0x0001@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
This is an interesting article, in places with hydro or wind based electricity I think it’s fine to have the expectation of forever available electricity.
Even in those cases it does make sense to limit our use of appliances and such to locally produced solar electricity. I wish we had standards for neighborhood solar farms for cases where some houses have minimal sun exposure.
stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net 10 months ago
And what happens when there’s a drought or change in weather patterns?
I think expecting 24-7 electricity, whether it’s available or not, is part of the issue with modern consumption. We expect electricity on demand, so any energy solution has to have backups and grid connections and batteries and all that expensive ecologically damaging infrastructure the article discusses.
The point isn’t that some electricity production is reliable 24/7. The point is, if we want an ethos of reduced consumption, we need to give up the idea that we have the right to power on demand 24-7. We adjust our power consumption to nature’s rhythms and circumstances rather than spending billions extra to guarantee we can consume power whenever we want. And that would have a much bigger impact than adjusting our thermostats or wearing sweaters.
018118055@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
There are many medical applications which need power when the sun doesn’t shine. Likewise there are places where the sun doesn’t shine for months at a time. I don’t think the answer is capitulation. The answer is innovating better storage which addresses the challenges in the article.
stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net 10 months ago
Reducing consumption is “capitulation”? To whom or what?
018118055@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
Reducing consumption is orthogonal to whether we can operate essential devices when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow. The capitulation is deciding that the problem is too hard to solve and instead of solving it we should not try.
p1mrx@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
If that’s the green transition plan, then we will continue burning fossil fuels until everybody dies in the climate wars.
We need to create electricity abundance, not scarcity, to have any hope of success. Far too many people will only give up their A/C when you pry it from their cold dead hands.
chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
I’m theory, yes. But for every person that believes this, there are 10 more who will not budge. “I need to set my air conditioning to 60 degrees to sleep.”
stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net 10 months ago
Sure, and that’s why I say over and over again, reducing your personal consumption is a moral issue, and we need a moral/ethical/spiritual movement to reduce consumption. Because lots of people, reasonably, prioritize their comfort over their electric bill or the objectively tiny marginal benefit to the environment that turning off their air conditioner would provide. But if we teach people that unnecessary consumption is morally wrong, and your neighbors start shaming you for keeping your air conditioning at 60, you’re going to start setting it higher.
GuilhermePelayo@slrpnk.net 10 months ago
I wasnt agreeing at first with you but I can agree with you on the moral take of energy consumption. Nevertheless I don’t think it makes any sense to remove constant electricity from the equation. Human development and prosperity is greatly increased by that availability aswell as communication. Let’s say the goal is a post capitalism, non hierarchical decentralized society that outgrows capitalism’s growth needs and achieves post scarcity. In order to for this to be real you need constant access to electricity and communications, otherwise you are isolating people and dampening your efforts towards it. I do think you are right and there needs to be some morality in spending but it should be a moral choice not a matter of not being available