Save The Earth

Hey, I would like to add my voice to the “Please Think Harder” wing of the “Save The Earth” crowd.

I am one of us, and I have recently put solar panels on my house. My EWEB bill around Summer Solstice showed that I was producing more electricity than I was using, but at Winter Solstice my energy production was almost negligible (shorter days; lower, less intense sun; many cloudy days, etc.).

The same would be true on a larger scale in our region; more than enough energy in the summer (maybe), and
nowhere near enough in the winter (definitely). Go solar, yes, and please be realistic about its inherent limitations and added complexities.

More “physics”: The amount of energy stored in a gallon of gas is truly profound. Don’t take my word for it; just go push your car 25 miles and then we can talk. For us all to be driving electric cars, we would have to generate many times more electricity than we do now! How would we do that? Is that even the right direction?

Don’t even get me started on the carbon-footprint insanity of strawberries flown in from Chile, or the gallons of fuel per mile it takes to ship our garbage to the other side of the world!

The entire structure of society, including all of us, is completely invested in and dependent on a way of life that just cannot continue. Severe disruptions are both necessary and inevitable, and to over-simplify is to underestimate what lies ahead.

Rick Moser

Eugene