Global Warming: Limits of Solar and Wind Power

As people across the US poured into Earth Day celebrations, they saw booths and heard speakers extolling the virtues of solar and wind power. What participants were highly unlikely to hear was that renewable energy cannot stop global warming without major social changes that Earth Day organizers rarely discussed.

Keep in mind the difference between the words


Nine million percent?

Most climate experts accept that, in order to avoid catastrophic effects of global warming, greenhouse gas emissions (mostly CO2) must be cut by 60-80% by 2050 (though the figure may need to be a 95% cut in the US). The belief that replacing fossil fuels with solar and wind technology can accomplish this reduction tends to overlook several factors:

1. Corporations bombard the world with the message that everyone should consume like Americans do;

2. Corporations tell those in the US that they should ape after the playthings of the rich;

3. Population is growing;

4. Market economics force pathological expansion; and,

5. Solar and wind comprise a minute fraction of current energy.

Let