Electricity – isn’t it wonderful?
The title is from The Guardian.
Electricity is a feature in most of our lives, unless you happen to be a nomadic herder in some remote corner of the planet.
We can’t do without it.
But really we are a bunch of hypocrites.
We want electricity, but we don’t want pollution and global warming; we want electricity, but we don’t want to upset the environment with dams; we want electricity, but we don’t want nuclear reactors making it; we want electricity, but we don’t want unsightly wind farms in our backyard.
You can’t have it both ways!
You either have electricity and the encumbrances, or you don’t.
Fukushima, more disastrous than Chernobyl
Oil and gas fired electricity produces hot house gases and pollution. Hydroelectric schemes flood great swathes of land and displaces peoples (often indigenous peoples). Nuclear electricity is just plain dangerous, too stupid to even contemplate; just look at Chernobyl and Fukushima.
So we’re back to windfarms, which merely mess up the lovely view we have of the planet. Off-shore or on-shore, they seem to be the only viable solution… but are they?
Not in our backyard!
The making of these vast wind generators requires rare earths, and where are the rare earths found? In countries that have dubious scruples about mining them, back to pollution on a huge scale damaging the land for millennia.
When you boil it all down, there is no answer.
But there is… REDUCE our dependency on electricity, REDUCE our usage.
We make ‘green’ cars that use electricity, but we still have to generate the electricity and often it is with the very oil that we’re trying to save by making ‘green’ cars. It’s a vicious circle. My question is, are ‘green’ cars really green, or are we just sweeping the oil and coal under the carpet?
Man needs energy to cook, to travel, to work. The increase in population means that we need more energy.
The paradigm must change.
Instead of making more and more energy, we have to learn to use the energy we already have/make in more efficient ways.
Excess electricity can be sold to the grid
The use of solar energy must increase.
An example, and one that can be implemented tomorrow, all new houses and commercial buildings have to have solar panels; including those under construction.
“But the expense!” They’ll all cry in unison. To hell with the expense, we are trying to save the planet.
The next step, would be that solar panels must be fitted to all houses and buildings built in the last five years within five years.
We can’t dally about this, it’s not a matter for governments to discuss and spend years making a decision; it must be done NOW!
No procrastination!
We have to put the brakes on for fossil and nuclear fuels. We have to stop destroying people’s lives and natural habitats.
We have to find alternative solutions. If we don’t, there won’t be a need for solutions, because we will be extinct.
Eco-Crap 
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