Most of us are on board with the need to turn away from fossil fuels, and to use carbon-free energy sources. Wind-power, Solar panels, Electric cars, and many other alternatives.

But we have to look beyond the hype if we want to face facts, and see the truth.

*A conventional wind turbine needs more fossil-fuel energy to build it than it will save in its 20-year average lifetime. Even more so if it is situated out at sea.

*Solar panels need to be constructed of metal that has to be fabricated in industrial complexes dependent on fossil fuel power. Outside of very sunny locations, they rarely generate enough power to recoup the carbon footprint of making and installing them.

*Electric cars run on batteries that need metals, chemicals, and minerals extracted from the ground using child labour and intensive industrial manufacture. The body panels are made in the same way as fuel-powered cars, and the batteries only last for 7-10 years, after which they cannot currently be recycled. The electricity needed to charge them every day has to be generated, and that is currently done mostly using fossil fuel systems.

They are all great ideas, but unless someone comes up with a miraculous alternative power source, they are simply a smokescreen.

Not my facts, and not a conspiracy theory. Just the hard truth. We have reaped what we have sown.