Jackson Sneeringer
Ah, the 21st century. We’ve got it all — air conditioning, international vacations, flushing toilets and … more pollution? But didn’t we get rid of that with electric cars and AI?
Interestingly enough, electric cars, a true testament of modernity, can be worse for the environment than gas-powered cars due to the immense amount of raw material required to make just one EV battery, namely 25,000 pounds of lithium brine, 30,000 pounds of cobalt ore and 25,000 pounds of copper ore.
All of this extraction puts a heavy toll on the environment and results in gas cars having a less negative effect on the environment than electric cars for the first 68,000 miles. Best of all, at that point, the people who can afford the markup of an electric car in the first place are already onto the newest model.
Another grace of modernity is smart appliances, though these past few years have produced not just smart ones, but ridiculously intelligent ones. I’m, of course, referring to refrigerators with Wi-Fi, cameras and external screens, dishwashers with Bluetooth, an app-controlled toaster and the like. Yes, you can monitor the crispness of your toast from the other room now.
Why does everything have to be smart now? Not only do these super-powered appliances account for about 10% of the U.S. energy pollution, they pose a significant threat to domestic security.
Just bear with me, in the very near future someone could hack into your fridge and take control of your entire house; from that energy-inefficient appliance, a hacker could find your Wi-Fi, location and access your dozens of internal and external cameras. If it’s ridiculously simple to control your own automated house, it would be equally simple for someone else to take it over.
What will you do when you can’t open the fridge because someone in a different state locked it from their phone? I know what I’d do — invest in more dumb appliances that don’t require an industrial router to function.
I don’t think it’s occurred to enough people that smart appliances and automation aren’t good for us on an industrial or individual level. Even if we ignore the inevitable skyrocketing unemployment due to a rise in AI labor (that will mostly target low-income households), automizing our daily lives to “increase efficiency” removes what makes us human.
We are not machines, and we need to prevent ourselves from being treated as such by an output-centered society and by ourselves. However, when the world inevitably ends up looking like Earth from “WALL-E,” (which, by the way, we’re not just moving toward, we’re all-out sprinting), maybe we’ll realize the issue all along was not focusing on future-oriented output, but rather a present one.
What I mean is, instead of centering the economy on what is best for consumers at the moment, we should invest resources, labor and time into technology that will support a greener future. Even something as simple as constructing residences to maximize passive solar heating would have a longer term benefit than crossing our fingers and hoping someone figures something out.
Rather than centering manufacturing power and labor on another iPhone model, we should expand the production of wind turbines to promote sustainable energy. Rather than subsidizing electric vehicles, we should subsidize urban farms and small-scale agriculture that don’t cause massive soil dry outs.
The short-term losses of focusing on the future will benefit us in 20 years by ensuring the next generation has enough planet to live on. The future of green technology won’t start itself.
Jackson Sneeringer is a senior at Carlmont High School in Belmont. Student News appears in the weekend edition. You can email Student News at news@smdailyjournal.com.
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(4) comments
Thanks for your Student news essay. I didn’t realize smart refrigerators came with locks. Regardless, the production of wind turbines is just as bad for the environment, in addition to killing birds, and in taking up valuable land. We also need to account for the hazardous waste disposal of batteries in addition to solar panels. And then, for battery farms, we need to worry when they go up in smoke, similar to the one in Moss Landing which, I believe could not be put out and was allowed to burn. Now evacuated residents due to toxic fumes are worried about toxic cleanup of the site. Getting started and continuing green technology should be performed, but not at the expense of mandated electric-only nonsense. We know “green” technology will never get us there.
TBod, you think oil platforms and fracking drills are such a hoot for the environment? All energy is dirty. And remember President Musk and his EVs is now one of your friends after he bled California Democrats out of all subsidies he become a born-again, no-taxes, free-dumb-speech Republican. Good luck with him.
Enough joking in the end people just don't care where the energy is coming from. So we are looking at what other good can energy solutions do.
Wind Turbines:
After the last Republican administration and its tariffs tanked agriculture in states like Minnesota, Kansas, both Dakotas, Nebraska, etc. these small farmers were absolutely happy to install windmills on their land to have a stable, second income since the former and current president attacked their livelihood. Wind turbines work also at night, something solar can't do. San Mateo could do the same with farmers along its long coast line. But San Mateo County isn't "green", so they won't.
Solar Panels:
Solar farms in the desert are horrible - money goes only to PG&E and big Japanese and Chinese companies. But solar panels on local rooftops or parking lots or even over farmland can help reduce local heat and promote small businesses and local electricians. Money stays with the residents and local businesses.
