Opinion

Here Comes the Sun

By JOHN GATHRIGHT

As far as I know we are the only family in the world to live in a miso barrel treehouse. Sitting on top of 200 recycled telephone poles, we live in nine ancient miso barrels meters above the forest floor. Rather than felling trees to build our home, we decided to adapt our home to the forest. Our family goal is to live as earth-friendly a lifestyle as possible, but we are still a long way from achieving our goal. It is easy to feel rather smug with our environmentally conscious home, but we still use energy selfishly.

Our ancestors worshiped the warmth of the sun but would have frozen in their caves if it hadn't been for firewood at night. Soon they discovered charcoal, and heating became less of a chore. Next, coal led them into the Industrial Age, and the 20th century brought massive dependency on fossil fuels, for homes, transportation and electricity.

Guy Dauncey, an author of ecology books, calls this the progress of intelligence and technology, surrounded by a massive ignorance of ecology. "How were we to know that burning fossil fuels would heat the world's atmosphere, warming the oceans, melting the glaciers, driving the salmon from their rivers and whipping up tremendous storms?" he asked.

Now, the world is in dire need. We must free ourselves from fossil fuels and make an intelligent leap into the new energies of the future. Nuclear energy, once dubbed the safe, clean energy source of the future, is not the right or responsible choice either.

I fully believe that the future is in solar and wind energy. Wind and solar energy have made great leaps in the past few years, with efficiency skyrocketing and costs falling. It is said that 10 percent of Arizona's deserts would supply enough solar energy to meet U.S. electricity needs.

Even wet and rainy Britain could meet two-thirds of its energy needs from solar roofs and solar window films alone. Using wind and solar energy, Japan could free itself from fossil fuel and nuclear energy. Combine wind and solar energy with hydrogen energy, and the nation could be a major energy exporter.

Almost daily, breakthroughs in efficiency are being made. Full-spectrum solar energy systems are said to boost solar efficiency threefold by dividing the sun's light into visual and infrared components. Light is distributed into a building by optical fibers, while the infrared rays are converted into electricity. This new technology is fantastic, and the time is now.

Wind turbines are progressing at great speeds as well. The sun and wind can be used to produce hydrogen, to power fuel cells.

Some scientists prophesy that by 2020 we might see the end of the oil and fossil fuel industry. The only things holding back wind and solar energy are consumer demand and the reluctance of governments and companies to sacrifice short-term profits for a healthier Earth.

I am so grateful to live at a time when we still have forests, when pollution and global warming haven't yet devastated our Earth. The Earth is like a huge piggy bank and we are quickly depleting its resources. Unless we start living responsibly, like an empty piggy bank the Earth will be nothing but a shell.

Shukan ST: March 3, 2000

(C) All rights reserved