What are your opinions on solar power

[MegaBowser64]

Solar power is a pretty controversial topic so debate away.

 

[Xiahou Ba]

I mean whatever disadvantages it has is still a ton better than relying on fossil fuels.

None of the alternative energies beat nuclear energy though, an energy we should have embraced a long time ago.

 

[MegaBowser64]

Solar power is ok in my books but hydro power in my opinion is way underappreciated. The fact that they are taking down dams and not putting more up is a disaster.

 

[fantanoice]

It's only controversial if you're an oil tycoon

 

[MegaBowser64]

It's only controversial if you're an oil tycoon

This may seem surprising to you, but solar power is not a unanimous thing, and not even by a small margin. I'm not frustrated by people who are all for solar power, but what bugs me is people who completely ignore the cons of adopting it. Assuming that you live in an urban or suburban area, and you do not know anybody that lives in a truly rural area, probably all you've ever heard about is the satanic operations of fossil fuels and the heavenly redemption of solar power. That's not to say fossil fuels are bad, but there are cons to solar power as a whole. Is adopting it in one household a good idea? Probably. However, we need to think about the demographic behind this. There are the people with panels on their home, who are obviously very well-to-do. What about everyone else? They get their energy off solar fields. Now, I'm not an expert at this, but an electrician once told me that about one million dollars is put into each solar field to get it running. I live in a rural area with probably 20 solar fields. That's 20 million dollars. The government is paying for at least half of that. That's 10 million dollars out of the government's nonexistent wallet for my small area alone. There are only about 30,000 residents in my county and like 5% of them use solar. Huh. How about that. There are people working as hard as possible putting these up, and they don't even care about using it. Most people in the low-mid class do not care about solar power in the least, and the fact that they are both working for the wealthier people in putting up fields, and just paying for the fields in taxes, seems a little unfair. The poor people work harder so the wealthy people can live better. That's how it's always been. The people without a voice do all the dirty work to make the whole thing seem like a perfect system. Heck, I don't have any voice and I know it. I don't care. The people with a voice want solar power, and the people without one don't. It appears to be a perfectly unanimous and innocent operation. I'm not saying we should stop putting up fields, but it's just something to think about, from a different perspective.

 

[Xiahou Ba]

Every single alternative energy source has many cons to it and those reasons are one of the reasons we're stuck with the terrible fossil fuels. Wind power destroys landscapes and disrupts birds. Hydroelectric dams and tidal energy can pollute the ocean and disrupt marine life. Nuclear energy can be dangerous and needs excellent regulation, you can't have sloppily built shit and management like what happened with Chernobyl (which will never happen again, modern reactors are fantastic and practically bullet proof). All alternative energies need to work in tandem with each other in order to deprive the best efficiency out of them.

Fossil fuels are still the worst fuel we are relying on despite all alternative energy cons, this is no contest. You think all the cons of nuclear energy? Fossil fuel-related deaths happen on several orders of magnitude more than anything nuclear-related and fossil fuels generate much more dangerous waste (that also needs to be buried) that stays bad practically forever. Global warming is a serious threat to humanity and fossil fuels are the sole contributing factor to it, we have to eliminate reliance on them completely.

 

[Xiahou Dun]

The poor people work harder so the wealthy people can live better. That's how it's always been. The people without a voice do all the dirty work to make the whole thing seem like a perfect system. Heck, I don't have any voice and I know it. I don't care. The people with a voice want solar power, and the people without one don't.

Golly I think whatever conglomerate media outlet framing this nonsense in these terms to you has it completely backward

 

[MegaBowser64]

Golly I think whatever conglomerate media outlet framing this nonsense in these terms to you has it completely backward

First of all, I don't use any media outlets in terms of politics, so your witty remark doesn't work. Opinions are only good if they can stand up outside of an echo chamber. My political beliefs come from actual fact (Wikipedia in a lot of cases) and my actual real world experiences. I'm not just an idiot that gets told what to believe, so if you're calling what I said nonsense, it's my nonsense. If you would like to elaborate your point of view in a logical sense, I would be very much interested, but as for now I'm going to leave my argument at what it is.

 

[Xiahou Ba]

The fact that they are taking down dams and not putting more up is a disaster.

Environmental impact is the primary reason we're not building giant dams everywhere and even taking down some. I know in the Central Valley, those dams (specifically that of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project) are disruptive to wildlife, specifically the delta smelt which is a crucial indicator of the health of the ecosystem there and an extinction of its species can signal a domino effect of further species struggling.