Serious question. How do we make enough solar panels and wind turbines that will be capable of producing all of this energy without destroying all of our natural resources/habitats?
It's a funny joke, don't get me wrong. But I'll take the 15 men sitting behind a computer operating remotely a digger inside a mine instead of 10 men breaking their backs and probably risking their lives with a shovel.
Not to mention what do we do with old solar panels after they've lived their life. There's going to be a lot since a lot is needed to generate the amount of power needed. There's a good chance it will just get shoved onto some 3rd world country for them to deal with.
That problem doesn't seem any more significant for wind and solar than other powers sources: mountain top removal for coal, transporting tons of coal in diesel trains, building (and eventually disposing of) giant power plants, etc.
I'm not up to date on current industrial-scale solar cell manufacturing processes, but doesn't the manufacturing proccess still require massive amounts of coal? And what is the lifespan of the cells before they have to be replaced with new cells that also require coal to be produced?
On the battery side, I'm pretty sure that industrial-scale production still requires mining and mountain top removal. And what are wind turbines made out of? Where are we getting those resources from?
Like I said, I'm not up to date on the state-of-the-art industrial manufacturing processes required to make solar cells / turbines. But I'm pretty sure it will still require massive habitat destruction and the release of unimaginable amounts of greenhouse gasses to get us where we need to be.