There are a bunch of ugly wind farms near me. The bird death is astounding. The farmers make more leasing their land for windmills than growing food. How many EV will be running in 10 years without a battery swap ? I’ve got 2 gas vehicles that are almost 20 years old and going strong. It’s all a scam.
“No, we aren’t all going to die due to climate change within ten years. Nuclear war, famine, another Big Pharma engineered plague, are all more likely to kill us off. And yes, of course, we can do better to conserve energy—and we should. But ultimately, it is the corruption, greed and hypocrisy of our officials and corporate elite that will be our demise, not their accusations that ordinary citizens aren’t sacrificing enough to save the planet.”
Solar and wind have a ugly underbelly as well. All of it comes around to money, and thousands of lies. Climate change is a vehicle to make the elite wealthier at the expense of the rest of us.
I joined the board of the Electric Automobile Association in my city about 20 years ago, because I wanted to know why EV's were not yet around. During my 2 years on the board, I learned a lot about batteries, mining, and the side effects of EV use. I have continued to do my research and found much of the same information as you did. Last year, our state decided to set a goal for some ridiculously high percentage of all new cars having to be EV by 2025 or so. A young woman phone banked me one night, earnestly asking me to call my legislators and ask them to support the bill. I told her no, then explained why. I explained the coup in Bolivia and how that was related to their lithium. I told her to watch "who killed the Electric Car". I shared what I knew about the cost of making an EV, the cost of all that non-recyclable material, and how ultimately, it was worse for the environment than what we had now. She seemed converted by the end of our conversation and thanked me profusely. I'm anxious now to go read part 2, thank you again for another splendid and well-researched article.
What happened in Bolivia is really interesting. There's so much info I wish I could include it all. I lived there for a few months a few years ago, in Sucre, loved it. That's amazing that you would spend the time to talk to that woman and explain it all to her. Most people wouldn't do that, or actually be able to explain it.
I am looking for a fuller picture of the solar energy, clean and green dream. I'm sort of hoping people will comment more citations and information about that. For all of the people who are thinking of jumping on those solar rebates and loans to build solar arrays on their property to feed the grid, what should they be considering? Is it really going to help the community and environment like they think?
The subject is huge, which is why I only concentrated on one part of it. I know plenty of people who have solar and are happy with it. I know plenty of people who own EVs and like them, too. The bigger picture is the lies the hucksters are telling us in order to get us to buy these products, instead of telling us the truth. Do as much research as you can and then make a decision based on that.
another consideration (especially for young) should be the impact on your health of increased EMF exposures... cardiac, neurologic, immune, dna damage:
Indeed! - so much substack so little time ! - and I am only a reader.
As to solar: I know that the panels get dusty- need to be washed - but sited often in areas where water is scarce (very much less efficient when they are dusty); I know that right now there are vast wasted dumps of solar panels (in Africa) chemicals leach into the soil, scavenging kids get cut up; I know that solar panels need to be replaced very much more often than initial models/predictions assumed - they don't last forever, obviously.
I have read all this from apparently reliable source - I will look for links;
"Clean Energy" industry guy the other day: "This whole industry is driven by government mandates and subsidies [consequently] ... no one knows what anything actually costs"
I am going to save this. There is a push to erect solar on the family farm. I feel uncomfortable and suspicious, so I am trying to investigate the questions. The bees have been living near the location where they want to put the array. Of course, because they want convenience to feed the grid, they would want everything in the middle of the main people areas. Any other thoughts or references you think I could explore?
I haven't researched solar the way I've researched these other topics. But I do know there is a problem with toxis waste. Here is an article about it. As the article says one of the big problems are the lies surrounding "clean energy." If we could just have honest conversations maybe we could reach better conclusions. But the greed and lust to make more money and have instant gratification drives so much of the human spirit. We've gone the wrong direction as a species for so long it's hard to know how we can right ourselves again. Here's the article: https://interestingengineering.com/renewable-energy-paradox-solar-panels-and-their-toxic-waste
i have been seeing more dead bees and disoriented bees in my garden and wondering if it is related to 5G rollout, increase in electromagnetic radiation.
when i was researching, Dr. Martin Pall has a website (not sure where i saw it) but solar panels also emit electromagnetic radiation (which is also referred to as ‘dirty electricity’)... some speculate that the ill effects of electromagnetic exposure is responsible for much of our modern day cancers... not sure but it is a topic i am looking into... if I find more links, will post.
