About sixteen years ago, I was watering my plants when one of those poor college saps who got suckered into going door-to-door to get signatures on environmental issues wandered into my yard looking both lost and bright-eyed at the same time. I like to think he’s get his bright-eyed enthusiasm, but the going door-to-door collecting signatures has a way of beating enthusiasm down with a stick. Anyway, he was collecting signatures to get a bill passed that would help end the state’s reliance on fossil fuels. I told him I thought that was a wonderful idea and asked what the proposed solution was. Nuclear? Too dangerous. Wind? Too dangerous for birds. The answer, according to him, was solar.
Now, bear in mind, this was in the early 2000s when solar tech was nowhere near where it is now and nowhere near ready to take over even New Mexico’s energy needs. He dug in his heels and said it was solar or nothing.
In a way, he was onto something. But, just like the guy putting raw ground beef on a burger bun, he was way too early. The technology was nowhere near mature enough. The ability to kind of power a house didn’t translate to powering a state even in a part of the country where we have something like 300+ sunny days a year. That was bad enough, but he was adamant that the only thing that would work was a complete switch over to solar. No incremental fixes for this guy, he was just going to throw a shit-ton of cash at the problem and flip a switch when it was all said and done and everything would be perfect.
Much as I love the idea of solar power, I couldn’t get behind an all-or-nothing solution, so I bid him good day and didn’t sign his petition; it seemed like it had disaster written all over it.
Back in World War II (and trust me, this will make sense in a few minutes), Japan suffered such heavy bombing that its infrastructure was basically destroyed. Electricity, gas, water, everything. Even phone lines were toasted. Being the Japanese, they rebuilt everything better than it was before and even eventually build the most advanced cellular network in the world. That was partially because they didn’t have to shoehorn it into an existing system; it could be anything they wanted it to be so they made it totally badass.
Or at least that’s the story I’ve heard. It may or may not be true, but last time I was in Japan, their cell system (and cell phones) were light years ahead of anything else I’d seen at the time. Theirs could launch space shuttles, my phone could very slowly play Tetris on a 2″ black and white screen.
The US power system (and its attendant reliance on fossil fuels) is very much a thing and any new things that get added have to be shoehorned into that thing or it’s all gonna fall apart or not even make it to the adoption phase. Fossil fuels are so entrenched in our culture that even the thought of doing something else leads to screams of “socialism!” and “dirty hippies!” Even though getting rid of fossil fuel reliance would be an amazing thing, it’s going to have to be an incremental process that will likely involve bribing no end of Congress critters. It’ll happen eventually – there’s too much public outcry over pollution for it not to – but it ain’t gonna happen all at once.
Interestingly, in emerging nations, that’s a non-issue. They don’t have to worry about shoehorning new tech into old or paying off the old guard to let them do it because there’s just not that much infrastructure there to replace. As a result emerging nations are the ones driving innovation in renewable energy technologies like solar while the developed parts of the world are stuck using decades or centuries old technology. Just like the Japanese after World War II, they’ve got a mostly clean slate to work with.
That means that things like wind a solar energy are much more viable systems and their utilization is driving down the cost of the technologies and improving them at the same time. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., we’re still debating about clean coal and whether or not climate change is a thing.
So, hats off to innovation. It would seem that necessity really is the mother of invention. Read the original article here.
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And now, your moment of Zen.
Eric Lahti 
The all or nothing approach never works. There has to be balance. Luckily there are enough green technologies out there that this is possible. Now if we just had an administration that could get behind it…. :o)
No kidding. I used to have a buddy that refused to accept incremental changes in car fuel. I pointed out that it was unlikely that we’d see a panacaea any time soon and we should be exploring whatever options were available to get away from gas, but he dug in his heels and refused to accept anything other than being able to go to the pump and get his diesel fuel. It’s gonna be a tumultuous time while we wean ourselves off some of this old tech, but the results should be positive. The trick is getting a government that isn’t in the pockets of whoever’s producing the oil.
Solar panels were supposed to be the ultimate solution. I agree that all or nothing is over-optimistic but do hope for progress in dealing with change.
At least solar and wind are being experimented with and are actually showing some promise. The final solution will likely be a mixture of solar, wind, and whatever else we can find. Coal is already running out and nuclear has its own set of issues: It’s nice and clean until it’s not and then it’s severely unclean.
This is such a debate that rages on. Renewable energy is always expensive to begin with but it soon shows its value in many ways not least our reliance on coal et al. Old habits die hard and there’s ALWAYS a bit of the ole bribery thrown into the mix ..Thanks Eric.
It’s interesting and disheartening that in the U.S., we tend to fight (or ignore) advancement in technology and initiatives that will make the planet and life healthier, easier and happier. Although you make a good point about how we struggle to overcome existing structure while underdeveloped countries can start new. I believe part of this has to do with being comfortable at status quo or the fear of change, along with the issues of what’s already in existence. Oh, and there’s the money thing too.
Thanks for this #WATWB post, Eric, and for being a host this month.
I think mostly it’s the money. When you’ve got entire nations dependent on selling oil for their continued prosperity, they’re not going to go quietly into the night. Although, I gather the Saudis have been looking at how they’re going to transition their economy after the oil runs out, but that may just be a wild rumor.
We will have to look at green and renewable energies. The writing is on the wall
So in a way it would seem that being underdeveloped is good so that you can easily adopt modern methods! WOw! But this I understand. When a civilisation is highly evolved, it is harder to fit in new models…..
You make a very good point, Eric. It is harder to break through existing infrastructure and beliefs and push through with new innovation.
Thanks for hosting, Eric. I love the snark you bring to WATWB.
Thanks, Damyanti! And thanks for setting up and maintaining WATWB!