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Date: 3 October, 2001
According to Solar Now, a Department of Energy sponsored project at Endicott College, the six billion people on Earth use energy averaging about 400,000,000,000,000,000 kilowatt hours per year. About 72% of the world's population lives in countries that are not industrialized. If the standard of living globally were raised to that enjoyed in the United States, kilowatt hours would jump by a factor of three or four.
Clearly, our reliance on swiftly disappearing fossil fuels must stop. While oil, natural gas and coal provide about 88% of all energy purchased worldwide, resources are declining with estimated reserves of about 60, 120 and 1,500 years respectively. Clearly, humans will have to switch to nonfossil fuels and rely on renewables that are continually regenerated, primarily by radiation from the sun.
Why the sun? The photosynthesis behind all growth of all the plants in the world - which supplies our food, wood, and other plant products, and also all fossil fuels - requires only six hundredths of one percent of the solar radiation which reaches the earth. One must ask why we are not researching and developing sophisticated approaches to tap nature's gift of the sun and its abundant, clean energy. Instead, we plunder wild places and wreak havoc on the ocean floor in search of fuels which when burned pollute the earth and gamble with its climate.
The public's long-term interests in making a renewable energy economy a reality are being neglected. This means unnecessary degradation to the environment and loss to the many good individuals and institutions working to promote the use of renewables. American PIE recommends the book "Charging Ahead" by John Berger (Henry Holt, publisher) for insight into our fossil fuel dependency; you'll also find a portrait of the new industries that could transform energy production worldwide. Building public awareness can lead to a political constituency. The energy challenges in California, drilling for oil in pristine areas of Alaska, and the U.S. dependency on foreign oil, are all good reasons to increase our knowledge about energy options.
Learn more by visiting a solar home in your region. A National Tour of Solar Homes - over 800 homes in 44 states - will be held on Saturday, October 13. Call the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) at 303-443-3130 x101 for details about the benefits of solar energy; solar technologies can be added to an existing home or designed into a new home. Call 800-363-3732, or check the ASES web site at www.ases.org, to locate a home tour near you. Call American PIE, too, for "100 Ways to Powerdown" - 100 ideas for individuals and families to diminish use of fossil fuels...and follow the sun.
Act today on this EcoAlert and thank you for your environmental responsibility.
American P.I.E.
Public Information on the Environment
124 High Street, P.O. Box 340
South Glastonbury, CT 06073-0340
Telephone: 1-800-320-APIE(2743)
E-mail: Info@AmericanPIE.org
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