Our dependency on fossil fuels is slowly being reduced, in hopes that we can "save" our planet. This action isn't as altruistic as it sounds. We are "saving" the planet for OUR survival. We have seen that, in the past, this globe has the ability to remain viable return of life even after a cataclysmic event, such as the meteoric strikes in Mexico and Siberia. The dinosaurs suffered greatly, but life continued.
The "Fuel Of The Day" we see becoming popular today is electricity, and much of its production these days is being sourced by "alternative" measures, mostly with solar panels and solar panel "farms".
One of the, if not THE largest, worries we now face is the need to store all this power being produced. In the past, electricity production output could be better controlled to times of need by manipulating the processes; fossil-fuel generation, hydroelectric flow increases, atomic-fuel plant accelerations. But, with solar (and in some instances, wind) power, production is not possible to meet all the demands presented, especially when nature does not cooperate; solar at night, wind during "calms".
And then, we face the "replacement" costs for all the devices we will need to utilize with the reduction in our fossil-fuel dependency. If our major personnel-use transportation vehicle remains as the family car, we see that we will no longer be able to head to a corner "electric station" to "fill up" our vehicle's batteries. Technology does not currently exist that allows for super-charging a battery system within minutes. This process has been brought down to a reasonable hours level, with most needing 2-3 hours at minimum. However, the draw of the power needed to accomplish this task can not be provided with the infrastructure currently in place for many, if not all, homes and individual night-time charging locations.
An additional concern that most people have not realized is the additional strain Rare Earth Metals (REM) mining and refining is going to place on our environment. While we have a long history of steel production, with its iron and coal and other large-production ores, with its sussequent known and obvious pollution results throughout the century, we also have little history with the production of these REM's currently in need. Some of the latest literature shows that much of the earth's REMs are located in mainland China, with just a minor amount here in the USA.
What is not known well is now much energy is needed and how much pollution is being created for each OUNCE of REM needed in our current electronic devices. They ALL need some and some need them ALL in order to function at the level to which we have been accustomed.
By how much are we going to be able to slow the very pollution, and its climate change, we now see if what we are replacing was LESS than what we are heading towards? What is one ounce of a REM takes 100x more energy to produce than a ton of steel? What if the production of one ounce of a REM pollutes the earth more than a single coal-fired generation plant for an entire year?
We don't know, and we WON'T know, as long as China is the supplier and our demand for devices continues at the current pace.
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