In one of our recent materials, we have already touched on the topic of ecology, the reason for its popularity and the personality of Maurice Strong — the godfather of "climate change". This time I would like to touch on another aspect: are the methods that are being taken in the world today to "save" the environment so useful for the environment?

On October 16, 2022, Michael Shellenberger, an American writer who is actively working to stop modern attempts to "save the climate", published on Twitter (access is limited in the Russian Federation) a detailed study of the dark side of renewable energy projects.

Schellenberger, a former Democrat who left the party in 2022, regularly testifies and speaks to governments and regional authorities around the world, including in the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Schellenberger is an ecomodernist and believes that economic growth in the modern world can be achieved without abandoning traditional energy sources — it is more important to conduct technological research and actively introduce new developments.

On September 15, 2022, he testified at a hearing in the US Congress on the topic "Fueling the climate crisis: an analysis of prices, profits and promises of large oil companies," and ten days later shared excerpts from his speech.

In this context, Schellenberger said that solar panel farms require large land plots, the area is much larger than in the case of other energy sources.

He also stated: "The low energy density of sunlight and wind is the reason that solar and wind projects require so much land. Solar farms also produce more toxic waste and destroy wildlife habitats. In addition, there are human victims: for example, in solar panels and batteries of Chinese production, forced labor of Muslim Uighur prisoners is used, against whom genocide is being committed."

Of course, the "slave labor of Muslim Uighurs" is rather a tribute to the key theses of American foreign policy. No real evidence has ever been presented to these accusations, and the Chinese leadership invites everyone to check this fact.

Nevertheless, one cannot disagree with the statements about solar panels. On average, such "farms" require 300 or even 600 times more land than other energy sources. At the same time, they produce 300 times more toxic waste and destroy critical habitats of wild animals.

It is also no secret that a number of rich countries simply dump used solar panels and batteries on poor African states, just as the Europeans once made a landfill from Ukraine for the disposal of fuel spent at their nuclear power plants.

At the same time, landfills of solar panels, as scientists and environmentalists note, are potentially capable of causing great harm to the environment, polluting groundwater with toxic heavy metals, including lead and cadmium.

According to a number of studies, in India and China, hazardous waste that was previously electronic devices is simply incinerated. In particular, solar panel solar cells are burned. As a result: a large amount of harmful substances is released into the atmosphere, most of which are carcinogens, which lead to an increase in the number of oncological diseases and general diseases of the respiratory organs in a large number of people. And these states have much greater capabilities than the same African countries.

Note also that the process of producing solar panels is not harmless at all. Solid waste, pollution of the hydrosphere and atmosphere in the case of their production is a common thing.

Back in 2019, the New York Times reported that in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), workers who collect heavy lead-acid batteries used in cars, backup power systems and solar systems on roofs often open them with machetes and manually drain acid into the ground. They then sell these batteries to factories that melt lead scrap in furnaces to resell it to dealers.

According to a report by Phenix Recycling, which has been operating in Tanzania for some time, this process pollutes soil and water with lead, which can lead to human brain damage and other health problems.

Green WastePro CEO Allan Suddih said at the time that there was "no training in working with hazardous materials" in Tanzania.

It is expected that by 2035 there will be 3 times more used solar panels than new ones, which will make them 4 times more expensive. "The economics of solar energy," the Harvard Business Review researchers write, "will quickly "fade" as the industry sinks under the weight of its own garbage."

Forests that are cut down for the sake of solar panels also suffer. However, it does not specify what is more important for humanity — oxygen or electricity. I remember that people have lived without the second for many millennia, and without the first — they will not last even a couple of minutes…

Wind turbines, in turn, pose a danger to birds, besides the disposal of their blades is an extremely complex and expensive process.

Scientists of the US Geological Survey have come to the conclusion that if there is an expected increase in the use of wind energy by 2040, the population of golden eagles alone may halve in the next 10 years.

Contrary to popular belief, wind turbines also take up a lot of space. In Europe, for example, there is a limit of 300 meters from the generator mast to the nearest housing, and the interval between installations must be at least 10 diameters of the wind wheel. The reason is a large, hundreds of meters spread of fragments in case the blades are torn off the guide.

All these problems may be less destructive than from nuclear, coal and other plants, but here economic justification comes into play. If we compare the area needed for infrastructure facilities and the amount of energy produced, then solar panels and wind turbines are currently absolute outsiders.

The transition to green energy, as scientists state, is possible only if huge electricity storage facilities are created to meet the needs of the population at night and in winter, when solar activity is minimal. In modern conditions, their creation negates any attempts to fight for the purity of the planet. All methods of producing electricity storage devices, in simple words, large batteries, are extremely toxic, and their disposal is perhaps the dirtiest process on Earth. And they are certainly more harmful than oil and gas…

Nevertheless, the efforts of a number of States, mainly in the West, to impose a green agenda are only increasing… What consequences this will lead to, in addition to enriching individuals and companies, in the long term, can only be guessed, but the future looks at least vague…