POSSIBILITY OF A SOLAR ENERGY BASED SOCIETY
The contemplated resolutions of the energy problem are principally directed
toward technological ameliorations, all extensions of present momentums.
Every concept of tomorrow contains more automobiles, more cumulative pollution,
and more carbon dioxide emissions, particularly through the combustion of
coal. But every tomorrow is one in which the reckoning will have less time
before its moment and less natural resources with which to accomplish the
transformation. We are dealing with the possibility that an entire global
infrastructure become inappropriate for the continuation of humankind. With
the lifetime of building that will be required for its replacement, if such
a possibility does become a necessity, then it is imperative that we conceive
with anticipation at least a feasible alternative. Such an alternative may
ultimately entail the restructuring of every dimension of society, physical
and social; furthermore, it is imperative that any thinking be global, that
is, of a solution which can be theoretically realized world around, and not
be limited to an inimitable concentration of capital.
Solar energy, harvested through photovoltaic cells, solar thermal concentration, or windmills, is habitually mentioned in any future scenario, usually as a utility owned centralized generation of electricity, which is to partially replace fossil fuel driven plants. The cost of such energy source is above that of coal powered plants, but the costs are truly paid with the production of that electricity, not shed off into the environment as an ecological disruption with consequences to be later paid. But this is not a societal direction of endeavor, only something that economic pricing is supposed to bring into effect when the utility companies believe their interests to be in that direction, and it is far from being a solution to the ever increasing dependence upon private transportation.
Production of electricity from solar energy is more appropriately generated close to its use point; there is no need for centralized generation, and this confronts the monopoly that the utilities so enjoy. Instead of grids now conducting electricity finally in the form of alternating current generated significantly distant from the point of use, the form of electricity opposed by Thomas Edison but imposed by the accumulations of capital to better assure their monopoly, the grid could be one combining the generation and distribution of direct current electricity, more economical of transmission and more easily accessed by photovoltaic generation. The combining of transportation and communication into this same grid, through elevated magnetic propulsion systems, fiber optics, and possibly superconductivity, would be the creation of glinting streams of modularly constructed life support, wending here and there, potentially stretching across, up, and down continents, linking together the centers of food production and human dwelling. If mankind were totally dedicated to reliance upon such a grid, it is not inconceivable that someday the Bering straits become crossed, to link the old world and the new in the original manner, allowing the grid to be a production of energy twenty-four hours a day and a overland transportation system linking the two hemispheres. Immediately, arise to mind the problems of finance for such a nation transcending system. Who could own such a system so very social in its nature, with a time of return upon investment that might be as much as a lifetime for the initial construction? What government is in position to even approach affording such transformation?
The profusion of computers, now used most often for the management of money, could be replaced by a networked comprehension and coordination of economic effort, using as a base an energy accountability, combining human effort with the labor-displacement-potential of energy sources, creating through the integration of knowledge and effort a categorically greater efficiency of social endeavor. But society would have to be joined together in true unity, in a manner unknown at present.
Much depends upon the abandonment or preservation of thinking which perceives present money distributed wealth as fair and rightful, as ideally equaling the social value of work performed. If we are to trust in the faith held concepts of eventual justice and liberty for all through the mechanisms of production growth, then we are committed to essentially more of the same, certainly to nothing which entails massive reorganization of infrastructure and society.
We have come to the point where we are aware that we know not how severe the damage to the environment might become from the actions we have already realized, and we know not if the continuation, let alone the acceleration, of present energy trends and methods of production shall lead us to a catastrophe of global population decimation through starvation and deprivation induced quarrel. For if we think that we can violate any desired limit of nature with impunity simply because we have somewhat developed the tool of science, then we could be well in for a learning that might warrant such a back step in civilization.
Aids has caused a change in social behavior, one not initially desired but accepted as the only feasible remedy to the malady. We would like to continue building our social structure about the usage of private transportation, but it is entirely feasible that such will be impossible.
It may well be that our only wise course of action is to begin a direction toward a sustainable economic reality, hoping that we will have begun propitiously, and that chaos not surround us in the midst of our efforts, the sun bear burning upon our skins, and starvation rage rampant upon the globe in consequence of our past actions. Build and restructure as quickly as we might, we will, if we are skillful and with integrity, save the greater knowledge of civilization and enough living species of the earth to someday attain unto a civilization which can begin to develop from the point of stability, equity, and sustainability, perhaps only fully with the descendants of our descendants.
Liberté, égalité, and now most importantly, fraternité.
--Morningthunder