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  • I worked the problem a different way, first of all I evaluated both ends of both spectrum (2.2-5.2 trillion for adding cars to get the number of solar farms needed and 5-10 acres per MW rating, this is how I built my range). I believe I have an error in the number of solar farms needed (2-2.5 million farms in my original post), but I have not been able to replicate my math that got me the error. I made this post in sections and at some point realized that 27 MW doesn't make 648 MWh, but I might have missed switching it out somewhere to get the math I got.

    Rerunning the math I took the amount produced and needed (~17 trillion Wh) and divided it by the production for one 27 MW site (150 MWh) to get the number of plants and then multiplied that by 27x10.

    17x1012 / 150x106 x 27 x 10 = 30,600,000 or 30.6 million acres.

    All that aside we are still talking about 75x more land usage before we talk about time zones, day night cycles, distribution of the panels, etc. The big counterpoint that people seem to have is batteries, but we already use batteries and the amount more we would need to provide 24 hour coverage with just solar would be astonishing.

    Market forces push business decisions, the only way solar power would be cheaper for the consumer is if it was also cheaper for the business. If solar was realistically cheaper then power production facilities then corporations would be switching to it and probably not drop our end costs because that would just be extra profit. Whether it's a lack of battery capability, unattainable capital costs, lack of reliability, or something else at play, solar power would not be cheaper for the end user or else corporations would be switching to it.

    EDIT: Good work on your math.

  • You literally just reshared the same video the guy I'm responding to shared in the post I am responding to. Obviously you didn't read anything.

  • Okay, so I’ve double-checked all the most important numbers you’ve used. One thing I’ve noticed is that Alec compared the land-use of ethanol and solar power, but our fuel is only 10% ethanol. Even then though that doesn’t explain the whole number you got to.

    As I said in my post, this guy is talking about fuel for cars, not the entire power usage

    With 270 million acres, and 1mW for every 10 acres, that’s 27 million mW (648 trillion Wh a day). Far more than what you say is needed for all cars to be electric

    I basically skipped over your 3rd and 4th paragraph

    That is literally what I said in paragraph 3 "The US currently has ~12.5k utility scale electric power plants, to replace those with solar and switch all cars to electric you would need ~2-2.5 million solar farms the size represented in the video."

    America consumes 25,000tWh of energy per year (about 7Twh per day)

    My research said the US produces 11 trillion Wh per day and said that if all US vehicles were electric it would require 2.2-5.5 trillion Wh more per day. Looking at consumption is important, but looking at production is more accurate. Some electricity is sold or wasted, but that's to ensure demand is met when the grid sees a spike in usage.

    27 million mW (648 trillion Wh a day)

    You must have skipped paragraph 2 as well. A 27 MW solar plant is rated as such because that is the maximum instantaneous power outout, but most places only have ~16 hours of sunlight and won't be running at 27 MW for all 16 hours. As such a 27 MW solar farm will only make ~130-150 MWh/day.

  • I'm not gonna watch the full hour and a half, but I skimmed through to make sure his message was at least mostly consistent. This guy is talking about renewable energy for cars and vaguely extrapolates that to all energy requirements.

    Doing a quick Google search came up with 2.2-5.2 trillion watt-hours as the amount of energy needed if all US vehicles were electric. Currently the US generates 11 trillion watt-hours per day so this would increase that amount ~20-50%. In this video the guy mentioned a 27 megawatt solar farm (130-150 MWh/day), but a large coal plant generates 15-24k MWh/day (500-1000 MW instantaneous).

    The US currently has ~12.5k utility scale electric power plants, to replace those with solar and switch all cars to electric you would need ~2-2.5 million solar farms the size represented in the video.

    The industry standard is that each megawatt a solar farm is rated takes 5-10 acres. For nuclear that value is ~0.8 acres/megawatt and for coal it's ~0.64 acres/megawatt. While large power plants generate ~500-1000 MW they vary in size dramatically so the actual average is closer to 50 MW per plant. By that math, the current total land for existing plants should be ~400,000 acres but the equivalent if we switched to 100% solar power would be 270-675 million acres of land.

    I'm not saying that renewables are bad or that we shouldn't pursue them, I'm also not arguing that we should all hold on to gas burning cars, but there is not compelling enough evidence that switching to 100% renewable energy would be cheaper.

    EDIT: The estimates here don't include things like the coal mines included in them but it also doesn't take into account the production of panels, batteries, or the component materials in either of them such as lithium mines. I think solar probably wins out when comparing just that side, but their land usage alone likely tips things.

  • I'll stop playing before that happens

  • Yeah, it may have changed. Here is the website for commissary eligibility, it looks like civilian employees get limited access (mainly grocery store like items). Here is a link to the Exchange, they get limited privileges or conditional unlimited privileges depending on their situation. Here is the website posting the Army Civilian benefits. Looking online they do have access to on base housing, but active duty get higher priority and may have to wait for an opening.

    Here is the general DOD website for the civilian employee benefits, it looks like they get general federal employee insurance (generally considered to be good), and the general federal pension (20 years of service by 50 years old). This site also has more information about the exchange and family care.

  • To add to this, something I like to point out to people, but (for the US) only ~60% of military personnel are ever deployed. Of those 60% only 10-20% will ever see combat. To top that off ~25% of the military are actually civilian service members, people who work for the military but are not soldiers.

    So in summary, for each soldier that sees combat there are:

    • ~6 deployed soldiers who will never see combat.
    • ~11 non-deployed soldiers who never will be.
    • ~6 civilian military staff who will probably never need to move for work.

    Of these 24 people, all have access to the commissary, retirement and pension, top tier insurance, paid child care, up to 26 days of paid time off with 13 sick days and 11 fed holidays. The only things the military civilians don't get are the VA, loan programs, and special protections.

