There is a lot of arguing #OnHere and elsewhere about whether renewable energy is clean energy.

To understand every aspect of clean energy's footprint on our environment is not as important as realizing that all of our sources of energy have a tremendous footprint, at least initially.

So, what is "clean" about energy? The only truly clean aspect of energy right now is reducing our consumption of it. Period.

We have not been able to quench our thirst for energy through either fossil fuels or renewables. It is ever-growing. It is important to keep this image in mind when looking at plots that show relative percentages of energy use - those plots can lull you into thinking our energy consumption totals are statute. They are NOT!

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption

#energy
#ClimateChange
#ClimateCrisis
#EnergyConsumption
#environment
#pollution
#CleanEnergy

ALT

@504DR That's a big if...

@Brad_Rosenheim

Yes, a depressing if.

Bc so far, no one in a position to act meaningfully (world leaders) have Even considered slashing energy use.

@504DR @Brad_Rosenheim

I suspect that the " convenience" of thoughtless energy use is a big challenge to overcome.

Marketing, habits, code constraints and first cost vs total cost drive energy inefficiency.

And the energy inefficiency is embodied in everything we buy, and the way we buy.

Finally, the messaging for efficiency is almost unheard, compared to the marketing messaging urging "Renewable Energy" - 3 row e-SUV as the recent Toyota EV factory announcement highlighted.

@PaulWermer @504DR @Brad_Rosenheim

Here again is my current side-quest / hobby-horse...

Apple and Amazon at least are wasting 99%+ of the bandwidth and CPU used to poll creators' RSS podcast feeds! A day of engineering time could fix most of that. The tools already exist, and others are using several of them...

https://www.earth.org.uk/RSS-efficiency.html