Are they really that green?

We have often praised the green industry for producing electricity without disastrous environmental affects. But are they really that clean? The increasing separation between producers and consumers has made the consumers oblivious to the side affects of production. Here are some facts which will help you decide whether the green industry is as clean as it says it is.

Solar Power


  1. The main part of photo voltaic solar panels ie silicon is not inherently harmful. But, the process to extract it does include toxic chemicals.
  2. Crystalline silicon is manufactured using Silane gas . Toxic silicon tetra chloride is produced during it’s(Silane gas) manufacturing process. For each ton of poly silicon produced, the process generates at least four tons of silicon tetra-chloride liquid waste. When exposed to humid air, silicon tetra-chloride transforms into acids and poisonous hydrogen chloride gas, which can make people who breathe the air dizzy and can make their chests contract.
  3. What about the fossil fuels used to transport these chemicals 100s sometimes 1000s of miles away? Isn't this pollution? We may think that this is insignificant. Tell you what, it’s not. For example, shipping 6.2 million pounds of waste to a place 1800 miles away by a heavy duty tractor trailer could add 5 percent to a particular product’s carbon footprint.

Wind Power


The lake of toxic waste at Bautou, China where rare earth processing plants dump their waste.

Lately, UK has been pushing wind power sector. It is sourcing the equipment from china. Wind power generating turbines have magnets made of a rare earth element called neodymium. The companies which provide the magnets dump their wastes in lakes (tailing lakes). It kills the farmlands for miles around it. This is not the only affect of this lake. It has direct affects on villagers too. They suffer severe skin and respiratory diseases. Their teeth begin to fall out. Children were born with soft bones.

The fact that we are using such polluting sources of energy to reduce environmental degradation is an irony in itself. Is solar power/wind power really the solution to our problem? Or are we made to believe they are?

Finally, is environmental pollution really the problem here? Is there something else going on? As I said earlier by increasing the distance between consumers and producers , the consumers do not know the “real” cost of the product they are buying. Will you buy a product which costs just $1 after you know that it has caused a lot of environmental degradation? Then isn't over consumerism the real problem?

This re initiates one more debate. Dispersed vs concentrated development. In the dispersed development, villages are self sufficient. They do not depend on other villages for sustenance . Any thing special to the village will be shared(not sold) to every other village. In the concentrated model all the production takes place in one place and the products have to be moved all over the country.