your concerns are very legitimate... we are being pushed to overload our living environment with EMF radiation... solar wiring, inverter and WiFi smart meters are problematic sources... i am considering buying an EMF meter for my own personal curiosity as my home has ‘smart metered electricity’... think this is a cumulative exposure issue... especially for kids... from baby monitors, smart homes, smart thermostats, WiFi & connected devices, wearables like Apple Watch and medical devices, as autopilot cars... exposures are multiplying and will be (are) impossible to avoid... although there are convoluted suggestions out there like certain protective paints that basically turn your home into a faraday cage... it’s an overwhelming topic with lot of pushback from tech and telecom/utilities industries that want to cash in on meta verse...
in 2019 there were a number of legal challenges to halt the rollout of 5G...
‘conspiracy’ that ‘covid’ was a ‘cover,’ distraction from the known health impacts of the 5G rollout since biologic effects are quite similar? installation full steam ahead with the ‘excuse’ it was necessary for remote work and school?
cringing when see wireless headset hanging on someone’s ear in Walmart, kids going to bed with fitbits to monitor their sleep, teens glued to cell phones... future glioblastoma cases? effects/damage are long term, cumulative?
I do feel that it is being held up as a shining solution in a way that feels like, hmmmm, like it is a ritualistic value place holder. For my older family members it represents a legacy investment towards the good of the planet, but I am really stuck on the ideaI that you give your prime property space (close to grid connection) for energy that will all be sent and sold to an energy company. They will send you the energy you use, which is not directly the energy you produced. One of you makes some money off of it, but the substance is money value and energy. You don't get your own energy. I think that feels really odd. And then, the technology used turns over quite quickly from one generation to the next. In theory your panels last x years, but the technology will have turned over before then. The long term outcome is all theoretical. Nobody really knows.
And then, I am really stubborn about this : if you are trying to take do-gooder action, does it really do what you imagine and fantasize it will do? So, if the battery materials are a mining nightmare, can we positively choose that in addition to the notion that you're turning free sunshine into electricity for everyone's houses so that we're creating less pollution and less depletion of other resources, etc? I feel very skeptical because it feels like the surface fantasy good require some to psychologically diminish and devalue or even ignore the inconvenient bad.
It is a very dissonant experience because I can also feel that persuasive cultural message that of course solar is good and educated people who are with it so the right thing and go solar and green.
I really appreciate your focus on the one piece that you did. I will include this in my big picture assessment, as I try to understand more. I hope if anyone is further in investigating and reads, that they will comment to share.
Karen, catching up on your essays, I'm reminded of how powerful your essays are. Thank you for identifying in plain English the damage(s) that are being done to our Earth by "going Green/EV". It is easy to mask what is going on because, at least for now, this mining is going on in other parts of the world. Please keep doing what you are doing. Your essays are much needed in a Nation starved for real, factual information.
Every "EV" battery you want to produce requires digging up 500,000 lbs of earth and it doesn't stop there; having dug it up you must refine it to extract the lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper you need to build that battery pack. Almost none of that is recycled because it is not economic to do so; to mandate recycled materials would make that already-outrageously-expensive battery pack much more expensive.
"cost of battery was $9500.00 and installation was $2500.00. Fell out of my chair when I heard that this weekend."
Did you not hear of the guy (think it was in Cal.) who, when he found out the cost to replace his expensive/high-end Tesla's battery, pulled the Tesla up in front of the dealer and EXPLODED IT! Put explosives in and blew it up!
Now THAT is making a statement!
EVs, however, are not green. A half million pounds of earth has to be dug up for just one battery pack which must be moved for processing in huge (diesel-powered) trucks, crushed and then wildly-toxic chemicals used to extract the ores -- specifically lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and others. None of this occurs with a traditional vehicle. The packs are not economically recyclable and requiring them to be will wildly escalate their costs further. Charging said vehicle is approximately equal to running your electric clothes dryer all night long, and the cost of power when you're not at home is roughly double to triple when you use a "supercharger" or similar; this makes the cost on a per-mile basis higher than that of a gas car in many cases.
