Comments by "Scott Tovey" (@scotttovey) on "PBS Terra" channel.

  1. Solar and wind are not carbon neutral. It takes a lot of carbon to mine the elements in order to produce the equipment necessary to produce electricity from the sun and wind. In addition to it taking tons of carbon to produce that equipment, the equipment is not recyclable. You can't for instance, take the copper out of an old wind generator to produce a new wind generator. This may change for the wind generator in the future, but it won't change for solar panels. They are not designed with recycling in mind. The other problem is that the production of that equipment does not add to the economic viability of the US. When we first went to the moon, the majority of products were developed and produced in the US. Since the 60's, a great deal of manufacturing was moved off shore to China and other countries. This means that the US citizen is being asked to pay for an enemy nation's economic security while at the same time, forfeiting their own economic security. In the end, it will fail. By 2050 is too short of a time to build out the grid and transition, and America, does not fully benefit economically from doing so. One more thing. The only way to make the grid safer, is to burry it.
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