Worrying about climate change? Concerned about running out
of traditional fossil fuels like petrol and gas? Well,
frankly, I don't blame you. The entire content of our news
feeding media gives us a daily repertoire of bleak doom and
gloom.
A long time ago, media and sales agencies came to the
conclusion that 'fear aids the sale'. There can be no
better way to have people rush to the shop than to fill
them with fear of what might happen if they don't buy that
product today. Scarcity is commonly known to be one of the
best sales aids. Buy it before we take it away. Get it now
before it all runs out.
Yes, but is it true? Are we undergoing a major climate
change? True, false or don't you know, are we are running
out of traditional fossil fuels like petrol and gas?
Well what is true is that more than 95 percent of all
scientists who have looked at this issue have concluded
that, yes, we are in the process of significant climate
change. If you watch Al Gore's harrowing film An
Inconvenient Truth, you will no doubt recall the shocking
statistics of just how far into the process of climate
change we actually are.
It is of little consequence to me whether the climate
change is man made or not. What is important is knowing
that reducing the amount of CO2 we pump out into the
atmosphere will reduce the effect. What we know is that, by
using renewable energy sources like solar power, wind
power, hydroelectric power, biomass and the like, we will
radically reduce the level these emissions.
What is also the case, according those who study these
things, is that our supply of petrol is finite and as such,
it is running out. Most people agree that this will happen
within the next 50 years. Of itself, that is not a problem.
The problem lies in the belief that we are not prepared for
this. We are concerned that we do not have the
infrastructure to energize the modern world without the
input from the oil industry.
However, developments are happening all the time in and
around the new renewable energy industries. For example, it
is no coincidence that the car manufacturers who are
producing the most energy efficient cars are the ones who
are prospering while the old-school gas guzzling companies
are struggling. The automobile industry as a whole is
moving towards a new green agenda. Electric cars are not a
thing of the future. They are with us now!
With the election of Barack Obama, you could say that this
is also the case with politics. People are turning to
cleaner options as their solution. Undoubtedly, solar power
is one essential part of this solution.
Now the question is, 'Should we be worried about the
future?' 'Will we get by without traditional fossil fuels?'
Our answer at Go Solar Power For Homes Dot Com is simple.
We have enough resources to get through this, to turn it
around, to set up a world for everyone with no one left
out, and we don't have to strangle the life out of the
planet to do it.
Still sceptical? That's fine but please consider the
following:
What if we were to give one percent of our income towards
preventing further climate change?
Using figures from the UK, according to government
statistics at statistics.gov.uk, the average wage in the UK
for full time employees per week is £479. So, the
average annual wage in the UK works out at £22,992.
One percent of £22,992 is £229.92 which works out
to £4.79 per week.
So, investing one percent of earnings towards stopping
climate change would cost the average person in the UK
£4.79 per week, or £19.16 a month (the equivalent
of £229.92 per year).
Now, this is where it starts to get interesting.
Again according to official statistics (this time from
www.cia.gov, figures for July 2007), the UK has a
population of 60,776,238.
If everyone were to invest one percent of our earnings
towards addressing the issues relating to climate change,
we would raise roughly £291 million per week. Now,
let's take one third out to account for old age pensioners
and children and we are still left with £194million
per week.
This is an amazing figure and could really help tackle
climate change. Investing £20,000 in wind or solar
power for homes would maybe not take the average home
completely off-grid, but it would certainly massively
reduce our use of traditional fossil fuels.
So, if we were to invest that amount per home, we could
give roughly 10,000 homes per week wind or solar power.
Within a very short time, we could have the whole country
fully invested in renewable sustainable clean energy.
Persuading industry of the need to use renewables will
always boil down to finance. Can we provide insustry with
enough incentives to go green? Well, all the signs are that
we already are doing so. We mentioned the car industry
earlier as an example. the whole industry has recognized
that it is 'Adapt or die', and they are acting accordingly,
investing in new cleaner technologies.
If we keep going in the direction we are heading we will
get to our chosen destination. So, now that we have
established the fact that we could easily resolve the
climate change issue using solar power and other renewable
energy sources, here comes the kicker.
Would you be willing to pay one percent of your income (on
average roughly £4.79 per week) to help tackle climate
change?
Individually, you may say 'Yes', but what about everyone
else living in your street? ... in your village, town or
city? If we can enrol everyone into this, then we would
have no problem left to solve. However, there is a
significant number of people who would be reluctant to do
that, saying it is a government tax and they object to
taxes as a knee jerk reaction.
So now you can see we have a different problem from the one
we started out with.
Can we get by? With just one percent of earnings, we could
easily get by. That is not in question. There is no need to
worry about climate change. We can easily resolve it.
Do we have the will to resolve it? That is the question.
----------------------------------------------------
As a travel magazine editor and publisher, a life coach and
trainer, Sam Deane has seen the world. Nowadays, he
dedicates most of his free time to maintaining the
well-being of this precious, miraculous planet on which we
live. Sam runs an important and lively blog about solar
power.
http://www.gosolarpowerforhomes.com
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