Energy

Throughout recorded human history, the growth of civilization has been linked to the development of energy. In ancient cultures, animals were a major source of energy for the development of agriculture. More sophisticated cultures used human slaves as energy to build cities and monuments. Contemporary society, from the flip of a light switch to rockets blasting into space, is built upon readily available energy.

Until the last 50 years or so, people took easy energy for granted. Today as concern risese about the effects of burning fossil fuels on climate change, along with increased awareness of declining oil reserves, Earth's people are looking for answers. For many scientists, the answer is solar power. Solar energy's benefits include independence from foreign oil suppliers, less air and water pollution causing climate change and decentralized energy production that could be better protected from terrorism.



Noted ecologist Daniel B. Botkin, who has written extensively on environmental issues, including energy, argues that alternative energy sources are essential to preserving human civilization. He contends that one of the main reasons the human species has "won" the natural struggle to perpetuate our kind is because people learned how to gather more energy than other species, how to store and how to use it more efficiently. Without sufficient energy, people – in fact, all species of life – barely subsist, unable to progress past procuring their next meal.

The answer to this dilemma, says the ecologist, is raining down ceaselessly on our planet in the form of solar energy. In fact, all life can trace its existence back to the Sun's energy. Plants collect solar energy through their leaves, converting it to food by the process of photosynthesis. Animals and people alike eat plants for food, and people also consume animals and their products, such as milk and eggs. As a result of this chain of life, finding energy alternatives to fossil fuels isn't merely the concern of environmentalists; it bears on the future of every living being on planet Earth.

Botkin and other scientists build a serious case for solar energy as the global solution to fossil fuel use. Botkin's primary example is the world's biggest solar electric installation on a farm in Bavaria, Germany, where solar panels generate 10 megawatts on a mere 62 acres. What's even more encouraging about this energy source is that Germany's climate isn't the kind of always-sunny environment normally associated with solar power production. Nonetheless, the installation has been working productively for several years. What's more, Botkin calculates that Germany could supply all its energy needs if only 3.5 percent of its surface area – farm fields, rooftops, etc. – were dedicated to generating solar power.

Botkin also points out in an online post that in 2002 Con Edison built New York City’s largest commercial rooftop solar energy system for $900,000, providing energy for 100 houses. Estimating an average of four people per home, the cost for installation is $2,250 per person. The United States could install solar generators for each of its 300 million people at a total cost of $675 billion, or less than the country's annual $720 billion a year trade deficit.

So why are the countries of the Earth dragging their feet on converting from fossil fuels to solar power? Perhaps the horrendous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this year will convince the United States, the world's number-one energy user, to switch to the sun's energy and save the planet.