Ray of Hope

Today the oil-stained tides are turning on the oil stained oilrigs. More and more green people are jumping on the DIY solar bandwagon. PV installers are available for those willing to make long-range investments. AND DIY people, capable of doing the work, are making cost effective, practical investments in solar heating systems.

Fortunately most of the materials needed for solar heating systems are still commonly available. In 1980 I worked with the Adirondack Solar Association to help people make collectors and other solar applications from commonly available materials. After the Oil Embargo in the mid 70’s the alternative energy industries started to blossom, but fragile new green businesses were stomped out when Reagan killed Carter’s “Solar Bank Bill” in 1980. The Alaska pipe line and other well drilling operations soon brought the price of oil back down so people soon lost interest in alternative energy resources.

Unfortunately drilling our way out of the energy crisis does not work. The made race to capitalize on our planets rapidly disappearing oil resource causes catastrophic injuries to our fragile environment. Hazel Henderson, an economic advisor for president Carter, was also the author of “Dawn of the Solar Age”. She compared the oil companies and other large corporations to dinosaurs. Mrs. Henderson said they are all headed toward extension and we should step aside when they begin to fall. For this reason I believe bailing out extinct dinosaurs and attempting to stimulate dead or dying industries is a mistake.

Hopefully the Obama administration will at least be able to stand firm on the issue of the offshore drilling moratorium…. AND hopefully the bridge between green energy awareness and green energy jobs will be built. Social transformation is a slow, painful, difficult process and many will not adapt… But we should all accept the natural evolutionary process as a condition of life.

As the polar icecaps continue to melt, and as world temperature and world population continues to rise the jobless find themselves at the crossroads of a social revolution. We are all on the endangered species list and it may be too late to reverse the global warming and global pollution trend. We have never been on top of the food chain and in charge of nature and we are only a small part of the universe and our inability to work in harmony with nature may soon be challenged. If we are to survive as a species we must listen to our inner voice of truth and understanding and find a way to connect with the world around us. We do have alternatives but we need to stand together and turn those alternatives into practical social and economic solutions. All we have to do is read the writing on the wall and take actions based on understanding rather than media manipulation. There is still a ray of hope.