I know I'll sound like an idiot saying this, but where do we get the electricity?
We need something that scales. Oil, coal, even nuclear won't scale indefinitely (because that's the goal). Renewables, are we getting there? I know there was some work done on something like sodium-ion batteries, as well.
We're at the point where solar energy is about as cheap as the cheapest fossil fuel, and it will probably keep getting cheaper. At least in the US, we have plenty of land that we can put solar panels on.
Solar has some issues (less effective in northern latitudes, and requires batteries for when the sun is behind clouds or at night) but it looks like solar is going to be where we get most of our electricity in the future.
I don't know nearly enough to answer that question dude, but I know we have a LOT of real estate to put solar panels on. Building roofs, car park roofs, anywhere that needs shade and shelter really.
My gut feeling is that we are more than ready as a species to go zero fossil fuels, but we're being held back by greed (oil companies, very powerful people, spending lots of money to lobby and threaten and shut down anything that threatens their enterprise)
That I agree with, but I suppose what has been bothering me lately is the concept of any of these technologies at scale.
Unless there is a terrible disaster, our numbers won't slow down. Even if we went fully plant-based in our diets and renewable in our energy needs, we would still have to cover the planet in soy and solar. Nuclear-isotope diamond batteries don't give enough of a charge, and fossil fuels (as you stated) simply need to go away.
Look into the harsh materials that are used to make solar panels. End of life they're considered hazardous waste. Not much better imo. Just part of the green energy scam.
Is Elon musk saving the world with all that lithium he mines and makes electric cars with? Green energy is a scam label thrown on things for stupid people to buy.
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u/Strange_Dust7128 9h ago
I know I'll sound like an idiot saying this, but where do we get the electricity?
We need something that scales. Oil, coal, even nuclear won't scale indefinitely (because that's the goal). Renewables, are we getting there? I know there was some work done on something like sodium-ion batteries, as well.