Renewable energy

Environmentalism has a problematic image. The stereotype people perhaps think of, are slightly disheveled tree huggers, with odd tastes in clothing and shoes - although that likely has to do with the types of pro-environment products available to buy in the past. The landscape has clearly changed, as society has shown their increase in preferences for environmentally friendly products and initiatives. This is logical: with the depletion of finite resources, and having to deal with the adverse consequences of e.g. pollution, it dawns on people that society has to find sustainable and "cleaner" solutions.

Having consideration for the environment doesn't have to be a liberal or progressive issue; I have already talked about the politicization of issues which have economic implications (An explanation of how I see things). Let's face the fact that finding renewable and sustainable methods to maintain, or even improve, the standard of living we currently have, is going to require investing. It isn't a good idea to just immediately cut off our use of e.g. non-renewable energy sources, because supply chains and consumption still depend on them.

Take electric cars, for example. While the technology has had large strides, EVs still do not have the same driving range as cars which run on oil based fuel. Thus, critics lamenting the use of e.g. planes by individuals that have argued for clean energy/ production, is nonsensical because there are no feasible alternatives. Are such people supposed to stop flying altogether, in this day and age?

Instead what should perhaps be done, is to avoid making environmentalism a political gimmick, and instead ramp up investment into technological progress. Non-nuclear renewable energy sources alone cannot meet the current required capacity, much less produce additional capacity for the future. We need innovation for new sources of renewable energy, or to increase capacity using the existing infrastructure. Innovation is also needed to obtain better sustainable production methods, to efficiently use non-renewable resources, to reduce dependence on them in the future and to minimize the unintended consequences of environmentally unfriendly processes.

Taking pro-environment solutions to energy and production also does not mean being an enemy of oil. From my understanding, petroleum has a very wide range of uses outside of energy. If society wants to continue producing and consuming such products, wouldn't it be better to prolong the life of oil reserves by making renewable energy infrastructure investments?