Dear Team:
My main concern is that the idea (very trendy right now) that we can transition quickly and directly from fossil fuels to solar, wind and hydro, does not take into account a number of problems. Among them are:
--Solar and wind farms disturb farm and wildlands, both of which are already stretched for capacity. If not on individual or group dwellings and businesses, this is already causing conflicts such as in Humboldt County, California, where an environmentalist community opposed a recent windfarm idea because it would have been built on a valuable ecological and cultural area.
--If fossil fuels are abandoned too quickly, there is a risk that nuclear plants will be built to insure electric generation.
--If electric vehicles are transitioned too widely, the batteries alone require certain rare minerals to be mined, creating problems overseas.
A better approach is to focus on efficiency bigtime, as in construction or remodeling buildings to maximize passive solar collection and cooling. This has the additional advantage of being a lot cheaper.
I have more ideas as well, but this is a start. I think that much of what is in Bernie's Green deal is very, very good, especially the farming section.
Yours in peace,
Cathy
My main concern is that the idea (very trendy right now) that we can transition quickly and directly from fossil fuels to solar, wind and hydro, does not take into account a number of problems. Among them are:
--Solar and wind farms disturb farm and wildlands, both of which are already stretched for capacity. If not on individual or group dwellings and businesses, this is already causing conflicts such as in Humboldt County, California, where an environmentalist community opposed a recent windfarm idea because it would have been built on a valuable ecological and cultural area.
--If fossil fuels are abandoned too quickly, there is a risk that nuclear plants will be built to insure electric generation.
--If electric vehicles are transitioned too widely, the batteries alone require certain rare minerals to be mined, creating problems overseas.
A better approach is to focus on efficiency bigtime, as in construction or remodeling buildings to maximize passive solar collection and cooling. This has the additional advantage of being a lot cheaper.
I have more ideas as well, but this is a start. I think that much of what is in Bernie's Green deal is very, very good, especially the farming section.
Yours in peace,
Cathy