Today is Earth Day 2010 which is the fortieth anniversary of Earth Day and so as I have recently been thinking about the state of the Earth and what needs to be done to save it from the human race (or should that be for the human race?) I decided to post something on my BLOG on the subject, in fact I’ve considered doing a whole new BLOG on my thoughts on this subject.
Over thirty years ago, when I was in my teens, I accompanied my Mother, Kathleen Smith to meetings of the Huddersfield Friends of the Earth. We became members and my Mother became the Secretary to the Group. In those days the Huddersfield Friends of the Earth was mostly made up of students from the Huddersfield Polytechnic.
Admittedly I wasn’t as committed to the Group as my Mother, for example we went to London to lobby our Members of Parliament to cease nuclear expansion and I went for a sight seeing walk.
On the other hand I find it ironic that the issues that we were concerned with back then as a small minority of eccentrics are now being considered by the majority as if they are new issues brought about by global warming.
Even the idea of global warming isn’t that new.
So, what has inspired me to take a new interest in these matters? The answer is TED Talks.
I recently came across the TED Talks web-site when I was investigating the possibilities of using the internet as a teaching tool. I found a link to a TED talk on education by Sir Ken Robinson, who I had never heard of before, however his talk was very interesting and amusing.
Finding the TED Talks web-site by chance led me to partake of many other TED Talks. All were very interesting and informative and entertaining. There was even a talk by one of my favourite comedians, Rory Bremner.
TED Talks remind me of the situation in The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams where the Super Computer Deep Thought has given the answer to life, the universe and everything as the number forty-two but the question will need to be explained by a future computer thus giving work to Stand-up Philosophers for centuries while the new computer is under construction.
The TED Talks Stand-up Philosophers that inspired me the most were Bertrand Piccard, Shai Agassi, Amory Lovins, Sylvia Earle and William Kamkwabma. Most of the talks are inspiring but these stood out particularly for me.
Bertrand Piccard the round the world baloonist has a new project, to go round the world in a solar powered aircraft.
His aircraft is going to need solar panels capable of powering the aircraft’s flight during the day and also capable of charging the batteries with enough power to keep the aircraft aloft and flying through the night.
Hopefully this project will lead to improvements in solar panel and battery technology that will benefit everyone in their homes and at work.
The Solar Impulse project may appear frivolous at first glance, however the vision is that the world can be powered by renewable energy sources if we wish it and make it happen.
On 7 April at 10:30 a.m. the Solar Impulse took off for the first time from Payerne air field.
Shai Agassi gave a brilliant talk about electric cars and the Better Place organisation.
I believe that replacing petrol fueled cars with electric cars will be one of the most important changes that we can make in the next twenty years.
The Better Place organisation aims to install the electricity infrastructure as the foundation for the projects already started in Denmark, Australia and Israel.
The electricity generating companies need to see that there will be enormous profits to be made by moving away from providing electricity to residential and industrial buildings.
In the future we will have electricity Barons rather than oil Barons.
Electricity for residential and industrial buildings will in the future be provided solely by renewable sources, wind turbines, solar panels and batteries.
At the moment this technology is too expensive and does not produce enough electricity for most residential situations, this needs to change and will when the manufacturers realise the enormous potential for profit.
Appliances need to use less, we have low energy lightbulbs, we need low energy microwave ovens, televisions, personal computers, kettles, coffee percolators.
Amory Lovins has a plan to end oil dependency forever.
He and his colleagues have written a free book entitled Winning The Oil Endgame for all to read.
The inspiring thing about this talk for me was that he made the plan seem so practical, easy and obvious.
For example he states that It’s cheaper to save fuel than to buy fuel. This is especially true of oil. In fact this is what actually happened during the so called Oil Crisis of the 1970s.
He also makes a very interesting comparison with the situation that ended the whale oil industry that came to an end as the result of profit making capitalists exploiting the Americal oil fields.
Sylvia Earle gave a very passionate and inspiring talk on her One Wish To Change The World, and no it wasn’t her sexy voice, or her cute self conscious laugh that won me over.
She said the the Earth is our life support system and that we should get to know it and how it works thoroughly, and then in knowing comes caring.
The frightening thing is however that about half the Earth’s oxygen is produced by the oceans: “Health for the oceans is health for us”.
We must clean up all the Earth’s water, oceans, seas, lakes and rivers. We need them to be healthy so that we are healthy.
Industry needs to see that it is more profitable to sell it’s waste products to other industries rather than dump it in the water supply.
William Kamkwabma was perhaps the most inspiring of all.
During a famine Kamkwabwa had to give up school as the family could no longer afford the fees. He decided to educate himself.
Using the local Library he taught himself to read English and studied the books on physics. He also studied books on electrical engineering including text books on wind technology that could generate electricity and pump water.
He built wind turbines and pumps from scrap and was soon a local celebrity.
He was very nervous telling his story.
The global catastrophe that we’re actually experiencing now can be averted.