[defrost]

The argument being made is that solar and wind aren't "emission free" .. that they don't waft into our neighbourhood from trees in our backyard.

Everybody (one would hope) understands that about coal, oil, and natural gas.

Many people (it seems) overlook that for wind, solar, and battery technology.

It's akin to ignoring | being wilfully ignorant of what happens to material in the recycle bin.

Think of it more as a plea to remember that all this clean energy comes with a boatload of waste that needs addressing, that is often in other people's backyards, and the you don't get $64 billion US worth of copper without the digging up of what some consider to be sacred ground.

[abenga]

All good points.

What is the action this realization is supposed to help us come to though? Should we stop the transition to cleaner energy until we find a 100% clean energy source throughout its life cycle before we begin the transition? It is simple really. Wind, solar, and so on are cleaner than fossil fuel sources of energy, so we should gradually transition to them. Cleaner mining and responsible recycling and reuse of the infra we build can be worked on over time.

[defrost]

We are where we are because the 1970s kicked a can down the road rather than take action on C02 when it was clear there was a problem.

In another 50 years we will have a pile of toxic waste as a direct result of scaling solar and wind up from the sliver it is now to enough to replace fossil fuels in world electricty production and replace fossil fuels in transport and build out enough batteries to ride out at least 10 hours of global demand.

> Cleaner mining and responsible recycling and reuse of the infra we build can be worked on over time.

How's that going so far - I can point to a few examples of mine reclaimation .. these are dwarfed by the majority that are left as problems for later on.

It's simple really, high consumers should consume less and as resources are used there should be focus on remediation and harm reduction from the outset.

Typically the worst offenders greenwash the nasty away and tut-tut about waste piling up in third world | southernn economies.