Thermal Energy
If they have to drill for oil, fracking, or lithium make it count and install thermal energy power plants instead. That gives you the solid base power that comes from nuclear. Not sure if it is much cheaper than nuclear though.
Electric Vehicles:
Small EVs are the solution, but now EVs have become a joke. It must have become clear to anyone when Tesla introduced its Cybertruck. There is nothing green about this thing. Because of the batteries and production GHG, it takes 30,000 miles to make a Rivian Pickup Truck to become "greener" than a Ford F150. And it will never become "greener" than a small car.
Because at night California is using 80-90% natural gas and coal to recharge these huge battery packs.
EBikes
Because at night California is using 80-90% natural gas and coal to recharge these huge battery packs. So the only "green" EV on the market is a pedelec or paraelectric bicycle or e-scooter, that is pretty much it. If San Mateo Democrats were "green" as in environmental we would see bike lanes everywhere. No, those guys are led by "green policies" as in 'money and corruption'. That is why we see highway widenings, speed increases, more car violence, and "Bicycle Boulevards" to reroute bike funding to car centric projects.
Offshore Windfarms and Battery Storage
They want to install a huge offshore windfarm at Morro Bay and the Texas company with the Moss Landing battery storage wants to do the same right next to Morro Rock. The residents will look at the Moss Landing fire and fight against these projects even harder.
Good for them.
Real Solutions:
Again only the guys sponsored by the fossil fuel industry keep lobbying for fossil fuels and GHG emissions. Even the power producers don't want them anymore. People don't care where their energy is coming from. And the best energy mix these days is of course a mix. For long haul trucking a diesel truck will always beat a Tesla Semi - it's just too inefficient.
Let farmers install a few wind turbines here and there in San Mateo. We have solid, predictable wind conditions along the cost and along the Bay. Protect local solar against PG&E, who wants that business for themselves. Instead of huge central battery storage, how about using these huge oversized EVs that stand around 95% of the time and store and draw energy from those. Why isn't Peninsula Clean Energy pushing harder for E2V and E2G? They always claim to be Silicon Valley, but they never push for the best and brightest solutions. NMC batteries should be prohibited by now, aim for LFP instead.
Easygerd - I invite you to take a trip to The Netherlands where the landscape has been disfigured with thousands of windmill turbines, not the original types that The Netherlands i known for. Instead of using wind parks as we do here, farmers are getting income from leasing their randomly spaced wind turbines but at a significant annoyance to adjacent neighbors because of low level vibrations and droning sounds. Untold millions of birds are killed annually. Yes, let's further destroy the coast and install turbines, the only green that you would see is in the pockets of the wind turbine developers. Massive wind parks in the North Sea are destroying fisheries as well. Here in the US, evidence of sea mammal deaths are causing concerns again because of the turbine noise that apparently affects these animals' orientation. You are making various outlandish claims that should not be taken seriously, certainly not by a high school student. While I am not a great fan of PG&E, that corporation makes no profit on the sale of energy, brown or green, except on the output of Diablo Canyon, a truly no carbon generator.
I do agree about the off-shore windfarms, we have done enough damage to the ocean already. For example we took space from the Ocean and created The Netherlands. As you know very well, The Netherlands wouldn't even exist without windmills, they love their windmills.
Now for the rest of your arguments:
- The Looks of windturbines: People in Morro Bay love their ugly 3 chimneys - they these ugly things "historic". People get used to those looks if they get energy.
- Windturbines and their looks - you forget to mention the huge, ugly "Towers of Powers" and overland cables to transport that faraway energy.
- Droning sounds - I recommend standing under a high-voltage power line, that is louder, especially in rain and cold weather.
- Droning sounds - look up "Humming Noise" and "Natural Gas" pipelines - you will be surprised.
- I'm glad you found your inner bird friend. Did you know more song birds are killed by windows and by cars than by windturbines?
- Herons, Egrets and other large birds are killed by powerlines. And billions each year are killed by climate change.
- I take it you are going to join anti-windows, anti-streets, anti-powerlines and anti-GHG lobby now?
- Btw. the Norwegians said that painting one of wings of a windturbine different might prevent many bird killings.
- PG&E: I keep telling you people don't care where their energy is coming from as long as it is reliable. Small microgrids build around locally produced power would be more stable and cause fewer wildfires than large high-voltage, noisy, bird-killing power lines.
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