Solar power
It’s time to have another peek at the greatest source of energy on, I mean off the planet. And by that I mean solar power. The energy that drives 99.999% of all things on this planet comes from the sun. Geothermal and nuclear power make up the other .0001%. Plants seem to have the right idea. The vast fossil fuel stores of oil, natural gas and coal are just solar energy stored in carbon form. 350 to 400 million years ago the vast fossil fuel stores were created by an amazing ecosystem upon which our modern society is currently choking itself to death.
Its time to step back to the progenitors of those fossil fuels and instead of burning them we have to emulate them. We have to learn how to power our technology through the sun. And it appears that we are making some headway in that respect. Solar panels have become far more reliable and energy efficient over the past decade. Though they still have a long way to go, they are providing many homes with safe, clean and long term energy.
But there is still a long way to go. Just as scientists a few hundred years ago looked to the birds in their efforts to understand how to fly, we have to look at the ultimate users of solar energy, plants, in order to understand how best to make use of the sun. Every tree leaf and blade of grass, quietly, efficiently and safely converts the power of the sun into energy to growth, feed itself and procreate. It disassociates CO2 into its constituents, lowers atmospheric CO2 in the process and makes oxygen, the gas of life for the rest of us to breathe. All this is powered by the sun and only the sun. And only a fraction of the sun’s power is tapped in the process. There is still a huge amount left over that gets radiated back into the vastness of space surrounding the Earth.
The chemical that plants have discovered that allows them to corral the sun’s power is Chlorophyll. Its an amazing chemical, one that has already been worked into the ecosystem and one that is almost everywhere recognized as the universal solar converter. While we mess with toxic rare earths, plants have already sorted it all out and made incredible use of their solar converter.
We in the West are at the forefront of technology. We in the west have also created the vast proportion of the world’s climate change problems. We have achieved what we have achieved on fossil fuels and in the process made it impossible for the developing countries. They are in a lose lose situation. They lose if they do not use fossil fuels and they lose if they do. It falls upon us in the West to make the next great leap ahead, develop the technologies that will allow us all to live in harmony with the world around us. It is quite possible solar research is the ultimate answer and we have to look no further than our own front yards. After all it was done before when the ancestors of grass and the trees came into being some four billion years ago. Time to revisit the obvious.
February 14th, 2008 at 6:23 am
We have a cure for global warming, and have unlimited energy,it’s just that the world is so hell bound on making profits. We could spend years modifying our cars and factories to limit global warming but untill we rid the world of greed, this problem will still remain.
Someone once said”for every action there’s an equial and opposite reaction” Well,… this law still stands today.
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:54 am
last july i was forced to sell the house i built. i then purchased a piece of land and started over. but this time i went green. i framed with 2×4 and braced the walls so they stay square. then i covered the outside of the studs with 1 inch styrofoam, strapped horizontal every 2 feet. then board and batt. inside the walls i put pink insulation. instead of regular plastic vapour barrier i put foil. i burnt a little over 1 cord of wood this winter. i have three 2ftx4ft skylights that face south. they let in enough heat to warm the place on sunny days. it’ all common sence. i would like to install a grey water system,but they are not legal. well,there you are a common sence system that is shot down by government. i thought the government wanted to go green. guess they mean the green in their pocket.