Read on Twitter
"Slave labor for green tech is ok because everybody does it" is a bad look for RE folks.
Thread
https://twitter.com/evcricket/status/1358249096222437381
Thread
https://twitter.com/evcricket/status/1358249096222437381
1. To be clear, this is not a nuclear vs RE argument. Per my original tweet on the subject, if we are serious about EJ, then we should apply those concerns consistently. https://twitter.com/TedNordhaus/status/1357189293106626562
2. I have heard for years from RE and anti-nuke folks that cheap nuclear costs in China don't count because some combo of state-led, hidden costs, subsidies, can't trust Chinese accounting or regulators, etc.
3. Meanwhile, the same folks celebrate extraordinary "learning" and RE cost declines that, for at least a decade, probably longer, have depended heavily upon Chinese manufacturing, supply chains, and mercantilism.
4. I don't point this out to suggest that nuclear supply chains are pristine. Mining, extraction, and industrial production will always, to some degree, be a dirty business, whether it involves uranium, silicon, or rare earth minerals. Or steel... https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/energy/decarbonization-and-discontents
5. But latest revelations are "new," only in the particulars. The solar miracle depended on a heavily subsidized manufacturing sector in an authoritarian state that has engaged a genocidal campaign against ethnic minority populations for decades. https://twitter.com/SolarInMASS/status/1357806902617530376
6. That everyone pretended like we didn't know this is a classic case of what Steve Rayner called "uncomfortable knowledge." https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03085147.2011.637335
7. This episode should demonstrate folly of technological determinism. Solar doesn't inherently depend on slave labor any more than nuclear is inherently costly or dangerous. Social/political/historical context and institutions determine these things, not technologies themselves.
8. Should also remind us that debates about nuclear, RE, and environmental justice still reflect decades old technology preferences that got wrapped up in social justice discourse without ever looking inside what @DustinMulvaney calls the "green box." https://twitter.com/DustinMulvaney/status/1357744180185890817
9. We can and should do better across all clean energy technologies and fossil has a human rights legacy that is far worse. But tradeoffs of energy transition won't be eliminated with handwaving about extractivism and neoliberalism.
10. A bit more honesty about those tradeoffs and less kneejerk tribalism and defensiveness from both RE and nuclear folks would be welcome. FIN/
