Just to throw one more concept into the mix for this great holistic discussion - the embodied carbon of our renewables is not zero, and in fact is sometimes not showing as paying for itself (carbon wise) in a low energy house for a long long time (See Bronwyn Barry’s presentation on the PH Ribbon from the recent NA Passive House Network Conference).
I see a lot of scary language out there from proponents of the status quo who say we need to mine too much new material for our renewables. I think its less than they say, but we desperately need to keep all of our currently available precious metals out of the landfill and ramp up recycling programs of all electronics etc…
Cue the fire in the belly feeling! 