The climate of the memes of the climate!
Planet is on fire!
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They do own the solar farms though.
Like we should 10000% be using solar energy and doing the technical work to put solar farms onto the grid, but solar energy (or wind, or any other renewable energy) does not magically avoid the problem that the capitalists still control the means of power production.
Really, there are no purely technical solutions to social problems.
More than half of private houses here have solar panels on their rooftop. People also put them in their gardens or on the balconies of their flats. Right now, I'm generating enough solar power to run my entire home. Solar is absolutely the most democratic form of power generation. Can't be the only one obviously, but still.
Right, but we still have these giant solar energy plants, as well as the rest of the generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure, under the control of the capitalist class. While it's absolutely fantastic that solar-photovoltaic power generation is technically available for the masses, it is still a democratic exception to the capitalist reality.
Like I'm not saying that solar power is not democratic, and I agree with you that it is, but that individual acts of democracy are not sufficient (but are still necessary) to change the reality of capitalist power production.
And the battery farms to store the energy for the winter/night time.
Really, there are no purely technical solutions to social problems.
Holy fuck, that needs to be repeated ad infinitum.
And, yeah, I agree. My first thought upon seeing this meme was "Who's gonna make the solar panels?"
Just saw this version a week ago.
Solar and nuclear power could have solved the energy problem if we invested in it more.
Solar, definitely.
Nuclear is just the coal problem with extra megawatts
There is not difference whatsoever. Solar plants are owned by corporations, and regulated but the government. You need a ton of permits to install your own and still you have to pay taxes, grid fees, or administrative charges
The sun is owned
Over here, rooftop solar is allowed entirely without permit, as is in-house battery storage.
Of course, that won't keep my heat on in January, or do much for industry use, but it's a pretty chunck of my power use covered without anyone getting a say
Most civilized places not only allow but promote small domestic panels and battery systems.
Yet.
I just got solar and I can tell you that my power company definitely owns solar. I live in Florida (yeah, I know). And the power company gets to decide how much solar I get to put on my roof, whether I have to get extra insurance to cover the solar (liability insurance in fact, does that make sense?), charge fees to connect to the grid, decide WHEN I can connect because they have to connect a two-way meter AND in my area I am not allowed to go off grid, which means even if I produce enough energy to meet all of my needs, I still have to pay a monthly connection fee, which by the bye, just went up because Florida decided that the power company just didn't have enough control and voted that they could raise rates to cover data centers and you guessed it, the purchase of storage for all of the solar residents are producing.
It's just a matter of time before they decide that the mandatory connection fee is roughly equal to a monthly bill establishing a base cost for all customers that is so high, solar will not matter. They've figured this one out.
I own the sun. Nobody had claimed it so I snatched it up. You guys can use it. For now.
Not true, China Owens the manufacturing and I put a down payment of $10,000 on the sun to that guy under the bridge and I've been payin $1000 a month for the last four years it should be mine in 2030.
China Owens the manufacturing
That's sincerely a big part of the problem. Chinese manufacturing is so far out ahead of the US on HSR, solar cells, and batteries that American politicians conflate green energy and transit with concession of economic hegemony.
let's just be glad that, for now anyway, blocking out the sun to get everyone to pay for more electricity is still just a joke.
You don't get solar with our lots of mines.
That applies to everything though.
Solar panels and batteries are recyclable. Oil and gas are not.
Like most recycling it's not really as great as you might hope or 100% possible.
Hopefully in time they improve the recycling of alternative power.
Batteries and solar get used 1000s of times in their lifetime, then over 80% (and growing) are recycled. I haven't heard of any fossil fuels being recycled and burned a second time yet.
Every bit of fossil fuel that taken put of the ground and burned ends up in the air. Solar and batteries don't.
Both of those statements are false. Not everything in a solar panel and not every battery is recyclable. Some of the raw materials are sure
Plastic is made of oil and is sometimes recyclable
We're talking about oil and gas for energy, not construction. 99% of battery materials can be turned into new batteries. The only reason most haven't been recycled is that they're still in use.
Show me 1 gallon of recycled* fossil fuels and I might change my mind.
*
Fossil fuels that have been burned for energy then recycled back into fuel to be burned again, not vegetable oil diesel or plastic that hasn't been burned.
And this is why you see all this advocacy for nuclear power whenever people start talking about decarbonisation and renewable energy sources.
But they own batteries, solar panels, turbines... They own everything actually.
And nothing, absolutely nothing, stops them from claiming the Sun and start gathering taxes for using its energy.
Except that they didn’t buy in when they should have, which allowed smaller companies to get a head start on the tech, the rights, the advertising. Not instead of admitting they were wrong, they would rather double down, gaslight, lobby Andy try to disenfranchise competition because that always worked for them before.
The only thing that will always out-rank corporate intelligence is greed. They seem to like doing awfully stupid things if the profit line in the chart in the boardroom is green and curls upward on the right.
I read somewhere a while back that the main cause of all these seemingly obvious and mind numbingly dumb corporate decisions isn’t as much a problem with companies not knowing the information, but that they collectively changed their goals, projections and outlook to a much shorter time period.
So, yeah, maybe short circuiting your business model will double your profits within 6 months, but after that you eat quadruple in losses. It all depends on the length of time scale at the bottom of the chart.
Suddenly, so many crazy things I have read and experienced in the corporate world seemed to make so much more sense.
Yeah my country gathers taxes on solar energy afaik
I'd love to make my own "low tech" battery like sand or water. I feel like you wouldn't need to rely so much in big tech capitalists for something like that. I'm no expert though.
As more and more people are utilizing solar, I worry about future regulations restricting energy generation without involvement if the utility. We're already forced to pay a minimum monthly payment for the connection to your utility company (albeit a relatively small monthly fee compared to the kw and delivery fees) but it makes me wonder if utility companies will try to increase it for people not paying for the service. The companies are definitely not happy about it...
You can own the panels. And get utility companies. What a stupid argument.
Really dumb meme.
It also is very much inferior to the 1978 newspaper cartoon it is based on:
Just reformat this for phone screens instead and give credit, way better meme.
Nice find.
ty for your contribution
Fuck, really?! Dammit! That leprechaun tricked me!
We own the cloud servers that your devices will need to connect to, without which they will brick themselves.
...err ... to protect the children.
What if plant a flag on it? Would it be mine then?
I mean, who is gonna tell me it isn't? I managed to get to and successfully put a flag on it. I am invincible!
There was once a sunshine tax. Anything of value will get "owned" and you'll be charged for it.
