This week the Government admitted to the inevitability of loosing large parts of the country to rising sea levels and is resigned to the fact that there is nothing that can be done to stop it.
Even with a complete about face in Lifestyle choices it could not halt the tides (pardon the pun)
A drastic change is required if humans are to continue to enjoy the luxuries that are being paid for at the expense of future generations.
Luxuries such as unseasonable fruit and veg, standby buttons on electrical appliances, plastic bags (the curse of modern man) to carry home an apple. Apples wrapped in plastic and worse than all, the unneccsersay gas guzzlers that fill the air with thick black smog as they transport unhealthy, week legged children to school.
There is not nor has there ever been a problem with creating energy to fuel these unnecessary and fruitless desires, the problem has only ever been, what to do with the waste that is created with it. we are fortunate and indulgent people but are lazy and irresponsible with it.
This problem of waste has now reached epidemic proportions and is no longer one that can be ignored or swept under the carpet, so as to speak.
In the past this problem seemed an unimportant quandary as the amount of industrial and social development gained from coal, gas and nuclear fuels far outweighed the problems of waste management.
The developments in social and cultural advancements due to new production techniques allowing for plastics, metals and chemicals to be manipulated in to wondrous things, have all aided to the growth and development of the human race.
All of this was done so with scant regard for the cause and effects of these advancements. And why should those pioneers of cared? One can not know the outcome of ones work until the work has been done.
However, over the decades the waste that was created has slowly become such a large and encompassing problem that it now over shadows all the benefits that has come from these energy sources.- household waste, industrial waste, commercial waste, loss of fossil fuels and the release of poisons in to the atmosphere all threaten to change the physical face of the planet. How humans adjust to these changes remains to be seen.
I was standing on the millennium bridge recently looking at the spectacular skyline of London at night, and I was admiring how beautiful it was when it was lit up. My enjoyment was hollow though, as I was more than aware of the irreversible damage that was being done to the planet for me to enjoy this light show.
I considered the dichotomy of life.
It was pretty, but essentially unnecessary, it looked nice but served little purpose other than that of ostentation. Most of the building that where lit where empty and many of the brightest lights are over advertising boards. Street lights where excessive in number and of an old design which made them wasteful and inefficient.
Only once the fuel that is used to lighten up the night skies of London is obtained from reusable or sustainable sources, I will be able fully to enjoy it.
But what could those sources be I hear you ask?
For those that know that all life is just energy and that energy never dies, it only ever transforms, it is easy to conceive of methods to obtain and create energy in many different ways.
Here’s one: miniature turbines under the pavement that produce and collect energy as people walk over them. They could be under the roads and pavements and would consist of a small air filled pouch that was connected to a turbine, as people or cars past over them the air would be squeezed out thru the turbine creating a small amount of electrical energy which could be stored. They are small and alone would produce only a little energy but if the highways and path ways of Britain where covered with them we would produce so much energy that we would have surplus amounts of it.
It would be free to produce other than the set up costs; it would be clean, sustainable and out of sight.
Just a thought
This form of energy production is not very profitable for company’s looking to maintain control and sales of energy production. There are very little production costs other than the initial start up costs and maintenance, and it would be produced by the populous thus making it difficult to claim ownership of the energy produced. This is a very unprofitable proposition for the many energy companies who currently sell us energy
Energy companies know that their days are numbered and that is why they are so intent on trying to gain control over any new developments in the field of energy production.
They are keen to be seen as developing new ways of generating energy that is clean, reusable and sustainable but in reality they are the ones who hold the patents on many new methodology but will not release them until the time is right for them economically.
Money is at the heart of this problem too, as with most things, because there is an economic stability that needs to be maintained whilst the transition is made over to new types of fuel development. That is if increased profits are the main objective and not humanity’s evolutional development.
We have arrive at a time of “acquired knowledge” and are now progressing towards the age of “application of knowledge”
We must remember that the evolution of the human race is a work in progress and we in this time are merely playing our part in turning the wheels.
It may be that our role here is no more than to see how far we have come, how far we have yet to go and to direct the course of our progression towards that future.
A future with clean, sustainable or renewable energy sources. Sources which work with rather than against the planet.
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This is where you can help make a change by changing your lifestyle; it is your lifestyle which requires that economic situation. Work towards producing your own energy and producing your own crops. Seek out methods of fuelling your lifestyle in ways that are clean and sustainable such as running your car on vegetable oil. Give up your unseasonable veg, switch off your electric appliances, let go of your plastic bags and stop buying things if they are un-necessary.
Question what are your wants and what are your needs and do they match?
For example, do you want a disposable lighter or do you need one? I would suggest you use a zippo or refillable lighter. I would suggest that the extra effort or cost incurred to make that happen would be worth it if it means not flooding the lands that we live on or poisoning the waters we drink from.
Added to that ask yourself just how much you need to go on holiday abroad when you haven’t even seen half of your home country, ask yourself just how much do you really need to make that trip by plane and not train and then ask your self just how indulgent are you that you can take “holidays” at all, at the cost of humanity’s future.
I only present these questions as a way of starting you down a road of exploration on the issues facing climate change and energy consumption, as one answer will lead to another question about our individual role in this matter.
Energy companies will change upon demand and only at an economically favourable time. So it is up to us as individuals to stop requiring such “old school” energy production as we have now, and we must request change from these companies.
Customers must demand new sources of energy but must be willing to pay the cost of this change.
We must be willing to change our lifestyles, so as to change the direction of this planets physical Course
We must remember that the evolution of the human race is a work in progress and we in this time are merely playing our part in turning the wheels.