We do not have the electrical capacity nor is there any way to generate it using so-called "green" methods to charge these vehicles if a material percentage of the fleet converts. Without power you own a $50,000 brick and being "out" means not going anywhere. What's worse is that the existing fueling stations are used by a vehicle for about 5 minutes; conservatively it requires 30 minutes to get usable range from an EV, so contemplate where you're going to get six times the land you have for each fuel station now, plus you will need to place them twice as close together as the average EV range is half or less that of a gasoline vehicle.
The truth is that modern automobile gasoline engines are about as efficient as can be achieved. CO2, which is the only primary emission of modern closed-loop gasoline engines, is not a pollutant -- it is plant food and emitted by every animal as well. Simply put your gasoline car is far greener, all-in, than is your EV. Sorry, facts are facts folks and we don't use liquid hydrocarbons because we're pigs. We use them because nobody has come up with an actual workable and cost-effective alternative.
Mandating the impossible is a recipe for societal collapse. Secretary Pete has never put forward any facts, figures and computations to show how such a "transition" can take place. That's because he knows he's 100% full of **** and what he is cheering on and part of is impossible.
I don't care if you feel this is a good thing or not. That which you feel must yield to physics.
Always.
Now the question: Will you force the so-called "politicians" to cut this crap out -- no matter what you have to do make them stop it -- or will you simply lay down at their command and die?
Excellent all the way around! You could write an entire article on this! It's madness. The world has gone mad or rather, humanity has gone mad. The world was just fine before we started messing with it. It's very strange how people just passively go along with all this stuff. If people simply refused enmass it would stop the madness.
There are a bunch of ugly wind farms near me. The bird death is astounding. The farmers make more leasing their land for windmills than growing food. How many EV will be running in 10 years without a battery swap ? I’ve got 2 gas vehicles that are almost 20 years old and going strong. It’s all a scam.
Wind farms are another ugly story.
we have two gas cars as well. I will never buy an EV,.
“No, we aren’t all going to die due to climate change within ten years. Nuclear war, famine, another Big Pharma engineered plague, are all more likely to kill us off. And yes, of course, we can do better to conserve energy—and we should. But ultimately, it is the corruption, greed and hypocrisy of our officials and corporate elite that will be our demise, not their accusations that ordinary citizens aren’t sacrificing enough to save the planet.”
This. 100% this.
Where are the environmentalists on this? The left claims to be so green, yet crickets on the degradation of the planet due to mining ore for EVs.
Solar and wind have a ugly underbelly as well. All of it comes around to money, and thousands of lies. Climate change is a vehicle to make the elite wealthier at the expense of the rest of us.
Why do I feel that you going to drop another shoe...
Ha-ha, yes, I will in a couple of days.
I joined the board of the Electric Automobile Association in my city about 20 years ago, because I wanted to know why EV's were not yet around. During my 2 years on the board, I learned a lot about batteries, mining, and the side effects of EV use. I have continued to do my research and found much of the same information as you did. Last year, our state decided to set a goal for some ridiculously high percentage of all new cars having to be EV by 2025 or so. A young woman phone banked me one night, earnestly asking me to call my legislators and ask them to support the bill. I told her no, then explained why. I explained the coup in Bolivia and how that was related to their lithium. I told her to watch "who killed the Electric Car". I shared what I knew about the cost of making an EV, the cost of all that non-recyclable material, and how ultimately, it was worse for the environment than what we had now. She seemed converted by the end of our conversation and thanked me profusely. I'm anxious now to go read part 2, thank you again for another splendid and well-researched article.
What happened in Bolivia is really interesting. There's so much info I wish I could include it all. I lived there for a few months a few years ago, in Sucre, loved it. That's amazing that you would spend the time to talk to that woman and explain it all to her. Most people wouldn't do that, or actually be able to explain it.
Thank you!! I always try to educate people on things that matter and so few seem to have even heard about most of them!!
Yep. It's kind of scary how uninformed people are, and how overwhelmed they become at the thought of a little independent research.
you make it easy for us... shared your essay with a very interested millennial friend last weekend.
💕🐱💕👍💕
I am looking for a fuller picture of the solar energy, clean and green dream. I'm sort of hoping people will comment more citations and information about that. For all of the people who are thinking of jumping on those solar rebates and loans to build solar arrays on their property to feed the grid, what should they be considering? Is it really going to help the community and environment like they think?
