Evolving situations call for evolving techniques -- and attitudes!
Dear Fellow Earthlings, If we improve our ability to utilize the radiant heat bathing Earth daily, then we will be
able to rely solely on the Sun for all of our power generation needs. There would no longer
be any need for fossil fuels, geothermal, tidal, wind, or nuclear electrical power generation.
As the human population on Earth increases we find ourselves in a wild scramble to utilize all sorts of resources for our energy needs. It is not merely that our numbers are going up, but that, with globalization making it easier than ever to see what is "on the other side of the fence", all humans are coming to expect as many material comforts as possible. Along with an increased need for the essentials (air, water, food, housing, health care), we humans also expect increased comfort and recreation (such as central air conditioning, automobiles, plane travel, the newest handheld gadgets, and attending sporting events). As a corollary to this, it becomes necessary to have military forces, police, and other means for (depending on the party or parties concerned) acquiring, securing, and/or protecting various energy sources. Another corollary is economic in nature. Power companies would not be able to prosper if each hand held device owned by any human being old enough and/or healthy enough to do so could capture the radiant heat from the sun (even on cloudy days), store that heat energy during periods of darkness, and serve as an energy source for each human's home, garden, vehicle, and so on. Members of the fossil fuel industry would also hate to see the worth of their products drop to zero. Those whose work is related to the construction, operation, and maintenance of geothermal, tidal, wind, and nuclear power plants would also be obliged to seek employment in some other field of endeavor. There would be little need for concern, however. The services of those people whose jobs were
lost due to the huge changes in the manner through which we meet our power generation requirements would still be in demand. Such people could be retrained very easily. This would allow them to use the talents they had previously drawn upon as they had worked in the generation of power from sources now rendered obsolete. With a little training these people would be able to improve solar energy harvesting, storage, and distribution.
Plus!... --- and this is a very important "plus"! -- these workers, their families, friends, and countrymen would all have cleaner air to breathe, cleaner waterways to ply, quieter highways to travel, no railways (since hyperlink technology could take over that niche) to maintain, cooler water temperatures to savor, and no more damned -- Oops! I mean "dammed" -- rivers to be concerned about. For all would-be Don Quixotes, there would be no more wind turbines to fight -- and for coastal fishermen, no turbines to contend with. (The manatees of Florida have grown rather dependent on the warm water released by power plants along Florida coasts during winter. So some sort of exception would be needed to make sure the manatees were accommodated.) Oh, how wonderful our environment would become -- much as it was before we began wandering about, exploiting it, first in baby steps, but now in a full bore assault on the very innards of the Mother who bore us in the first place! Steve Walker
Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.