We are, allegedly, in the midst of an “energy transition.” How very exciting! We are moving from dirty old fossil fuels, which are heating the planet, to lean clean green [fill in the blank – CCS, Nuclear, hydrogen, wind, solar, geothermal, grid-level batteries, perpetual motion machines] because we are a clever ingenious species interested in its own survival.
Apologies for the tone, but one of the things you see – if you’re a cynic who has read a history book, and/or lived through some history – is that we tell each other (and ourselves) stories we want to hear. Crucially, these stories then shape our perception, shape the way we select evidence to confirm these stories (1).
The ability to see this, to name it, and to try to compensate for it, is one of those “core skills” that many claim they have. But it requires not just competence, but also confidence and courage. Saying that the pretty story that people are lulling themselves with (and getting vibes, attention and cash from) is just a story, and that there are plot holes big enough to let a category six hurricane through, can be a risky business.
Michael Liebreich delights in punching holes in stories. Hydrogen was the subject of his latest effort. His lecture last Thursday was both brutal and hilarious.
Liebreich also co-hosts a podcast called Cleaning Up. The two obvious meanings are “making money” and “dealing with physical pollution,” but there’s a third (unintended?) meaning of de-mythifying, of clearing out the Augean stables of horseshit.
Ah,horseshit. That’s where I wanted to get to. Listening to Cleaning Up Podcast episode 165 Battery Recycling Is Here – But Where Are The Batteries?
I got to thinking of horseshit. Not what the guest – Hans Eric Melin – had to say. He was crystal clear on what could and couldn’t be expected of battery recycling (from EVs, to grids etc etc). He also talked about the very persistent myth that only 5% of batteries are recycled/are recyclable. He explained where it came from, and how it keeps popping up. Listen to the podcast, and/or read him here on LinkedIn.
Tl:dr – the two sources of the myth are a Friends of the Earth press release and the abstract of a scientific paper (the claim not supported in the body of that paper!).
And what the 5% figure reminded me of was the Great Manure Crisis of 1894 (told you I was old).
“Late 18th century cities like London and New York seemed to be ‘drowning in horse manure’. In London, where the horse-carried Hansom Cab occupied the streets, 50.000 horses produced 570.000 kilograms of horse manure and 57.000 litres of urine daily. Together with the corpses of death horses, the urine and manure started to poison the city’s inhabitants. In 1894 the Times predicted that “in 50 years, every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure.” The situation came to be known as the ‘Great Manure Crisis of 1894’ [source, and see here too].
Role of myths in transitions
Generally, we like to tell stories. They make us feel like we are in control, or – failing that – that we will be less surprised than other people when surprising/uncontrollable things happen.
This energy transition that we are going through (kinda sorta) is scary, disorientating, and discombobulating. Expect loadsa stories. especially from people who want your money.
Meanwhile, we like to hear stories – to scare ourselves with the bogey-man (mountains of horseshit will crush us!!). This is something you see especially in the 1970s disaster novels (ecology and/or technology running amok) that I read compulsively (2).
If you tell stories about how technological innovation X, which is necessary for the “transition” is impossible (“batteries aren’t being/can’t be recycled”) you look like (3) the grown-up in the room, the person who is not a gullible rube taken in by all the hype (4).
And so, the myths persist, with new factoids (67.4 percent of statistics are made up on the spot) and anecdotes (its plural is not data) sprinkled on top.
What is to be done?
The usual – the Cocker Protocol.
But also holding our stories up to the light, thinking when they are too good to be true etc.
Thinking about the role of metaphors, memes and fables in thinking about energy – there’s a great book – Energy Fables: Challenging Ideas in the Energy Sector.
But also, and I cannot emphasize this enough, the Cocker Protocol.
Footnotes
- And if anyone tries to tell you that academics are partially or entirely immune to this tendency, you have my permission to laugh in their faces.
- The 1970s were the time when Whitey stopped being in charge in the way he had been for hundreds of years. The techno-eco-disasters are in part a way of working through that loss of primacy. But also, giant ants are fun.
- In your own eyes. It turns out other people don’t always share our opinions of ourselves. Who knew.
- There are also pleasures in being the reply guy, the concern troll, but that can be for another time.
References/further reading
Morris, E. 2007. From horse manure to horse power
Rinkinen, J (ed) 2019 Energy Fables: Challenging Ideas in the Energy Sector