After Gutenberg

As the Senate begins ‘serious’ consideration of a climate bill, it bears repeating that such is the influence of fossil fuel industries that our ear tagged Congress critters accept the questionable assurance of carbon capture and storage while paying little heed to the call to develop more above ground energy.

Some have begun to call such action a form of tyranny. As this blog has chided, “More Coal? More Nuclear? What about less? What about less pollution and more solutions?” Those solutions are available to us from efficient energy use and from renewable energy resources, e.g., solar power, wind energy and geothermal.

“Along with Samuel Adams and Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry is remembered as one of the most influential (and radical) advocates of the American Revolution and republicanism, especially in his denunciations of corruption in government officials.” Thanks to Wikipedia and apologies to Mr. Henry…

Is life so dear, so precious, so sweet, or do we sell out for our SUVs? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what GPS segments others may have; but as for me, give me solar, or give me destruction of life on the Planet as we know it!

While in those patriots’ days, the Industrial Revolution already had begun, the level of CO2 in the atmosphere still was only about 180ppm. Scientists had yet to realize the consequences of Green House Gases.

Today, the scientific consensus is that a rise in global temperatures over the past 50 years is due primarily to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases. These GHG emissions come mainly from the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas) and the subsequent dumping of tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Throughout the world the United States is considered the greatest contributor of GHG emissions.

Certainly, since 1992 when an international environmental treaty — the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — was signed, and even decades earlier, our best scientists constantly have warned about the dangers of rising levels of GHG emissions. It is well past time when concerted action should have been taken.

Yet we continue to delay. The arrogant denial by our corrupt “representatives” of this knowledge will have far reaching consequences, both spatially and temporarily. The alternative is for Congress to take away the fossil fuel subsidies. In Anaheim, California, at the Solar Power International Conference, Rohne Resch has issued a “solar bill of rights.”

All we seek is the freedom to compete, and all consumers want is the freedom to choose their energy source. Instead, the full promise of solar power is being restrained by the tyranny of policies that protect our competitors, subsidize wealthy polluters and disadvantage green entrepreneurs.

And Americans know better than anyone else in the world that there’s only one way to overcome tyranny—by declaring our rights and fighting for them with a united and determined voice.

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