Cuba is struggling with devastating nationwide blackouts as the United States’ effective oil blockade strangles fuel supplies. But this crisis may also be accelerating a China-backed clean energy revolution that’s been quietly unfolding in the Caribbean nation.
Okay so let me go over this again as I have an idea…
Nation that’s struggling with dependency on petroleum and unreliable supply chain turns to renewable energy. The solar energy is clean, reliable, requires little maintenance, and is helping that country become less reliant on foreign petroleum.
If that works for Cuba, a tiny nation with few resources, perhaps it would work in other more wealthy nations also. Perhaps if a nation were, say, reliant on petroleum to the point that they start multiple multinational wars to ensure their own access to oil, costing literally $trillions, it might be cheaper to put some or all of that money into renewable energy. Presumably China will sell their solar panels to whoever’s buying, yes? So why wouldn’t a larger, more developed country purchase them in great quantity so spending $trillions on military actions in the Middle East would no longer be necessary?
If a country like this has some of their own domestic oil production, wouldn’t it be a desirable future to just walk away from the Middle East entirely, let the oil assholes kill each other without our involvement, and run the country for a few decades on sunshine? Use that money to buy solar panels literally by the boatload / container-ship-load (or buy the tech and manufacture them ourselves), and then national security is improved through removing foreign dependencies?
I know! Oil is just a fiction and we can totally grow crops and fertilize them and make pesticides and plastics and chemicals with sunshine and rainbows which is why the population reached 8 billion by 2000 BC!
Oil is made of sunshine and rainbows dummy, where do you think the energy comes from?
Ancient plants metabolized sunshine to produce fats and sugars, which were then consumed by animals. It all got cooked into a soup from millions of years of heat and pressure. Oil is basically a solar battery.
This is kind-of a non-sequitur to begin with, but we should not be burning oil to make energy— it’s stupid. We should stop doing that as fast as is possible, and the culture war element mentioned by the person you’re replying to is a obstacle that needs to be dealt with. As you’re keen to point out, it’s useful for manufacturing many vitally important things, so no longer setting it on fire is the only sane move. (Among many other reasons.)
Unfortunately, that’s arguably still true, in the us. Given the current administration’s desire to roll back the calendar, outside EVs have been effectively banned, and many of the choices we were finally about to get were cancelled.
If I were looking for a new EV today, Tesla is still by far the most compelling choice available to me.
I bought it back in 2022ish, before Elon’s association with Republican politics.
That said- I’d buy another one in a heartbeat, new or used. The self driving feature is light years ahead of anything else. And unlike other manufactures (looking at GM) they don’t sell their customers driving habits to insurance companies. The security is actually pretty good unlike most automakers who institutionally don’t understand computers so they outsource most of it to their suppliers like Bosch, Delphi, etc.
It’s a 2023ish car so pre-refresh. The suspension is stiff and it lacks a lot of luxury creature comforts. But it’s FUN AS HELL to drive, tons of chargers everywhere, the nav system is top notch, and the self driving system is light years ahead of anyone else’s. Plus they don’t sell their customers data like GM and some others or show ads on the display like Stellantis.
Not crazy talk, Australia currently leads with the highest per-capita uptake of solar panels and it’s having a noticeable impact on our overall energy costs:
We actually produce so much excess solar during peak times that households without panels can opt for electricity plans which offer free electricity between midday and 3pm every day (inc. weekends).
We’re also rolling out a heap of household batteries to better help take advantage of this surplus production and offset peak demand times too.
The world is rapidly approaching a post-fossil fuel world; the transition will be slow at first, and then drastic all of a sudden.
Now, just take that analysis a little bit further by adding the consideration that those elected to manage the nation aren’t actually doing that and wondering why.
I bet it will yield interesting results about whose interests such people really serve.
Wait, you’re saying my Congresscritter who only shows up every few years to demand my vote (because it’s ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL THIS YEAR that we defeat the other party) isn’t actually laser-focused on my needs as a citizen?
