Reality check on resource requirements of wind power

As we've pointed out in our Green Technology & Renewable Energy FAQs, so-called "clean" energy sources such as solar and wind become anything but, when harvested via industrial means. Each PV solar panel, each wind turbine, and every other proposal for generating electricity depends on mining, inherently destructive to the earth. In addition, each requires fossil fuels for mining, transportation, assembly, and installation. There's nothing "sustainable" about any of it.

energy skeptic backs up some of our concerns with quick calculations on the reality of how many tons of what materials would be required to have wind turbines generate half of US electricity usage. Notably, it would take 52 years worth of worldwide steel production to build enough turbines. It's interesting to look through the rest of the numbers too.

Bottom line: not only can't we meet our current electricity usage with "renewables" like wind energy, but it'd be horribly destructive to try. It's counterproductive, even dangerous, to hold onto fantasies of green energy saving us.

The Battle for the Hambach Forest

By Michael Regenfuss of Deep Green Resistance

There is an ongoing fight, just north of Düsseldorf, Germany, to save the Hambach Forest, Germany's last old growth forest. The forest is a 1,000 hectare old growth oak forest right next to the largest open cast coal mine in Europe. The mine is 12 kilometers long, 4 kilometers wide, and 300 meters deep. The mine produces 100,000,000 tons of coal per year, used to supply 5 power plants.

The coal is used primarily for the weapons manufacturing industry in the nearby Rhineland industrial district. The mine is set to operate until 2045. The forest was acquired in 1978 by RWE, which now operates the mine. The forest was originally 5,500 hectares and since 1972 had been owned by the municipality of Niederzier. Since 1978 the forest has largely been cleared to make way for brown coal mining.

The company has also been using a law that the Nazis used to take land from people to evict people from entire villages. Over a ten year period this relocation process has removed entire village populations and demolished the structures to mine the coal underneath. During the relocation process some elders have died due to the stress and heartbreak of losing their homes. Many people are coming down with cancers, heart disease, and emphysema from airborne toxic particles.

The remaining forest, despite its dramatic diminution, is still a functioning habitat. It consists primarily of oak and hornbeam, who shelter endangered Bechstein's bats.

An ongoing blockade has been in place since April 2012 to save this remnant forest. The blockade was evicted from the forest in November 2012, but after only one day they regrouped and occupied a meadow next to the forest. In April 2013 they reoccupied the forest. More recent actions included a treesit in a 250 year old oak at the edge of the forest, a group of Earth First! members blocking the loading of coal trucks, and a protest in nearby Bergheim against a newly built coal burning plant.

The struggle continues to save the Hambach Forest. For slides, videos, and more information on past actions and on the current blockade, visit Hambach Forest (English) or Hambacher Forst (German). If you can physically help with the blockade, please join them in person. You can also donate money through their website. Whatever you can do would be really appreciated. Time is running out for this place; the final showdown for this forest will probably happen by August 2015. Thank you for your interest and support to save this beautiful place.

We can't have it all...

Mike Stasse at Damn the Matrix has posted a short analysis of the latest incarnation of the oft-repeated claim that we can generate all the electricity we "need" from a relatively small area of desert. Proponents of such claims rarely acknowledge that those deserts are habitat ― that is, home ― for many creatures. And as Stasse points out, the mining required to produce a solar farm causes tremendous harm.

The power of spin is such that the uninformed will continue believing we can have it all, only solar powered. We just have to fill those squares in North Africa, and everything will be cool.....

Read the full post at Damn the Matrix: The power of spin, and for a thorough critique of these techno-fixes, see the Deep Green Resistance Green Technology & Renewable Energy FAQs.

Unist'ot'en Camp report-back: Falling in Love

We recently highlighted Will Falk's account as one of the Deep Green Resistance volunteers who braved the January snow and ice to help out at the Unist'ot'en Camp. Max Wilbert wrote another moving personal piece giving an overview of the Unist'ot'en Camp strategy and describing the experience of contributing to their struggle.

Snow lashed the road. The darkness was total, our headlights casting weak yellow beams into the darkness. Most people had hunkered down in homes and motels, and the roads were near empty. Still, every few minutes a passing truck threw a blinding cloud of dry snow into the air, leaving us blind for seconds at a time as we hurtled onwards at the fastest speeds we could manage.

We pressed on, for our destination was important. It was a caravan to the Unist'ot’en Camp, and we were committed.

[...]

Resistance is the antipode to the dominant culture, and the Unist’ot’en Camp illustrates two interlocking and fundamental truths. First, the system which is killing the planet and exploiting billions can and must be stopped. Second, resistance is our best chance of reclaiming the best traits our species can display: compassion, love, fierce loyalty, deep connection to the land, community and shared purpose.

Read Wilbert's essay at Deep Green Resistance Seattle: Falling in Love and let it inspire you to support the Camp or another strategic campaign near and dear to you.

Video: The False Solutions of Green Energy

Max Wilbert of Deep Green Resistance Great Basin and Cameron Foley (no chapter affiliation) presented at the 2014 PIELC (Public Interest Environmental Law Conference) on "The False Solutions of Green Energy." Together they debunk some of the myths of "green" energy. Wilbert details the earth destruction required to manufacture, install, and dispose of wind turbines and solar panels, showing their inherent unsustainability as they still rely on large-scale mining, global trade, and global exploitation. Foley discusses the problem of mainstream environmentalism fixating on the illusion of green energy as a techno-fix for the very real problems we face, dangerously diverting us from pursuing real solutions. Environmentalists are really faced with the question of whether we want to find slightly less harmful alternatives to business as usual, or if we want to stop causing harm altogether and even start healing the earth.

Wilbert concludes by describing the strengths and weaknesses of other approaches to addressing the environmental crises, from ecosocialism to permaculture to radical aboveground action such as nonviolent civil disobedience. He makes a strong case for the necessity of adding strategic underground attacks on critical infrastructure to our range of tactics, summarizing the Deep Green Resistance strategy of Decisive Ecological Warfare.

This presentation is an important antidote to the misinformation and misdirection spread by corporations, governments, and mainstream environmental groups. Watch below or read the text transcript, share with your environmentally minded friends, and visit the Deep Green Resistance Youtube Channel or Deep Green Resistance member appearances page to view and hear more DGR and general resistance video and audio:

Transcript

[Cameron:] This is Max, and we've been doing environmental activism for at least five years now. Green energy is a topic that's been really important to us, because in trying to find effective solutions, a really genuine response to the environmental crisis, green energy has come up as an obstacle. We've talked about it always on the side; we've never really come at it head-on so we thought for this year for PIELC it's something we should do.

We're probably going to talk for about 40 minutes, and then we'll do a little Q & A and then we'll call it a day. I'm going to pass it over to Max.

[Max:] Thanks everyone for coming. It's an honor to be here again. Today we’re going to introduce you to some ideas that you're probably familiar with already as environmentalists. But we might also be talking about some things that are surprising or even shocking to some of you.

Max Wilbert on Resistance Radio

Max Wilbert has been an activist for more than a decade, fighting against racism, economic injustice, and ecocide. He is currently a member of Deep Green Resistance Great Basin, and until recently served as a DGR staff member. Derrick Jensen interviewed him for the April 6th airing of Resistance Radio.

Max argues against the myth that solar panels and wind turbines are a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. He describes the harmful effects of producing units and operating them at an industrial scale, and advocates bringing down all industrial systems while learning to live within the limits of our landbases, utilizing traditional technologies to live beautiful lives.

Play the embedded audio below, or listen on the DGR Youtube channel.

Browse all of Derrick Jensen's Resistance Radio interviews.