We've Fallen for Bright Green Lies

A book review-editorial.

Photo by Possessed Photography

Recently, I’ve gotten kind of irritated at the bright green optimism coming from the tech elite. They insist that there’s nothing wrong with capitalism. Nobody has to change their consumption habits. We’re just going to replace fossil fuels with endless clean, green energy. Everyone’s going to get an electric vehicle. We’ll build giant solar and wind farms, and everything will chug right along.

Apparently, I’m not alone in despising this attitude.

I’m glad I stumbled across Bright Green Lies by Max Wilbert, Lierre Keith, Derrick Jensen. They do a great job exposing the negligence and dishonesty behind all of these hollow promises. Anyone who’s arguing we can just build an entirely new grid on top of fossil fuels without problems is either clueless, or they’re lying. They’re not really concerned with saving the planet, or humanity.

They care more about maximizing profits and maintaining their lifestyle. They want to keep living in the extreme comfort and convenience they’ve grown accustomed to, without feeling guilty. As the authors of Bright Green Lies show, that approach won’t work. It’s not helping. It’s making things worse.

We should be talking a lot more about it.

Here’s why:

First off, it’s not even practical.

None of the bright green optimists have spent much time thinking through the implications of building a renewable grid without doing anything to check the reckless consumption of the top 10 percent.

Take wind farms, for example.

Bright green environmentalists are calling for the construction of 3.8 million wind turbines by 2030. Combined with solar panels, they’d produce more than 90 percent of our needs. That sounds great, but is it doable?

According to Bright Green Lies, no.

Not even close.

Building that many wind turbines would require 2.4 billion tons of steel, 1.9 million tons of copper, 133 million tons of fiber materials, and 2.6 billion tons of concrete. They’d also need 2.6 billion gallons of oil.

Yes, oil.

Wind turbines need oil and hydraulic fluid as a lubricant, about 700 gallons per machine. It has to be replaced every 16 months. It leaks and spills everywhere. So no, wind turbines aren’t exactly green.

This is the problem with every form of green energy. Wind. Solar. Hydro. None of these things give us a license to continue consuming more and more energy every year. That’s exactly what we’re doing.

There’s no way around this problem right now.

We have to use less energy.

It’s imperative.

Here’s the biggest myth of all:

Everyone thinks green energy is displacing fossil fuels. It’s a tempting myth, but it’s not true. It’s simply driving further reckless growth.

That’s the paradox.

The companion documentary for Bright Green Lies devotes special attention to this myth of displacement. It’s especially damaging. Everyone thinks green energy is saving us, so they consume even more than before. They use more electricity. They buy more. They shop more. They throw away more. We wind up using just as much oil and natural gas as ever, plus solar and wind.

Nothing changes.

That’s a big problem, because fossil fuels + renewables won’t reduce global warming. It’ll make everything worse. As it turns out, that’s exactly what energy companies want everyone to do. They want everyone to keep buying and spending without feeling guilty about it. That’s the only way they know how to continue “growing” the economy and generating wealth.

The truth is, we can’t afford more energy.

The authors of Bright Green Lies offer a powerful answer to bright green environmentalism. They explain perfectly what seems to bother so many of us, this sanguine attitude that we’re not in a crisis, that everything’s under control. Like the other books I admire, they speak in a blunt tone. They’re not interested in coddling us or soothing our conscience.

They’re interested in telling the truth.

They come right out and say it: If we want an actual chance of survival on this planet, we can’t keep screwing around. We’ve got to fundamentally reorganize our civilization and its priorities. There’s no easy solutions. We’ve got to be willing to give up the vast majority of the comforts we’ve gotten used to.

I’d been looking for something to counter the prevailing idea that we can have our cake and it eat, too. It never felt right. It never sat well with me. It always struck me as a little too good to be true.

Now I know why.

Bright Green Lies is radical. It’s out there. It’s certainly forcing me to ask some hard questions about my own lifestyle.

That’s the point.