I thought it was just a phrase in general circulation. I’ve actually never once listened to Rush Limbaugh. I find most political content unintelligent and uninteresting and generally prefer to just read facts and draw my own conclusions. My brain seems to work pretty well and I prefer not to have my conclusions drawn for me.
The US govt has a responsibility to keep the PetroDollar in tact since Nixon killed the gold standard, otherwise the global dependency on USD is no longer maintained and other currencies have a chance to replace it.
This is currently happening, ofc, with ships crossing Hormuz by paying Yuan instead of Dollars.
Now that UAE has shown other countries how to leave OPEC, USD (read: everyday Americans) might be royallyfucked but at least USA might be able to move away from microplastics and pollution.
The US govt has a responsibility to keep the PetroDollar in tact since Nixon killed the gold standard, otherwise the global dependency on USD is no longer maintained and other currencies have a chance to replace it.
This 100%.
US Govt is propped up on debt. We have no financial discipline today and none is anywhere in sight. If our currency loses value we’re mega-fucked.
If petrodollar goes away, our currency loses a lot of credibility. And we are doing everything possible to ensure that everyone involved wants nothing to do with us.
All oil lobbiests, oil barons, and dipshit right-wingers whose primary source of info is focks nooz, blowroganexperience, and other propaganda outlets: it’d take 30 years to get the infrastructure in place for rEnEwAbLeS!
So what you’re saying is if we started during the oil crisis of the 70s, we’d be celebrating 25 years off our dependency on petroleum? If we started at the turn of the millennium we’d already be in the home-stretch toward completion?
You can’t think that way. Just understand that building clean infrastructure is too difficult and too expensive and will take too long. The electric car is always 10 years away.
(Like the dude or not- this is something you gotta give Elon Musk credit for-- before Tesla the electric car was perpetually ‘10 years away’, Tesla actually went and built one, and a whole fast charging network, with the intended goal of embarrassing other automakers into producing their own EVs and chargers. It worked, and I truly believe without Tesla we’d still be hearing that the electric car is only 10 years away.)
But for real, as a Freedom-loving American- it pisses me off because the sooner we start the sooner we’ll be finished, and then from a national security POV we are MUCH better off as we aren’t depending on shithole sandbox countries with religious dictatorships to provide our fuel.
Yes, it’s crazy talk because the sane thing is to have a cabal of pedophiles running your country and then bombing poor defenseless countries around the world to distract people from all the money they’re stealing.
This is nonsense. Pedophiles are attracted to PRE-pubescent children, like 0-12 years old.
We have a cabal of hebephiles (11-14yo) and ebephiles (15-19yo) running our country. And they don’t bomb poor defenseless countries, they bomb heavily defended countries that have military control of vital trade corridors and nuclear response capability. And they’re not just bombing those countries to distract people from the money they’re stealing, it’s also to distract people from demanding the release of documents proving they all signed up to rape early-teenaged girls.
Hi there, I’m definitely not from the CIA, can I have your address please?
(Oh, btw, I just want to have a chat. There definitely won’t be any murdering shenanigans).
Oh hi there fellow citizen with no connection at all to the government!
I’m at 123 Fake St, Nowheresville AL, 12345. Feel free to stop by anytime!
Is this where I develop sudden depression and decide that life is so not worth living that I shoot myself twice in the back of the head before driving my car off a cliff?
But what would the shareholders of oil and MIC companies do if we stopped spending that money on oil wars? Won’t someone please think of the shareholders!?
Okay so let me go over this again as I have an idea…
Nation that’s struggling with dependency on petroleum and unreliable supply chain turns to renewable energy. The solar energy is clean, reliable, requires little maintenance, and is helping that country become less reliant on foreign petroleum.
If that works for Cuba, a tiny nation with few resources, perhaps it would work in other more wealthy nations also. Perhaps if a nation were, say, reliant on petroleum to the point that they start multiple multinational wars to ensure their own access to oil, costing literally $trillions, it might be cheaper to put some or all of that money into renewable energy. Presumably China will sell their solar panels to whoever’s buying, yes? So why wouldn’t a larger, more developed country purchase them in great quantity so spending $trillions on military actions in the Middle East would no longer be necessary?
