@SOphie Love

I note from a response to another post you are off the grid, so that question is answered.

A couple of people, Geoff, Hasbeen and the author have provided their own personal experience about how "renewables" work.

Only Hasbeen is honest because he notes the obvious: for certain people who are motivated and have the capacity to adjust their lifestyles renewable can provide power for that idiosyncratic lifestyle choice.

Hasbeen says this:

"As for a means of supplying power to the great unwashed, forget it. They can't afford it, & can't be bothered with it."

That's a bit condescending, "great unwashed". In actual fact this great society and other Western nations have large infrastructure requirements which requires large amounts of reliable and cheap power.

Wind and solar CANNOT supply power for that infrastructure; it can't be scaled up, as Geoff suggests, because at whatever scale the intermittancy remains, as does the great cost.

Anecdotal evidence of motivated and non-conformist individuals cannot be extrapolated from to the vast majority; not because the vast majority are not interested in the subject but because the great majority choose to remain within and support the social structure and not 'opt out' with patronising fanfare and the implication that if I can do it then everyone can too.

Frankly this is expedient non-conformity; people disdain or nominally reject the rest of society but still depend on it at emergency times; such as when they get sick and require hospital or other medical infrastructure; or when they require a police force or defence force etc.

So Ms Love, I'n afraid you are you are a hypocrite and you are wrong about wind and solar; make your choice by all means but don't inflict it on the rest of us under the guise of the lie of AGW

Well done, Sophie (and Geoff).

It seems the likes of cohenite and Atman feel that it's desirable to aim a modicum of contempt in the direction of anyone who chooses not to be led by the nose by the industrial status quo.

They'd much rather hear that you bought your meat and vegies at Coles, along with your bottled water - and how rude of you to actually turn a profit from your ingenuity and hard work!

Cheers : )

Taswegian
Look, please don't link green propaganda. Just think what you would have said had we linked the anti-climate change equivalent. I wasted time looking at that post.

Geoff of Perth - no, renewables don't work, and that point has been made several times to you and you have not been able to answer. They are quite useless, unless of course, if Sophie Love's posts are to be believed, you can live on a plot of land and don't mind what you spend on equipment to harness wind and solar and are able to set it up with backup battery power so that you don't get interruptions. the rest of us, however, have to live in the real world.

Hear hear, Poirot. Sophie and Geoff need to be commended for exploring alternative energy sources.

.

But it is strongly evident from the comments on this thread that the most important point of all is just being missed entirely.

This, as I mentioned in my first post, is the scale of human energy consumption and the imperative of reaching a balance between consumption and ongoing supply capability.

I really do find it staggering that this seems to sit outside of most peoples’ headspace and wouldn’t even enter discussions like this if I didn’t mention it.

All the discussion about fossil fuels versus solar, wind, nuclear, etc sits on one side of the discussion. Or at least; on one side of the discussion that we should be having here.

The other side which is as important as all these things put together, is how we deal with population growth and with increasing per-capita energy usage, especially in India and China.

In Australia, it makes ZERO sense for our government to be trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the carbon tax while at the same time bringing a very rapid rate of energy consumers and CO2 emitters into this country!

This couldn’t be more contradictory. And yet scant few people seem concerned.

Population growth / immigration in Australia has got everything to do with our energy strategy. Likewise around the world.

Ludwig,

Many of India's farmers are again resuming more earth-friendly methods of farming after experiencing the degradation of the Green Revolution. They are well placed to explore the myriad methods available to rehabilitate their land.

What amazes me is the mindset of those who hurl abuse at anyone who realises that unsustainable agriculture is just that - "unsustainable"....and the blind following of the industrial/petrochemical control of developed societies. I was gobsmacked when I read of the varieties of pears and apples once available to people in Europe. Those varieties filled thirteen volumes - and (anyone correct me if I'm wrong) there are only five "sanctioned" brands of apples now in France. F1 Hybrid seeds are controlled by the multi-nationals in concert with governments. A scientist was "fined for saving a variety of potato!

Talk about sheep!