Thread by @aymanfadel

After watching "Planet of the Humans" @PlanetHumansDoc, I got "Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism" (2012) by @OzzieZehner. I've finished the first 2 chapters, which claim that both solar cells & wind turbines are inadequate

replacements to fossil fuels. Having been around Sierra Club types most of my adult life, I had always assumed that these technologies could replace fossil fuels & we could more or less maintain our current level of consumption. Zehner's book & the movie are critical of this view

I haven't gotten far enough into the book, but I think a key concept Zehner is attacking is "productivism." Our consumption is a function of energy we produce. Because we're so committed to consumption, we view our energy policy as a production issue.

As Zehner spoke about solar cells & wind turbines, I remembered that in my teenage years (c. 1983) I read a book by @HudsonInstitute futurist Herman Kahn in which he sold me on the idea that in my lifetime we'd have nuclear fusion reactors providing practically unlimited

pollution-free electricity. Another book which supports the general critique of productivism is "Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth" by Adam Frank worldcat.org/oclc/1054000668

Frank claims that physics shows that theoretical limits preclude ever increasing

consumption, as envisaged in some future scenarios such as that portrayed by the TV series "Year Million" imdb.com/title/tt694570…

Here's a quote from Zehner summarizing his conclusions at end of the 1st 2 chapters:

"The United States doesn't have an energy crisis. It has a consumption crisis. Flashy diversions created through the disingenuous grandstanding of alternative-energy mechanisms act to obscure

this simple reality."

My interest in this topic was renewed after listening to a recent lecture by @NaomiOreskes & @MichaelEMann

https://twitter.com/McGillTISED/status/1306591290986041345

In this lecture, Mann criticized "Planet of the Humans" as inaccurate in its criticisms of wind & solar & dangerous because

it caused people to stop taking actions to limit climate change, just as if they were hard or soft climate change denialists.

All this to say that I'm looking forward to completing this book. If you have sources to recommend on this topic, please do so.

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