f energy; mass transit and re-introduction of
railroads can save even more. Proper planning, permitting, and zoning
can lead to more efficient (and more pleasant) cities and towns. And so
on...
The biggest gains require changes in society itself, they attack the
capitalist system. They require control over production by the people,
not by the unfettered pursuit of profit. They require a better way of
governance.
War is one of the biggest consumers of energy and other resources, and
one of the largest causes of environmental degradation – never mind the
human cost. Eisenhower hinted at the opportunity cost of war in terms of
equipment, but it is more than that: a fighter jet can use thousands of
pounds of fuel per hour. How many homes would that heat?
Conservation, in all its various forms, would yield far more than new
forms of generation. There is no profit to a capitalist from oil left in
the ground; there is no capital accumulation from coal unmined.
Reduction of consumption would give us even more: we’d need fewer solar
panels, fewer wind turbines. With mass transit and decent railroads and
better cities, there would be less energy used, and more free time for
the people. A capitalist might not be able to afford to send his used
car to Mars: maybe it would only go to the Moon. It should be
unsurprising that the most important way to reduce environmental damage
– conservation – is ignored in a capitalist system.
(Musk is a darling among capitalist environmentalists, because electric
is better than fossil fuel. But we hardly hear about the environmental
problems attendant to the batteries and other components. I must
acknowledge, however, that it was clever of him to meld solar power and
battery powered vehicles: the lithium cells which are no longer good
enough for a Tesla can profitably be installed into a home. But what
will we do when those in homes start to wear out?)
Certainly some problems are technical, and socialism won’t strike at
their roots. Not only wind towers use heavy metals. Semiconductor
manufacturing (including the creation of most photovoltaic cells) is
capital intensive, subject to significant economies of scale which make
small, locally managed factories impractical or at least quite
problematic. It takes a lot of extraction to garner the quantities of
rare earth metals needed to make flat panel and other displays. Maybe
recycling is feasible, but it won’t for a long time be feasible in a
capitalist system. Too long.
Yes we need solar and wind and other ways to prevent continued
environmental destruction. But a necessary adjunct to those technologies
must be the restructuring of society itself.
Note: It once was the case that a solar cell had to be used for from
three to five years to recover the energy needed for its manufacture;
maybe the numbers are different nowadays. After that interval, the power
generated is carbon free. We could, theoretically, create a system, with
only renewable power used to manufacture the equipment, that the entire
manufacturing cycle is carbon neutral. Similarly, we could,
theoretically, create an environment where all of the rare earths and
other toxic or scarce constituents might be recycled. Note that scrap
steel and aluminum, even in today’s economic system, displace a lot of
mining which would otherwise be needed to supply industrial needs. Of
course, this would entail moving away from the market pricing of such
materials.
On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 07:40:33AM -0700, DW via Marxism wrote:
> Date: Sun, 13 May 2018 07:40:33 -0700
> From: DW via Marxism <marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu>
> To: michael marking <mark...@tatanka.com>
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] End the “Green” Delusions: Industrial-scale
> Renewable Energy is Fossil Fuel+
>
> POSTING RULES & NOTES
> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
> #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
> *
>
> https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3797-end-the-green-delusions-industrial-scale-renewable-energy-is-fossil-fuel
>
>[...]
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at:
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
