The transition to renewable energy explained by Phil the Fixer
The transition to renewable energy explained by Phil the Fixer
Learn more about climate change and the transition to renewable energy in this interview with Phil the Fixer.
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Transcript
PHILIP AIKEN: Renewable energy is any energy that comes from a natural source, that is never depleted. Without that transition to renewable energy, we don't really have a future, at least not one in which we continue living these modern lives that we're currently living.
[LO-TEMPO MUSIC]
Renewable energy is a bunch of different technologies that work in different ways, turning that natural resource of wind, solar, or water to create electricity. Obviously there's quite a few other types of renewable energy as well, but turbine energies and solar PV are going to make up probably over 90% of our energy in the future when we transition to renewable energy, I won't even say hope, when we do transition to renewable energy, because fossil fuels were never sustainable. They were never endless. So if we did somehow survive, so much of our modern society relies on internet and communication and electricity. We can't support 7 billion people without a lot of those infrastructures.
Transitioning to renewable energy allows us to continue supporting 7 billion people, and probably 8, 9 billion people in the next few decades. If we can do it in the right way, we'll create a much more equitable, healthy, safe, and enjoyable society. What can I do to promote renewable energy? The most impactful thing you can do is advocate and organize your communities. Advocating for getting solar on your school, pushing local officials and local government to put solar on all your public buildings in your community. Those organizing efforts have an impact beyond even you getting those projects installed. You're creating a blueprint for people in other communities to advocate for other communities to just follow the lead of whatever your town or city or university is doing.
The step a lot of people also miss, is just self education. It's really difficult to advocate for something that you don't understand. If you have kids, maybe getting a little solar cell or solar panel and like teaching them how it works and letting them see the power of that, those things go a long way past what you can see.
The majority of people are for the adoption of renewable energy, and the only ones you really meet in terms of individual people, are people that work in fossil fuels, and that's really valid. So part of a just transition to renewable energy is ensuring that those people get training and transition into renewable energy jobs. The money that is constantly coming over the last 100 or so years from fossil fuels is the barrier. We're going to need to see people around the world coming together to ensure that we have a just transition into renewable energy.
Well what do we focus on renewable energy or preventing more biodiversity loss? They're one and the same, and what we need to do is combine all of these efforts. There's no reason for an organization trying to plant more trees to not communicate with an organization that's trying to end plastic pollution, but they should be working together, tying all these issues together and communicating then that's one issue. It's one mission, it's one movement, it's one goal.
[LO-TEMPO MUSIC]
[LO-TEMPO MUSIC]
Renewable energy is a bunch of different technologies that work in different ways, turning that natural resource of wind, solar, or water to create electricity. Obviously there's quite a few other types of renewable energy as well, but turbine energies and solar PV are going to make up probably over 90% of our energy in the future when we transition to renewable energy, I won't even say hope, when we do transition to renewable energy, because fossil fuels were never sustainable. They were never endless. So if we did somehow survive, so much of our modern society relies on internet and communication and electricity. We can't support 7 billion people without a lot of those infrastructures.
Transitioning to renewable energy allows us to continue supporting 7 billion people, and probably 8, 9 billion people in the next few decades. If we can do it in the right way, we'll create a much more equitable, healthy, safe, and enjoyable society. What can I do to promote renewable energy? The most impactful thing you can do is advocate and organize your communities. Advocating for getting solar on your school, pushing local officials and local government to put solar on all your public buildings in your community. Those organizing efforts have an impact beyond even you getting those projects installed. You're creating a blueprint for people in other communities to advocate for other communities to just follow the lead of whatever your town or city or university is doing.
The step a lot of people also miss, is just self education. It's really difficult to advocate for something that you don't understand. If you have kids, maybe getting a little solar cell or solar panel and like teaching them how it works and letting them see the power of that, those things go a long way past what you can see.
The majority of people are for the adoption of renewable energy, and the only ones you really meet in terms of individual people, are people that work in fossil fuels, and that's really valid. So part of a just transition to renewable energy is ensuring that those people get training and transition into renewable energy jobs. The money that is constantly coming over the last 100 or so years from fossil fuels is the barrier. We're going to need to see people around the world coming together to ensure that we have a just transition into renewable energy.
Well what do we focus on renewable energy or preventing more biodiversity loss? They're one and the same, and what we need to do is combine all of these efforts. There's no reason for an organization trying to plant more trees to not communicate with an organization that's trying to end plastic pollution, but they should be working together, tying all these issues together and communicating then that's one issue. It's one mission, it's one movement, it's one goal.
[LO-TEMPO MUSIC]