The subject is huge, which is why I only concentrated on one part of it. I know plenty of people who have solar and are happy with it. I know plenty of people who own EVs and like them, too. The bigger picture is the lies the hucksters are telling us in order to get us to buy these products, instead of telling us the truth. Do as much research as you can and then make a decision based on that.
another consideration (especially for young) should be the impact on your health of increased EMF exposures... cardiac, neurologic, immune, dna damage:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8580522/
https://anycalculator.com/mercola_and_5g.pdf
Oh my goodness, that's a whole other topic worthy of writing about. I wish there were more hours in the day.
Indeed! - so much substack so little time ! - and I am only a reader.
As to solar: I know that the panels get dusty- need to be washed - but sited often in areas where water is scarce (very much less efficient when they are dusty); I know that right now there are vast wasted dumps of solar panels (in Africa) chemicals leach into the soil, scavenging kids get cut up; I know that solar panels need to be replaced very much more often than initial models/predictions assumed - they don't last forever, obviously.
I have read all this from apparently reliable source - I will look for links;
"Clean Energy" industry guy the other day: "This whole industry is driven by government mandates and subsidies [consequently] ... no one knows what anything actually costs"
I am going to save this. There is a push to erect solar on the family farm. I feel uncomfortable and suspicious, so I am trying to investigate the questions. The bees have been living near the location where they want to put the array. Of course, because they want convenience to feed the grid, they would want everything in the middle of the main people areas. Any other thoughts or references you think I could explore?
I haven't researched solar the way I've researched these other topics. But I do know there is a problem with toxis waste. Here is an article about it. As the article says one of the big problems are the lies surrounding "clean energy." If we could just have honest conversations maybe we could reach better conclusions. But the greed and lust to make more money and have instant gratification drives so much of the human spirit. We've gone the wrong direction as a species for so long it's hard to know how we can right ourselves again. Here's the article: https://interestingengineering.com/renewable-energy-paradox-solar-panels-and-their-toxic-waste
i have been seeing more dead bees and disoriented bees in my garden and wondering if it is related to 5G rollout, increase in electromagnetic radiation.
when i was researching, Dr. Martin Pall has a website (not sure where i saw it) but solar panels also emit electromagnetic radiation (which is also referred to as ‘dirty electricity’)... some speculate that the ill effects of electromagnetic exposure is responsible for much of our modern day cancers... not sure but it is a topic i am looking into... if I find more links, will post.
I want to write about 5G, too. So many topics! I hope to get around to it soon.
your concerns are very legitimate... we are being pushed to overload our living environment with EMF radiation... solar wiring, inverter and WiFi smart meters are problematic sources... i am considering buying an EMF meter for my own personal curiosity as my home has ‘smart metered electricity’... think this is a cumulative exposure issue... especially for kids... from baby monitors, smart homes, smart thermostats, WiFi & connected devices, wearables like Apple Watch and medical devices, as autopilot cars... exposures are multiplying and will be (are) impossible to avoid... although there are convoluted suggestions out there like certain protective paints that basically turn your home into a faraday cage... it’s an overwhelming topic with lot of pushback from tech and telecom/utilities industries that want to cash in on meta verse...
in 2019 there were a number of legal challenges to halt the rollout of 5G...
‘conspiracy’ that ‘covid’ was a ‘cover,’ distraction from the known health impacts of the 5G rollout since biologic effects are quite similar? installation full steam ahead with the ‘excuse’ it was necessary for remote work and school?
cringing when see wireless headset hanging on someone’s ear in Walmart, kids going to bed with fitbits to monitor their sleep, teens glued to cell phones... future glioblastoma cases? effects/damage are long term, cumulative?
continuing to read, think.
https://www.wirelesseducationaction.org/dr-martin-pall/
edited comment... kept making errors 🐱🙏
I do feel that it is being held up as a shining solution in a way that feels like, hmmmm, like it is a ritualistic value place holder. For my older family members it represents a legacy investment towards the good of the planet, but I am really stuck on the ideaI that you give your prime property space (close to grid connection) for energy that will all be sent and sold to an energy company. They will send you the energy you use, which is not directly the energy you produced. One of you makes some money off of it, but the substance is money value and energy. You don't get your own energy. I think that feels really odd. And then, the technology used turns over quite quickly from one generation to the next. In theory your panels last x years, but the technology will have turned over before then. The long term outcome is all theoretical. Nobody really knows.
