) since the so-called renewables cannot supply the grid's baseload capacity.
ReplyDeleteAnother irony -- I mean, if we are pretending to believe that they are serious in their concern and intellectually honest in their politics -- and 'yuge' one at that, is that "environmentalist activists" are uniformly opposed to nuclear power generation, which is the only non-fossil-fuel technology which could even begin to meet the needs of modern civilization.
ReplyDeleteExactly right. It just goes to show that these people are willfully ignorant of the facts of reality and simply believe their wishful thinking (all energy from wind/solar with no impact to the economy whatsoever) will somehow become reality if only the government were to have the power to force it to happen. Insurmountable engineering problems grounded in physical limitations (and not technological limitations as is always misleadingly said) be damned!
DeleteThe same sort of wishful thinking is why so many are still convinced that useful nuclear fusion technology is just a few million more dollars of grant money away!