If a country like this has some of their own domestic oil production, wouldn’t it be a desirable future to just walk away from the Middle East entirely, let the oil assholes kill each other without our involvement, and run the country for a few decades on sunshine? Use that money to buy solar panels literally by the boatload / container-ship-load (or buy the tech and manufacture them ourselves), and then national security is improved through removing foreign dependencies?
Or is this just crazy talk?
It’s infuriating how successful the oil companies have been at turning solar vs oil into a fucking culture war.
ain’t this the damn truth.
If you switch to Solar, THE COMMIES WIN.
I know! Oil is just a fiction and we can totally grow crops and fertilize them and make pesticides and plastics and chemicals with sunshine and rainbows which is why the population reached 8 billion by 2000 BC!
Oil is made of sunshine and rainbows dummy, where do you think the energy comes from?
Ancient plants metabolized sunshine to produce fats and sugars, which were then consumed by animals. It all got cooked into a soup from millions of years of heat and pressure. Oil is basically a solar battery.
What’s wrong with gathering new solar energy?
This is kind-of a non-sequitur to begin with, but we should not be burning oil to make energy— it’s stupid. We should stop doing that as fast as is possible, and the culture war element mentioned by the person you’re replying to is a obstacle that needs to be dealt with. As you’re keen to point out, it’s useful for manufacturing many vitally important things, so no longer setting it on fire is the only sane move. (Among many other reasons.)
What’s dumb is getting oil just to burn it is stupid. There are better ways now but momentum is hard to overcome.
Have you even said thank you to the oil companies?!
Good point. They made oil prices so high I bought a Tesla. Thanks guys you really did me a solid, best car ever :D
Out of all EV manufacturers, why tf did u decide to get a Tesla?! Hope you got yourself a used one, at least.
There was a point in time where Teslas really were the only good EV worth talking about.
Unfortunately, that’s arguably still true, in the us. Given the current administration’s desire to roll back the calendar, outside EVs have been effectively banned, and many of the choices we were finally about to get were cancelled.
If I were looking for a new EV today, Tesla is still by far the most compelling choice available to me.
Golf carts are better EVs than Teslas.
This is objectively false. Go test drive one and tell me if you honestly believe that golf carts are better vehicles.
I bought it back in 2022ish, before Elon’s association with Republican politics.
That said- I’d buy another one in a heartbeat, new or used. The self driving feature is light years ahead of anything else. And unlike other manufactures (looking at GM) they don’t sell their customers driving habits to insurance companies. The security is actually pretty good unlike most automakers who institutionally don’t understand computers so they outsource most of it to their suppliers like Bosch, Delphi, etc.
If that’s your best car ever, you haven’t driven many cars.
It’s a 2023ish car so pre-refresh. The suspension is stiff and it lacks a lot of luxury creature comforts. But it’s FUN AS HELL to drive, tons of chargers everywhere, the nav system is top notch, and the self driving system is light years ahead of anyone else’s. Plus they don’t sell their customers data like GM and some others or show ads on the display like Stellantis.
For what? Helping fertilize crops with synthetic fertilizers? Pshaw, all we need is more wind and puppies!
Which component of oil in fertilizer production can’t be replaced?
Not crazy talk, Australia currently leads with the highest per-capita uptake of solar panels and it’s having a noticeable impact on our overall energy costs:
https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/household-solar-electricity-generation-australian-national-accounts
We actually produce so much excess solar during peak times that households without panels can opt for electricity plans which offer free electricity between midday and 3pm every day (inc. weekends).
We’re also rolling out a heap of household batteries to better help take advantage of this surplus production and offset peak demand times too.
The world is rapidly approaching a post-fossil fuel world; the transition will be slow at first, and then drastic all of a sudden.
Australia is also central to renewables because of the number of articles on grid storage.
Or said country simply likes killing people around the world and oil is a convenient excuse.
Now, just take that analysis a little bit further by adding the consideration that those elected to manage the nation aren’t actually doing that and wondering why.
