636: Mark P. Mills, part 1: "Renewables" aren't renewable

Mark is a physicist who went into business around the environment. There aren't many of us, so I think you'll hear a rapport we enjoyed that I think you'll enjoy too. We indulge in physicist talk.

I contacted him because I found his reports on what solar and wind---what I don't see how we can call renewable, green, or clean energy sources---require in their manufacture, transportation, installation, decommissioning, and more. Many fans of such technologies gloss over their problems, which seems to me irresponsible. If we are not honest about them we will make mistakes. Partisanship is a problem when there are testable answers to how much a particular solar installation or strategy to lower emissions works.

Mark looks at possible futures but also returns to what's happening today, what works now, not just in the future. He looks at what's going on behind the scenes that can be measured. I recommend reading his work I link to below.

We talk about the book Limits to Growth, I welcome his views though, for the record, don't find it as wrong as he does. I consider its systemic approach essential and didn't view its simulations as predictions so much as learning what patterns our global environmental and economic system could show.

I use solar, but don't consider it a long-term solution. I also don't think things like nuclear and fusion work long-term either, but we didn't get to that topic. We'll continue our conversations, though, which I look forward to.

• Mark's book: The Cloud Revolution: How the Convergence of New Technologies Will Unleash the Next Economic Boom and A Roaring 2020s

Some of my favorite of Mark's posts and videos

• Mines, Minerals, and “Green” Energy: A Reality Check
• The “New Energy Economy”: An Exercise in Magical Thinking
• The Hard Math of Minerals
• 41 Inconvenient Truths on the “New Energy Economy”
• What’s Wrong with Wind and Solar?
• How Much Energy Will the World Need?

Mark's podcast

• The Last Optimist

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