'Elder-Speak' : Renewable Resources

Mm-hmm ...

Here I go again.

Why am I so all-fired dead set on yammering on about renewable resources?

Because I'm all-fired sick and tired of being told we have to be involved in the conflicts of the Middle East on account of the oil.

What - we don't have our own oil? We do. So why on earth are we fussing about what's going on over there? 

Setting aside for the moment other reasons (equally nuts in my opinion) we might continue said involvement, the oil thing can and should be irrelevant.

I read that we now have three towns in the United States fully functional using renewable power sources.

Whoop whoop.

Every town ought to be fully functional using renewable power sources.

Here's an ARTICLE about some cities that are heading in the direction of renewables ... so we're at least beginning to think ... 

  is where the link will take you for said article. There are any number of related articles on line.

The point here is that we are beginning to think. And we're beginning to act on our thoughts.

It's finally starting to dawn on people that we can't just keep putting carbon into the air, and ain't that a *duh* moment.

So we're at least getting a bit of a start on using solar and wind energy, and for that I say 'THANK GOD!'

What I don't quite understand is how come small towns like the one I happen to live in aren't, every last one of them, producing their own energy needs instead of depending on 'outsiders' to provide. How come individual farms aren't?

We don't know how - well, find out. Do a simple Search and find somebody who does know how - ask them.

It's too expensive - really? It's getting cheaper every day.

It's too risky - riiiiight ... all of life is risky and getting riskier all the time.

We don't have anyone who knows how to set up and run those things - find somebody.

It's too complicated, and the existing power companies would object - are you sure about that, because big cities are a lot more complicated than our little towns and they're doing it. And, unless they're run by total morons, the existing power companies will be the ones taking the lead on this - they'll likely have people on board who could and would guide us through the transition. If not, ask those big cities.

Now, another thing we have to pay attention to is that Tesla has come up with a battery - a storage unit - plenty big enough to meet the needs of our individual homes as well as municipal needs. They're not even all that expensive and are likely to become downright affordable as things develop.

Here's a LINK to Tesla information that's an 'off-the-grid' site called Inhabitat. It's a few months old but you'll get the drift.

There are other energy storage units in the works, so don't think Tesla is the only one in the game here. 

One thing about these batteries is that you can set up where their 'charging' energy comes from - solar panels, wind turbines, or already existing sources of electricity (then you use them for emergency or high-usage times). 

In general, the point is to wean ourselves from the use of fossil fuels and quit putting all that carbon into the air. Vehicles as well as homes and communities can use the energy produced by renewables; some already are.

And onward we go.

Something that I read not long ago stuck in my mind. It has to do with not only quitting with adding carbon dioxide to our atmosphere (which isn't good for it and has to stop) but actively removing it.

A Canadian company called Carbon Engineering has been busy developing and implementing a plan for this, essentially recycling the carbon dioxide taken from the air and turning it into 'synthetic fuel' that can be used ('theoretically' - I haven't checked to make sure it's been verified yet) by our current vehicles.

I realize this might not seem like such a great big huge improvement, because the CO2 does go back into the air in the end - but it also isn't adding any more, just cycling the existing CO2 through the phase of using it for fuel. So we'll give a nod to this concept.

Then there's MIT with an article HERE about a complicated (to me) procedure to take carbon from the air and potentially re-purpose it as fibers and nano-fibers for all sorts of things. It could help speed up the re-balancing of the atmosphere.

For me, the most sensible thing we can do to help speed up that re-balancing is a no-brainer.

Plant trees.

Reforest our world.

Why we haven't been doing this all along is beyond me but there you have it.

I'm actually more guilty than most when it comes to emissions because I heat with wood - and with electricity generated by the use of fossil fuels. Since at the moment my only alternative would be to freeze to death in the Dakota Long Darks, beating myself up over it isn't going to happen. I also use that wood stove to cook and heat water, which significantly cuts down on the amount of electricity I use - so does using my 'cold cupboard' as a refrigerator/freezer, for that matter.

On the other hand, the wood I use comes from people's shelter belts and is deadwood that's long been getting in the way of new growth of young trees. As I gradually clear it out those trees are growing up to replace the long dead ones, adding their contribution to the cleaning of our air. It might not completely balance out, but I can at least have the bit of consolation of knowing we're doing the best we can here.

This neck of the non-woods has been grassland for millions of years; we use it for growing crops and raising livestock to feed the rest of the world so foresting it would be counter-productive. But we still plant lots and lots of trees wherever we can.

Beneath the western part of our state are reserves of oil. Above and around us are the sun and the wind. With the sun shining on about 200 days of our year, solar would be a fairly consistent source of our energy - and the wind blows every single day although not always at gale force (just usually) so that would probably be the preferred choice. The combination would be great.

At any rate, developing these sorts of things and making them the norm would be a very good thing for us to hurry up and tend to. Clean up our world's air, eliminate oil spills that mess up our waters, see if we can get ourselves back into some kind of balance - and use technology to help us move things along our path,  not to further upset what fragile balance we have.

As we go along, reforest everywhere that we possibly can. 

In the meantime, maybe we can try to give ourselves a bit of a boost by being more plant-friendly at home and at work.

Here's a link to an informative article about oxygen producing plants you might want to check out. It's a site called 'Secrets of Longevity' and informs us that some plants are pretty darned friendly to us. The three mentioned in the article are 1) sprouts (yes, sprouts!) 2) snake plant 3) Areca palm ... 

If ever I were to settle myself enough to think I'd remain home instead of periodically taking really long leaves of absence (plants die if nobody is there to care for them, I've learned) it would behoove me to invest in a lot of greenery. Alas for me (and for any plants that should fall into my hands) I too often do leave my home for more than the few days said plants could survive. 

Even so, it might be worth a try ... I'll have to think on that for a bit. It would be doing my own little bit toward greening up my own little corner of the world, and would be good for me besides. 

Meanwhile, it's encouraging to know that at least some of the nations of our world are beginning to take steps to fix what ails us in terms of energy resources. I probably won't live to see the day we're 'independent' of the need for oil, but I don't expect our world to die with my generation - so yeah, it pleases me to know that my grandlings might be able to say to heck with all the synthetic stuff and live in a world that's more it's own healthy self. And the Middle East can maybe just be ignored by the rest of us if they want to keep on fighting their pointless battles for thousands of years longer.