I bet it will yield interesting results about whose interests such people really serve.
Wait, you’re saying my Congresscritter who only shows up every few years to demand my vote (because it’s ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL THIS YEAR that we defeat the other party) isn’t actually laser-focused on my needs as a citizen?
That seems unpossible.
:P
The only place I’ve ever heard “congresscritter” was Rush Limbaugh or other right wing commenter. It makes me cringe every time.
I thought it was just a phrase in general circulation. I’ve actually never once listened to Rush Limbaugh. I find most political content unintelligent and uninteresting and generally prefer to just read facts and draw my own conclusions. My brain seems to work pretty well and I prefer not to have my conclusions drawn for me.
Yes but what about the oil companies’ profits? Have you even considered their feelings?
The US govt has a responsibility to keep the PetroDollar in tact since Nixon killed the gold standard, otherwise the global dependency on USD is no longer maintained and other currencies have a chance to replace it.
This is currently happening, ofc, with ships crossing Hormuz by paying Yuan instead of Dollars.
Now that UAE has shown other countries how to leave OPEC, USD (read: everyday Americans) might be royallyfucked but at least USA might be able to move away from microplastics and pollution.
This 100%.
US Govt is propped up on debt. We have no financial discipline today and none is anywhere in sight. If our currency loses value we’re mega-fucked.
If petrodollar goes away, our currency loses a lot of credibility. And we are doing everything possible to ensure that everyone involved wants nothing to do with us.
Great strategy :)
Im sure it’ll all work out for the rich people, at least
All oil lobbiests, oil barons, and dipshit right-wingers whose primary source of info is focks nooz, blowroganexperience, and other propaganda outlets: it’d take 30 years to get the infrastructure in place for rEnEwAbLeS!
So what you’re saying is if we started during the oil crisis of the 70s, we’d be celebrating 25 years off our dependency on petroleum? If we started at the turn of the millennium we’d already be in the home-stretch toward completion?
You can’t think that way. Just understand that building clean infrastructure is too difficult and too expensive and will take too long. The electric car is always 10 years away.
(Like the dude or not- this is something you gotta give Elon Musk credit for-- before Tesla the electric car was perpetually ‘10 years away’, Tesla actually went and built one, and a whole fast charging network, with the intended goal of embarrassing other automakers into producing their own EVs and chargers. It worked, and I truly believe without Tesla we’d still be hearing that the electric car is only 10 years away.)
But for real, as a Freedom-loving American- it pisses me off because the sooner we start the sooner we’ll be finished, and then from a national security POV we are MUCH better off as we aren’t depending on shithole sandbox countries with religious dictatorships to provide our fuel.
Yes, it’s crazy talk because the sane thing is to have a cabal of pedophiles running your country and then bombing poor defenseless countries around the world to distract people from all the money they’re stealing.
This is nonsense. Pedophiles are attracted to PRE-pubescent children, like 0-12 years old.
We have a cabal of hebephiles (11-14yo) and ebephiles (15-19yo) running our country. And they don’t bomb poor defenseless countries, they bomb heavily defended countries that have military control of vital trade corridors and nuclear response capability. And they’re not just bombing those countries to distract people from the money they’re stealing, it’s also to distract people from demanding the release of documents proving they all signed up to rape early-teenaged girls.
Trust me, this is MUCH better this way :P
Hi there, I’m definitely not from the CIA, can I have your address please?
(Oh, btw, I just want to have a chat. There definitely won’t be any murdering shenanigans).
Oh hi there fellow citizen with no connection at all to the government!
I’m at 123 Fake St, Nowheresville AL, 12345. Feel free to stop by anytime!
Is this where I develop sudden depression and decide that life is so not worth living that I shoot myself twice in the back of the head before driving my car off a cliff?
But what would the shareholders of oil and MIC companies do if we stopped spending that money on oil wars? Won’t someone please think of the shareholders!?
But like diversified not controlled by a single entity, let’s see how the shareholders feel about that first.
Now add corporate lobbying and campaign donations into this model and suddenly the math will start mathing.