I wanted to expand on my video from the other day about Adventures in Solar.
I first clicked on the site because I was so impressed with their Solar Panel Recycling Factory. They claim to be able to use 95% of an old solar panel which is beyond great.
I've been worried about solar for a while... I really want to decrease our carbon footprint, but I didn't want to add to landfill issues in 30 years (average life expectancy for solar panels) as well as increasing the risk that the toxic material leaks into our ground water... I've seen numbers like solar creating 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than nuclear plants... which is why I started to lean towards nuclear over solar and wind... but always struggled with the 10,000 year lifespan of it's waste, even if it is tiny.
Veolia recycling solar panels in it's factory in France is a huge relief... and now we need way more of these factories around the world. I wanted to learn more about Veolia, and so clicking around their website I found this little info-graphic:
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Apparently we've got 12 years to dramatically reduce our CO2 emissions or else we'll be too late to keep the global warming degrees to 1.5... unless governments start going berserk we're not going to hit that target... so a 2 degree increase in global temperatures is far more likely... which translates to a 3 degree increase by 2100.
This super depressing news led me to click around the Veolia, and man, they are doing so much to help the planet, and they're seem to be doing fairly well financially as well (Revenue growth up 4.8% in Q1 2019)... This is exactly the type of company I wish the stock market would try and support, instead of trying to influence the news cycle with hype and fud so they can make a quick buck.
Meanwhile, Taholah in Washington (about 4 hours drive from me):
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is legitimately rebuilding their entire town on a hill nearby to give themselves another 40 meters after their seawall failed in 2004, as well as their local river drying up by 90%, destroying their fishing industry.
The climate crisis is legitimately stressing me out, it seems overwhelming difficult, but with companies like Veolia and Tesla, at least we stand a chance...
Thanks for reading... I know it's not always fun, but I do think we all need to really think about our carbon footprint, how much we recycle and up-cycle, demanding more from our governments with our votes, and more from corporations with our wallets.