Green energy’s promise outpaces its reality

Nick Gier in “Opinion: Solar energy surges in developing nations” (Daily News, March 17/19) states that the scrapping of the 2009 EPA endangerment finding does “not address the overwhelming evidence against the dangers of CO2 emissions.”

I would encourage him to do some research on CO2. We all breathe out several pounds of CO2 every day. CO2 in ambient air is not a health problem. It’s not visible and is vital for plant growth. Without significant CO2 in our air, we would not have food to live on. Plants for the most part would thrive even better if the percent of CO2 in the air were several times higher.

The air pollution Gier talked about in his column for the most part was not CO2 but particulate caused by a number of primitive activities such as cooking and heat over an open fire, using animal dung as fuel, using engines that did a poor job of combusting the fuel, poor farm practices and more. This kind of air pollution is cleaned up by developing nations as they are able to afford cleaner, more efficient practices of burning fuel of all kinds and having funds to spend on upgrading various primitive operations from farming practices to mining and home heating. Green energy programs, when done efficiently, are one way to reduce air pollution but more efficient combustion of fossil fuels is also a way, which is economically and environmentally more efficient, especially in those parts of the Earth that do not consistently get direct sunlight and adequate daily wind. Hydropower is a dependable green energy that is not included in what is said here.

The biggest problems with wind and solar energy are: 1) the environmental problems associated with mining for the basic materials to make the panels and turbines, 2) the intermittent aspect of these energy sources, 3) the huge amounts of land required, 4) they are relatively short-lived and 5) associated environmental drawbacks such as waste disposal and the killing of relatively large numbers of birds in their operation.

I am not a climate change denier but I am a realist. I would love to see green energy become economically viable but until we can harvest solar energy in space and transmit it cost-efficiently 24/7 to Earth, green energy, whether solar or wind, is going to be a niche energy source that is economically and environmentally viable only in limited cases.