I think you might enjoy this angry and sometimes funny rant from Geoffrey Deihl (aka Sane Thinker, @gdeihl).
Here is how it concludes...
As we race forward in panic with 'renewable' energy whose creation depends on copious amounts of fossil fuels and trillions of gallons of water use in an increasingly drought-stricken world, why aren’t we addressing the fundamentals?
Why do we need thousands of server farms AND to drive to the office?
Why isn’t planned obsolescence outlawed? Why aren’t manufacturers required to take back and refurbish their worn-out products?
Why don’t we go back to a six-day business week? That was standard when I was a kid. Everything closed. Almost everyone took the day off. We went to church, had picnics, and hung out together. It was good for us and good for the planet. High technology not needed.
Apparently, we can’t see the forest for those monoculture trees.
We met our basic needs long ago. Food, water, heat, shelter. We may not remember that now, but we will soon. We’re heading for a world with less energy available, not more, and renewables mean further destruction to the environment and species loss akin to what oil has done, just differently.
We must acknowledge the planet is finite and change our values and expectations. We can either do that with a realistic plan, or the planet has a plan for us.
The reason blue laws were done away with is b/c imposing a christian day of no business on people violates the rights of others who observe a different day.
Instead mandate that every business is subject to blue laws twice every seven days, and let the business choose which days - and they will be legally bound by that choice and can only change it once every two or three years.
Meanwhile, days like elections that should have blue laws, don't. All state and federal holidays, and all election days, should be subject to blue laws in addition to the legally mandated two days a week (not in place of). American corporations need to be brought to heel.
I'd also like to see retail/service work weeks required to be blocks of set schedules, either 20 hours in set 4 hour daily blocks: eg 9-1, 2-6, 7-10, or 40 hours (ie 2 set blocks). It should be illegal to require overtime, have zero hour schedules, or irregular shifts. Not exploiting workers is more sustainable.
@breadandcircuses@gdeihl There was a quote from Sam Altman of Open AI on This Machine Kills podcast, he was saying that server farm power would have to increase exponentially to cope with their strategy for AI to be used basically everything. Asked about how this would affect Open AI's sustainability goals he said we will need nuclear fusion and it will be fine. 😆😭
@Alexlee@breadandcircuses@gdeihl it's troubling how "sustainability" has come to mean "improbable or impossible discovery of limitless sources of energy or resources in order to meet humanity's escalating, physically impossible, increasingly frivolous demands." supply should be the variable on which demand depends. the other way around is just magical thinking.
@pilgrim76@Alexlee@breadandcircuses@gdeihl Demand is created by the marketing world, one of the primary spokes in the wheel of rampant capitalism, insisting on growth to make more profits for the rich.
Demand should be what you really need to live, raise a family and function in society reasonably, and not to excess.
The problem is that every time someone tries to make that argument, conservatives slap a Karl Marx label on it.
When some future aliens land on our dry and dead planet and they go rummaging around and come across this essay, one of them will look to the others and say;
I for one am glad he mentioned the manufacturing of materials needed for renewable energy products... and definitely the planned obsolescence.
Manufacturers also need to refurbish their manufacturing methods to actually use some of this renewable energy in their process. We won't get far otherwise.
@breadandcircuses@gdeihl I suppose there is something to be said for R&D and innovation. Seems though the world’s pace of innovation and implementation may not keep up with the changes we are experiencing in our environment.