The actually not-so-harsh reality is that the U.S. and the rest of the world needs to switch over to more renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind.  While high oil costs have generated a lot more discussion of and support for greener alternative energy sources, some will undoubtedly pish posh the idea that we have to switch — anytime the price of oil recedes, just a little bit, you can expect some brainy-hack to tell you that the second oil age is here and that everyone can quit talking about alternative energy, because, “it’s just too costly,” even though we could spend the same amount over the next ten years that would have been spent on oil on alternative oil.  Pumping up our economy, instead of pumping oil.

Really not a harsh reality…

No, it’s not a harsh reality we fact, though.  Many of our political leaders may lack the gumption to move toward a more sustainable future (or at least to move quickly).  However, a past political leader, Al Gore, is calling for the U.S. to move to 100 percent renewable electricity within ten years.  Sure, he’s not in office and so has little to lose by making such a proposal.  Yet, he still has the voice of major political figure in the U.S. and is putting forth a realistic, optimistic goal.

And why shouldn’t he?  John F. Kennedy challenged the country to support putting a man on the moon within a decade, and we didn’t exactly have the means to do that at the time of that proposal.  However, comparing Gore’s proposal to that of Kennedy’s is not fair to either proposal or messenger.  We have wind turbines and solar panels.

We have the ability to employ large number of people producing, installing, and maintaining such a system, including the hardware that generates the electricity and the grid that would support the broad range of area such systems would span.  Compare that with buying oil on the world market and you can see that jobs at home transforming to greener energy is easy.

An oft-quoted figure is that enough sunlight hits the earth’s surface in forty minutes to generate enough photoelectric current via solar cells to power the earth’s electricity needs for one year.  Wow!  Granted, we cannot cover the earth in solar cells, but we could place them strategically in a lot more places than we currently do.

Remain Vigilant

People are waking up every day.  Not just to their alarm clocks, but to the earth’s alarm systems, saying that we need to switch to renewables because:

1. The earth cannot sustain and withstand the abuse due to carbon and other elements being released into the air, rivers, lakes, soils, and seas: toxic environments and global warming
2. There is not enough nonrenewable fuel stores for everyone’s needs indefinitely.  The costs go up, and the amount available always falls.
3. Finally, it’s making better financial sense to do what is possible — it is well within the means of our scientific and financial abilities to do what Mr. Gore has proposed.

So go out and talk this up — don’t cave in to people telling you that it’s a pie-in-the-sky idea that never could gain traction.  Stay educated, discuss the issue, and give it the power of public support that it needs.  It is a solid proposal, maybe a stretch goal, but nonetheless, we as a nation should shoot for greatness, and this would be a great example of leadership for the rest of the world to follow, even if it takes us twelve or fifteen years.

Related posts:

1. Al Gore Challenges U.S. to Change to Carbon-Free Energy in Ten Years Gore moves the debate toward using 100% renewable power sources...
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3. False Debate of Offshore Oil Drilling Will offshore oil drilling solve our energy crisis? Should it...