Renewables

There is a great misnomer coined by the oil industry, and which has existed for several decades. It is the term "oil production", which suggests that oil is an endless resource since it can be "produced". Of course that is far from reality. Oil cannot be produced. Oil can only be extracted. So the correct term that better represents reality is "oil extraction".

Oil extraction is what oil companies do. They locate the oil underground, then extract it and sell it for a profit. I'm not making judgments on this process. But it is extraction, and not production. All the improvements in technology for oil extraction have led to oil being extracted faster - it has not significantly made more oil available (although more efficient methods have made more oil and gas available, that oil and gas was always there in the first place and are not something we can actually produce).

So we have been at the effect of the term "oil production" for at least several decades, which suggests that oil is endless and thus it makes sense to build a society that is completely dependent on oil. Maybe we've done things differently if we had used the term oil extraction instead. Who would consciously choose to make petroleum an element that is necessary for their own survival when they know it's something that will eventually run out?

I'm afraid there's another misnomer being coined these days, and one which could have a detrimental effect on our society for decades to come. I am referring to the renewable energy industry, that is, the industry that has been building solar panels and wind turbines. Are these really renewable?

When I think of renewable, I think of a tree. A tree that grows from a seed that fell on the ground. The seed germinates and the tree grows upwards and downwards, with the roots getting longer and deeper in the soil, thus collecting and driving the nutrients that will grow the trunk of the tree and produce the leaves and fruits. Then a seed or fruit (with seeds in it) will eventually drop from one of the branches when the tree is fully grown, and reach the soil right around where the tree started. The seed will then go on to germinate and follow the same process until it becomes a tree again and it can produce seeds; some of which will become trees, and so on and so forth. This process is renewable until someone decides to remove the tree because the area will be paved for building a parking lot. But that's another story. The point I'm trying to make here, is that that is what I understand to be a renewable process. We humans work the same way: we grow to be adults, then mate and have babies, which then grow to be adults and do the same. So by the same logic, humans are renewable. We could live forever should our conditions remain the same (which we know not to be the case).

But when it comes to "renewable energy", as referring to solar panels and wind turbines, I'm not sure they are renewable. Wind turbines do not produce wind turbines. Solar panels do not produce more solar panels. As a matter of fact, solar panels do not even produce solar energy. Solar panels barely capture the amount of solar energy that radiates onto them (about 1% of the total energy).

I'm not trying to make an argument against solar panels or wind turbines. I'm simply suggesting that they are not renewable. And I'm afraid that we will suffer greatly if we continue to refer to them as renewable, which will subliminally lead us to believe that we can forever produce them.

- Ricardo Parker