Debate: CIP vs. Greenpeace on 'Green Energy' HD

3 Notes:
* Thanks to Brittney Rivera for organizing and moderating the event.
* Please excuse the scratchiness of some of the audio. The videographer we hired set the sound levels incorrectly, but our post-production audio engineer has fixed this as much as possible.
* The page on DDT, referenced mid-way through the event, will be up shortly.

[johnr]

Advances in medicine and agriculture were due to efficient energy. You wouldn't have those advances absent cheap and efficient fuel.

[darinpearson]

50:39. If weather is not climate, then please stop using weather events to justify your position on catastrophic climate change.

[justintempler]

Switching transportation from liquid fuels to electric would require a complete upgrade of the electric grid which is a very big externality.

[ianw]

Everything the Greenpeace guy said about DDT (starting at 1:04:03), is outrageous nonsense. You can get the history of DDT in great detail from a book called The Excellent Powder: DDT's Political and Scientific History. It is absolutely clear that the environmental movement recklessly made exaggerated claims about the harmfulness of DDT, and advocated for restrictions on its production and use that had devastating effects on countries like Sri Lanka that were struggling to fight malaria.

[Nicholbags]

The Greenpeace debater was crushed in this debate.

[greywinters]

Solar and wind bankrupted Germany, they have returned to building new coal plants.

[daveascoli]

OK, so this is an out-dated response, but I can't help myself. I found it interesting how the Green Peace guy made an argument for the 'evolution' of technology. His example is when we went from the horse the car. He pointed out that the transition was difficult, but it proved to be valuable to all. He tried to compare that to moving away from fossil fuels to windmills and solar. The interesting part to me is he did not mentioned that when we transitioned to autos, the budding auto industry was not actively trying to shut down riding horses. The market, as he correctly pointed out, simply facilitated the evolution. In terms of energy, the green folks don't want an evolution, they want a revolution. Now, revolutions can have a positive outcome...but not without a lot of destruction first. And, even then, there is not guarantee of the outcome. A good outcome is just a possibility. Many revolutions fail miserably.

[EthanNoble]

OMg this greenpeace guy is grossly incompetent. The idea that industry exists outside of civilization and that they won't face any consequence of a catastrophic event is ridiculous. He has no understanding of economics but thinks he can say what direction society should go. What a joke.

[bobbyx]

One last thing, I believe it was Farraday who discovered & Produced Electricity

[johnr]

Enviros should listen to Alex at 45 minutes in describing the process of making wind turbines. It's NOT in fact a clean process to create this "clean" fuel.so, why do the enviros never mention this cost?

[janismateuss]

So funny listening to this 2011 peak oil nonsense (1:25:00), when the oil prices basically halved since then. lol

[darinpearson]

How does one build a “wind farm”? How much of the components are mined, transported and manufactured from wind? Are the metals and plastics constructed from wind? How were the metals and plastics mined? By using equipment powered by pinwheels? How about the vehicles used to transport the raw materials to the manufacturing facilities? Are these constructed from wind? Powered by wind?

[justinmccoy]

1:24 - Ryan says that we are running out of economical sources of oil...yea...that did not age well. 7 years later the US becomes worlds largest oil producer and exporter of crude. Oil prices are low despite a booming economy with massive demand. Why? Human ingenuity.

[craigartzner]

You do know that windmill technology has been around for centuries? If someone thinks windmill technology has further progress to make, that person can use their own money to invest in it. Stop throwing my hard-earned money down the green energy wishing well.

[MrHesseKopp]

who put ryan's mic in crazy dictator mode?

[JJHx]

Around 1:25:00 Rittenhouse states that the reason he can "say that with utter certainty" that we are at peak oil is because gas prices are going up.

According to EIA.gov, gas prices in 2011 were $3.576. However, in 2017 gas was $2.528.

Just like every other claim about reaching peak oil throughout the years, this one was also wrong.

[wbaumschlager]

"It's not the energy, it's the technological progress" ... how ignorant is that? Where does he think the technological progress came from if not from energy driving machines freeing people from manual labour giving them time to develop better machines and so on?

I disagree with Rittenhouse but I didn't think he was stupid til he started talking about lifespan and the use of fossil fuels. Is he crazy? Fossil Fuels and the Internal Combustion Engine drove the Industrial Revolution. It drove all the other improvements we have experienced.
Nuclear Energy is only expensive because politics has made it expensive. Lawsuits have made Nuclear Energy expensive! France gets 80% of its electric power from Nuclear.
Again Alex wipes the floor with Rittenhouse.

[davidwilliams]

Alex you missed a trick. The Green peace Guy was offering free tea shirts to get the students' on his side.

[timbozza]

Ryan says it's a tragedy that renewables have led to environment damages and suffering of people living near mines in China that produce the material for wind turbines.
He says he wishes better practices were put in place.
There aren't any such practices, it is an unavoidably dangerous process to mine these materials.

Case in point: California has some of the world's richest deposits of these materials and they are the most pro-renewable energy states in the US.
It is illegal to mine these materials in California as it is too hazardous, even though California has every reason to want to mine these materials.

Ryan, a member of Greenpeace, just deflected a huge externality that costs lives and pollutes the environment immeasurably. Whilst, at the same time, he pushes conspiracy and fear mongering regarding nuclear power.
Shame.