People like the idea of solar farms in the abstract, but hundreds of communities around the world are currently fighting them because they require 300-600x more land than other energy sources, produce 300x more toxic waste, and devastate critical wildlife habitats.
Many rich nations dump used solar panels and batteries on poor African nations
nytimes.com/2019/05/12/cli…
Other rich nations send used solar panels to "landfills where in some cases, they could potentially contaminate groundwater with toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium and cadmium."
latimes.com/business/story…
By 2035 there will be 3x more used solar panels than new ones, which will make them 4x more expensive.
"The economics of solar," wrote Harvard Business Review researchers, "would darken quickly as the industry sinks under the weight of its own trash."
hbr.org/2021/06/the-da…
Solar farms are killing the critically threatened desert tortoises. "A team of biologists relocated 139 tortoises from their habitat to make way for the solar panels...In a span of a few weeks, 30 tortoises were killed."
reviewjournal.com/news/science-a…
Wind turbines chop the wings off of big, endangered, slow-to-reproduce birds. "USGS scientists concluded that if anticipated growth in wind energy by 2040 occurs, increased turbine-caused deaths could cut golden eagle populations by half over 10 years."
apnews.com/article/scienc…
After wind turbines spend decades killing threatened species, their blades are sent to landfills because it's too expensive to recycle them. (That little object in the upper right of the photo is a tractor burying the blades.)
bloomberg.com/news/features/…
Communities around the world are fighting back against the imposition of environmentally-destructive solar and wind projects by bankers, coastal elites, and subsidy-farmers. Over 40 townships have blocked or restricted projects in Ohio alone this year.
realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/…
If you would like to fight one of these hideous, environmentally-destructive projects in your own community, you can reach out to @LinowesLisa who is organizing a worldwide movement that is successfully fighting back.
wecprotect.org
We must ban all solar panels imported from China. They are being made by incarcerated Uyghur Muslims against whom genocide is being committed. They're cheap because they're made with slave labor. The subsidy for solar is blood money.
michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/ban-chinese-…
It's easy to calculate the massive impact of solar and wind projects. Just draw a circle around an energy project and divide by the amount of electricity they produce. Here are calculations from around the world.
environmentalprogress.org/power-density-…
The low energy density of sunlight and wind is why solar and wind projects require so much land and mining. It's why they can't power a high-energy civilization. And it's why the end of the renewables craze is near.
michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/end-of-renew…
What about batteries? Also made by enslaved Muslims in China. For fundamental moral reasons, we must ban all solar panels and batteries made in China.
nytimes.com/2022/06/20/bus…
Rainforests are being ravaged for the toxic elements required for renewables and batteries
apnews.com/article/techno…
Q: What about the waste from other sources of energy like nuclear?
A:
Why do people even put solar panels on land when they should go on rooftops? Because rooftop solar is ~2x more expensive
But I agree we should:
1. Ban large-scale solar
2. Ban Chinese solar genocide panels
3. Require solar developers to pay the cost of long-term waste disposal
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