And then, I am really stubborn about this : if you are trying to take do-gooder action, does it really do what you imagine and fantasize it will do? So, if the battery materials are a mining nightmare, can we positively choose that in addition to the notion that you're turning free sunshine into electricity for everyone's houses so that we're creating less pollution and less depletion of other resources, etc? I feel very skeptical because it feels like the surface fantasy good require some to psychologically diminish and devalue or even ignore the inconvenient bad.
It is a very dissonant experience because I can also feel that persuasive cultural message that of course solar is good and educated people who are with it so the right thing and go solar and green.
I really appreciate your focus on the one piece that you did. I will include this in my big picture assessment, as I try to understand more. I hope if anyone is further in investigating and reads, that they will comment to share.
We always seem to be short on the long term. We humans want what we want right now, thinking we can always fix it later.
As always, an excellent read.
Tesla is the ‘poster-car’ for child abuse.
Karen, catching up on your essays, I'm reminded of how powerful your essays are. Thank you for identifying in plain English the damage(s) that are being done to our Earth by "going Green/EV". It is easy to mask what is going on because, at least for now, this mining is going on in other parts of the world. Please keep doing what you are doing. Your essays are much needed in a Nation starved for real, factual information.
Every "EV" battery you want to produce requires digging up 500,000 lbs of earth and it doesn't stop there; having dug it up you must refine it to extract the lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper you need to build that battery pack. Almost none of that is recycled because it is not economic to do so; to mandate recycled materials would make that already-outrageously-expensive battery pack much more expensive.
"cost of battery was $9500.00 and installation was $2500.00. Fell out of my chair when I heard that this weekend."
Did you not hear of the guy (think it was in Cal.) who, when he found out the cost to replace his expensive/high-end Tesla's battery, pulled the Tesla up in front of the dealer and EXPLODED IT! Put explosives in and blew it up!
Now THAT is making a statement!
EVs, however, are not green. A half million pounds of earth has to be dug up for just one battery pack which must be moved for processing in huge (diesel-powered) trucks, crushed and then wildly-toxic chemicals used to extract the ores -- specifically lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and others. None of this occurs with a traditional vehicle. The packs are not economically recyclable and requiring them to be will wildly escalate their costs further. Charging said vehicle is approximately equal to running your electric clothes dryer all night long, and the cost of power when you're not at home is roughly double to triple when you use a "supercharger" or similar; this makes the cost on a per-mile basis higher than that of a gas car in many cases.
We do not have the electrical capacity nor is there any way to generate it using so-called "green" methods to charge these vehicles if a material percentage of the fleet converts. Without power you own a $50,000 brick and being "out" means not going anywhere. What's worse is that the existing fueling stations are used by a vehicle for about 5 minutes; conservatively it requires 30 minutes to get usable range from an EV, so contemplate where you're going to get six times the land you have for each fuel station now, plus you will need to place them twice as close together as the average EV range is half or less that of a gasoline vehicle.
The truth is that modern automobile gasoline engines are about as efficient as can be achieved. CO2, which is the only primary emission of modern closed-loop gasoline engines, is not a pollutant -- it is plant food and emitted by every animal as well. Simply put your gasoline car is far greener, all-in, than is your EV. Sorry, facts are facts folks and we don't use liquid hydrocarbons because we're pigs. We use them because nobody has come up with an actual workable and cost-effective alternative.
Mandating the impossible is a recipe for societal collapse. Secretary Pete has never put forward any facts, figures and computations to show how such a "transition" can take place. That's because he knows he's 100% full of **** and what he is cheering on and part of is impossible.
I don't care if you feel this is a good thing or not. That which you feel must yield to physics.
Always.
Now the question: Will you force the so-called "politicians" to cut this crap out -- no matter what you have to do make them stop it -- or will you simply lay down at their command and die?
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=245556
Excellent all the way around! You could write an entire article on this! It's madness. The world has gone mad or rather, humanity has gone mad. The world was just fine before we started messing with it. It's very strange how people just passively go along with all this stuff. If people simply refused enmass it would stop the madness.
people "go along" to avoid conflict. For example the dumb masks.
I do believe that everyone has a "breaking point" though. That is where the communication breaks down.
It is about "control" however some people are confused about that. If you do not agree with them they get angry.
Yes, common sense is what is needed these days!