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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. People concentrate too much on the last one and not nearly enough on the other two. I presume because they require a change in lifestyl

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. People concentrate too much on the last one and not nearly enough on the other two. I presume because they require a change in lifestyle people are not willing to do.

option 5y ago
Reducing energy consumption is not the answer. Producing more of it cleaner and cheaper (nuclear + solar + wind + storage) is.
- sidpatil 5y ago
  > Reducing energy consumption is not the answer. Why not?
  - mcguire 5y ago
    Presumably because it would affect the price of bitcoin?
  - option 5y ago
    Because it correlates positively with the quality of life and civilization capabilities.
    - adrianN 5y ago
      No it doesn't. If I heat my home with underfloor heating and a heat pump that provides significantly more quality of life than a coal oven while also using a fraction of the energy. GDP and energy consumption have been decoupled in industrialized nations for decades now.
  - sofixa 5y ago
    Because it isn't feasible. Many people currently using electricity wouldn't want to limit their use because it would decrease their quality of life, and many people live worse than that and would probably like to be able to use more electricity. Consumer electricity consumption will only go up globally. Industrially optimisations can probably be made, but many countries are yet to industrialise and we can't really refuse them the right to.
- uoaei 5y ago
  Reducing energy consumption is a way better way to start, than to incentivize everyone to frontload their carbon consumption by demanding batteries produced only by relatively dirty manufacturing means. Sustainable, effective storage solutions won't be realized with lithium or any other relatively inaccessible, relatively rare material. The combination of sodium-ion or graphene-based stationary storage plus graphene-based supercapacitors (maybe with some nuclear sprinkled in to smooth out the peaks and valleys) is going to be the sustainable way forward. Sodium is 7th most abundant on Earth, 11th most abundant in the universe. Carbon is 15th most abundant on Earth, 4th most abundant in the universe. Lithium is 25th most abundant on Earth, 44th most abundant in the universe.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. People concentrate too much on the last one and not nearly enough on the other two. I presume because they require a change in lifestyle people are not willing to do.

option 5y ago

Reducing energy consumption is not the answer. Producing more of it cleaner and cheaper (nuclear + solar + wind + storage) is.

sidpatil 5y ago
> Reducing energy consumption is not the answer. Why not?
- mcguire 5y ago
  Presumably because it would affect the price of bitcoin?
- option 5y ago
  Because it correlates positively with the quality of life and civilization capabilities.
  - adrianN 5y ago
    No it doesn't. If I heat my home with underfloor heating and a heat pump that provides significantly more quality of life than a coal oven while also using a fraction of the energy. GDP and energy consumption have been decoupled in industrialized nations for decades now.
- sofixa 5y ago
  Because it isn't feasible. Many people currently using electricity wouldn't want to limit their use because it would decrease their quality of life, and many people live worse than that and would probably like to be able to use more electricity. Consumer electricity consumption will only go up globally. Industrially optimisations can probably be made, but many countries are yet to industrialise and we can't really refuse them the right to.
uoaei 5y ago
Reducing energy consumption is a way better way to start, than to incentivize everyone to frontload their carbon consumption by demanding batteries produced only by relatively dirty manufacturing means. Sustainable, effective storage solutions won't be realized with lithium or any other relatively inaccessible, relatively rare material. The combination of sodium-ion or graphene-based stationary storage plus graphene-based supercapacitors (maybe with some nuclear sprinkled in to smooth out the peaks and valleys) is going to be the sustainable way forward. Sodium is 7th most abundant on Earth, 11th most abundant in the universe. Carbon is 15th most abundant on Earth, 4th most abundant in the universe. Lithium is 25th most abundant on Earth, 44th most abundant in the universe.