    So unless you're a complete block head with no skills or talent your odds of joining the military and basically getting socialism with no risks is pretty high. Remember this the next time someone gets mouthy about respecting "the troops" or "serving their country," odds are they didn't do shit.

    I used to work with a whole group of guys who their whole military career (20 years) was running a wastewater treatment plant on an Air Force base in the US, that's it.

  • Yo, that Tiffany Days song is fire.

  • Yeah, that's the nature of experience, people have different ones. I would agree with you that, for the most part, if you show up to support a protest then you'll be welcomed and not pushed out, but someones experience in Ohio might be different from someone else's experience in Texas, California, Florida, or NY.

    I live in the US south east and moved from one city to another about 3 hours away. When I did so my workplace went from 95% white to 65% black. Protests went from politically charged and racially neutral to religious based and racially charged. Your experience in one place is no guarantee for other people's experiences in another.

    I have no idea where this guy is from, but I could totally see a place in the US where a middle class white guy showing up would raise some eyebrows.

    All in all my experience matches yours, but I am also reminded of this video from several years ago. Maybe this video is fake, maybe it's doctored, or taken out of context, but as it appears in the video it's just an example that perceptions and opinions can be different for different people and the crowd doesn't always support you.

  • On DuckDuckGo that is unsurprising

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  • Eh, I doubt that's the case. It could be a 20 m^2 area, but if it had Greenland's resources they would want it.

  • Yikes, that's really gonna mess with the WHO. The WHOs 2025 funding was $291.43 million and the US's contribution is the highest at $65.16 million (~22% of the WHOs funding). The next highest is China at $43.79 million, then Japan at $23.06 million, Germany at $17.54 million, and the UK at $12.56 million.

    https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/who-funding-by-country

  • Then the outcome of that decision is inevitably war, except all of the worlds largest militaries are controlled by the intolerant countries.

  • The proper equivalent scenario would instead be someone making a hack that amplified and encouraged equality and tolerance……which doesn’t happen.

    That's not the same and it's not even the argument lol. My argument was that you're tying whether a crime was committed based on who it was against rather than what was done and your response was if what was done is different then it isn't a crime.

    So the law is already not being applied equally, and “the high ground” of tolerating intolerance simply backfires. That is exactly the paradox.

    Except that the flaw is in the law itself. Enforcement of the law in this case is not properly established to prevent the faithless action, but the conclusion of your argument is that because the law isn't working we should abandon those laws.

    I'll further argue that the Paradox of Intolerance, used in this instance, implies that if we do not tolerate intolerance we can effectively snuff it out or meaningfully prevent it and thus we do not have to tolerate intolerance at all. The sad fact is that that is not true unless you are willing to cull opposing opinions. Whether you do so within your own country or if it spreads into nation state conflicts, if you fail to tolerate intolerance you inherently move toward the assumption of violence.

  • You're still not getting it.

    You're talking about measured health impacts on an overall population not about ideologies. The idea that other ideologies are anti-social or harmful precludes the idea that your view of society is the correct one. That works out fine so long as you maintain the majority, but if the tides of time change against you then the very opposite would be true.

    A rural community of racist white people in the US aren't anti-social or harmed by their view until that dynamic changes, such as a person of color entering the community. Objectively that community lacks diversity of experience which promotes growth and development in the community (this is referencing your discussion about objective measures), but the desire to not change is part of why we these people are called conservatives and isn't fundamentally wrong. The thing you are repeatedly missing is that calling these ideologies anti-social or undesirable and not deserving of protection under the law only is your express opinion, not an objective truth, and you only support this opinion so long as you remain part of the in crowd. If the situation were reversed your opinion on whether all ideologies deserve the protection of law would reverse as well.

    You’re operating under some sort of legislation=ethics and morals framework that’s flawed in incredibly fundamental ways. Any ideology that violates the social contract cannot be protected by it.

    It's quite the opposite, I'm declaring that legislation is not equal to ethics. Ethics function purely on an implied social contract whereas laws function on explicit statements. Laws allow people of opposing opinions to coexist and instead of relying on implied incompatible social contracts they all have equal protection under the law. This by nature is the difference between Just and Fair or Equality and Equitable.

  • I feel like you are not understanding that the determination of which ideologies are harmful and aren't is ultimately a matter of opinion and you only support it so long as you agree with the outcome. Iran, China, North Korea, and many other countries are examples of the other side of your argument.

    I'm not saying that ideologies are intrinsic characteristics, I'm saying that people have the right to believe in what they want to believe and that right to believe, regardless of what it is, is an intrinsic characteristic. Some countries might not have freedom to express those beliefs but that's literally denying rights.

  • Sending a link with no additional context doesn't make a point. What are you trying to say with this?

  • It's kinda hard to claim self defense when you are launching the attack to someone in another country. If you flipped the situation around and a radical conservative hacker in Russia hacked an LGBTQ site you would immediately call that a crime. The only difference is ideological and who controls the power to determine which ideology is correct.

    I feel strongly that rules and laws should be enforced equally and that you can't put them on a spectrum. Here is another example; when Democrats were found to have potentially taken top secret files, by accident or not, the party had to investigate them with the same level of conviction as they had with Trump because failing to do so undermined their own argument.

  • You're right, using a slippery slope argument is a type of logical fallacy, but for it to be a logical fallacy it has to preclude a result and also be implausible in it's steps.

    My argument was did not preclude a result and was more a statement of fundamental change in the nature of law. If you change the application of laws from a definite system (the law applies to everyone) to a spectrum (the law applies to some people) then you are now on a slippery slope where as before you were not. As to the plausibility of the argument, we are literally seeing this effect in real time with Trump. Laws switched from being definite to being suggestions and now no one is truly certain what laws do apply and to who.