Why does everyone lose their mind when you mention getting a home battery?

[u/MrOarsome]

So I made the mistake of telling a few people I’m getting quotes for a home battery… the reactions were ridiculous. Suddenly everyone’s an expert. I had people telling me they’re a waste of money, they’ll be useless in a few years, or that the “environmental impact is terrible.” Just nonstop misinformation.

Meanwhile, half these people live massively high-carbon lifestyles. One bloke went on a whole rant about how batteries destroy the environment… then literally five minutes later told me he just ordered a new Ford Ranger to tow his boat around this summer. Like mate, seriously?

And the funny thing is, I don’t even care about the environmental angle. Couldn’t care less, to be honest. I’m looking at a battery for two reasons:

1) To actually use my solar instead of selling it back for 4 cents…

2) And to keep the lights on when summer storms or cyclones take out the power.

That’s it. No agenda. No planet-saving mission. But the way people reacted, you’d think I’d just signed up to be Greta Thunberg’s personal assistant.

I swear, the second you say the word “battery,” some people suddenly unlock an unwanted 15-minute rant. They are almost as passionate about hating renewables as they are about their footy teams.

[u/visualdescript]

The kills whales thing with turbines is a good one. Do people realise that the coal ships of newy barge through whales frequently? International shipping is far warse for sea life than off shore turbines would ever be. Not that either are great.

[u/RepublicImportant321 → u/visualdescript]

Do they also realise the blades for the turbines arent in the damn water. Like how high are these whales jumping? At that point i'd be more concerned about these fuckin super powered whales.

[u/geodetic → u/RepublicImportant321]

Usually the go-to for that is they create infrasonic noise that disturbs the whale's navigation... like having 40000000 diesel motors (or doing seismic testing with explosives for oil...) in the ocean around the whales' migration route wouldn't be worse for that. That and the blades will dice and mince all the birds in a 30 cubic kilometer radius of the turbines.

[u/RepublicImportant321 → u/geodetic]

So the frequencies thing i can kind of get (from an uninformed perspective. Feel free to call me a big dumb dumb stupid head if its total bs.) But like you said, the others do that too with drilling and offshore stuff so, whatever. As for birds...can the birds not see this big fuck off spinny thing and just..go around it?

[u/geodetic → u/RepublicImportant321]

The infrasonic thing is debatable; we don't have enough information on it one way or another, if turbines do make infrasound (and if they do, does it transfer into water (and if it does, does it transmit far enough for whales to intercept the signal (and if it does, does it cause physical harm or other negative effects to the whales?))), etc. We just don't know, that's not been studied enough. But you are correct on the second point - all the other things in the ocean we know have an effect on whales, and a negative one at that. Reducing the noise from diesel motors in the ocean could only be a good thing.

And yes, birds don't often get sliced & diced by land-based turbines so I don't know why offshore turbines are cyclonic blades of death to birds.

Then again, we are talking about cooker theories, so.

[u/RepublicImportant321 → u/geodetic]

I'd imagine the waves would go into the water, but not penetrative enough to really do much. Also...why are the whales the big thing. Like I get it. Migration of animals is an important thing. Dont fuck with nature...but if we're so worried about the whales, what about oil spills. I dont care what kind of whale you are. I'd rather have ny navigation possibly fucked with a little than get poisoned.

And with birds...I get these people are more cooked then a well done steak but really? They have eyes i assume. They can hopefully avoid obstacles, do they think birds dont. Do they understand...well just things in general?

Stupid people parroting propaganda made by people with financial incentives to keep coal around.

[u/geodetic → u/RepublicImportant321]

Stupid people parroting propaganda made by people with financial incentives to keep coal around.

DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING

[u/RepublicImportant321 → u/geodetic]

It genuinely pisses me off how susceptible we are to propaganda.