I don't think we will ever see power generation via renewables (one industry) approach the scale of anything near carbon emissions (all industry)
You could do some very basic napkin math multiplying the air displacement per turbine (or whatever metric you choose) and multiplying by every turbine that exists, and I'd bet that number would be nowhere near total air displacement from natural causes.
Human CO2 emissions matter precisely because the math has exceeded change from natural causes. And this happens because literally everyone is doing it. IF we cover the planet in wind turbines the same way we cover it with waste C02 then maybe you might have a case.
Not to say renewables aren't without their issues. There are likely a whole host of second- and third-order issues there that have yet to be discovered, let alone resolved. But we would need adoption on a scale far beyond what has been proposed to combat global warming to approach that.
I'm not saying that COâ‚‚ and wind turbines have a comparable effect on the climate. I'm saying that "it's small so it couldn't matter" is the same flawed thinking.
> Human CO2 emissions matter precisely because the math has exceeded change from natural causes.
Why? It's the significant detrimental impact of the human activity that's important, not how it compares to the amount or change from natural causes. (It doesn't even matter that it's human activity. If Earth were going to become inhospitable by entirely natural causes, that would still matter.)
> then maybe you might have a case.
I'm not making the case that wind turbines are harming the environment; that's just the example at hand. I'm making the case that casually dismissing (questions about) the potential impact of human activities is wrong.
My point is that the scale of pretty much everything we do is minuscule compared to carbon emissions. And, short of being more specific on what 'human activities' are in question, the negative tradeoffs are going to have to be far worse, in order to be a worse alternative than our current course of spewing CO2.
You could do some very basic napkin math multiplying the air displacement per turbine (or whatever metric you choose) and multiplying by every turbine that exists, and I'd bet that number would be nowhere near total air displacement from natural causes.
Human CO2 emissions matter precisely because the math has exceeded change from natural causes. And this happens because literally everyone is doing it. IF we cover the planet in wind turbines the same way we cover it with waste C02 then maybe you might have a case.
Not to say renewables aren't without their issues. There are likely a whole host of second- and third-order issues there that have yet to be discovered, let alone resolved. But we would need adoption on a scale far beyond what has been proposed to combat global warming to approach that.