Hmmm.

#RebeccaSolnit shared this image & said "A common response to mention of #renewables is a denunciation of mining for battery materials by people who don't seem to notice that fossil fuel is also mined/extracted -- on a scale that dwarfs everything else."

I seriously wish I knew the actual ratio, which this image does not offer.
😠
There's something to it in that some of the MANY nationwide numbers of heavy equipment already extant, could be making small dams, ponds, wetlands, infiltration systems, #keyline plowing, erosion management, #watershed #restoration, & so on, & would be far better use of a small bit of the remaining oil (most of which, of course, should be left in the ground).
The tools that are destroying #ecosystems can be used for restoration & #rewilding. A bigger outcome (a life-support system🙄 ) with far, far less less oil burned.
#earthworks
#energy #FossilFuels #permaculture #relocalization #renewables
#EarthRepair #TerraformEarth1st

@KeithDJohnson This argument is a complete red herring; only becoming popular in the last couple years. BEV supporters are addressing a serious indictment on the sustainability and environmental credentials of BEVs w/ spin. Instead of addressing those issues head on, it gets spun into “what aboutism”. It is a red herring because mining metals is both completely different than oil extraction and the former is dependent on the latter. There is no either/or, batteries require oil.
@KeithDJohnson You got it right: the ratio is about 1000 to one, because you can fully cycle a Li -ion battery about 1000 times before it starts wearing out.

@KeithDJohnson

I’m not really sure what is the source of this graphic but it seems to be going against any IEA projections and it suggests renewables have extremely high energy density, when the opposite is true. In terms of power density, it literally looks like someone took a similar graphic for nuclear power and just swapped in “renewables”.

Surface power densities: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0301421518305512