Fire clarity, advocacy, action, progress

Time 2020-09-19 08:03:07

Web Name: Fire clarity, advocacy, action, progress

WebSite: http://www.onehuman.org

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People arefocusing on containing this virus and reducing death and suffering (at leastsome are, see my last blog). This is all well and good and should be done.However, this “down time” was/is also a time to rethink how almost everythingis done. Yes, I mean everything. What could I be talking about (have I lost mymind?)? Let’s find out.First off, the most likely reason why this virus came about in the first place and spread to the human species so easily is because we have acted so irresponsibly regarding our production of food. Someone ate an infected bat or snake (which ate the bat). In 2020, humans shouldn’t be eating such food (nor other “more civilized” forms of food, more on this soon). Scientists had been predicting this for years (see ref 1 and ref 2) and yet almost nothing was done. In fact, we keep increasing our risk for additional pandemics because of how we raise food (see ref 3 and ref 4). But have you heard anything about changing the way we raise food during the past couple months? There are ecologically-grounded ways to raise food that would greatly reduce our risk of future pandemics, so we need to integrate them immediately. Unfortunately, nearly all institutions of “higher” learning promote the same, large scale, monoculturally-driven, dangerous methods of agriculture—ones destined to promote more infectious diseases.Second, weneed to overhaul nearly all mainstream media forms. Why? Well, a short list ofdemonstrable reasons includes: (1) they have failed to address the aboveissue/link regarding agriculture and disease; (2) they have held very, very fewleaders accountable for lies and extreme blunders (if not, criminal acts); (3)they continue to rely almost entirely on the profits derived from advertising(one of the reasons why they are incapable of holding anyone associated withextreme wealth and power accountable for anything); and, (4) they focus almostno attention on what we, as an empowered citizenry working collectively, can doto stem the tide of wrongdoings or accelerate the positive changes that arepossible and necessary. Rather, we are told daily that we must wait for avaccine and for the weather to improve…and of course, wash our hands and wearour masks. Time to change, no? need to remove money from the process of determining who our electedrepresentatives are. This has long been known and yet those that are elected,they themselves products of a corrupted system that increasing relies on moreand more $$, do little to nothing to correct it. (In fact, the Supreme Court’sCitizens United decision in 2010 which gave corporations unlimited ability tofund political campaigns—a 5-4 decision mind you—suggests how money hascontaminated nearly all levels of Federal government.) need to reconsider what money is and how it functions in our society. Thecurrent crisis and, specifically, the ability for the federal government tosend out trillions of dollars of money to companies and citizens, should send amessage to all of us. Money is just “paper” or an “electronic” form of power.It is only as meaningful as the powerful in a society make it to be. Consider adiamond? What if you had a five-pound diamond in your possession. What would itbe worth? Practically nothing, unless you could convince someone that it wasworth something (to look at, wear, or use as a paper weight)? This is actuallythe same for money. Consider taking old Argentine bills (before its economiccollapse) or even current Japanese yen to your local grocery store. Themerchants there would laugh at you, even if you had a LOT of coinage. There areways to conduct our economy that are outside the currently dominant monetarysystem (I will blog about this next). We need to really look at this carefullyand do it soon.There ismore, a lot more (future blog? readers’ comments?) to be done. But these fourthings are among the four key ones. What do you think needs to be done? Whatare you willing to do to get these things done?The pandemic sweeping the world has brought a lot of thingsto light. Many, many people prefer to believe in something that isn’t true, ifit makes them feel better about themselves and their immediate surroundings.Delusion is the word for this state of mind and it seems to be a perspective ascontagious as the virus itself. As someone following, researching, and reporting on the state of the environment for the past 20+ years, I have always felt that delusion was widespread but only now, as we all face this monumental challenge, did this mental contagion express itself so ubiquitously. But looking back, this disease was always present and visible, though less recognizable. So many natural systems are extremely stressed out by humanactivities, yet, little effort is being made to reverse these trends. The vastmajority of people don’t do much of anything to make things “right”. As I havewritten here previously, I fully understand that most who are economically-strappedand time-limited are not in a position to do much given the way our society isstructured (i.e., they are dependent on a hyper-capitalist economy thatexploits their labor and compels them to consume commercial products until theyliterally drop—by another well-known disease known as affluenza). However, ifone is on a ship that is crashing, it makes sense to get off the ship or atleast attempt (really hard) to redirect it.Let’s briefly look at the current situation. Since the beginning of the outbreak, increasing numbers of people were calling for a return to “normalcy”. Primarily, their appeal was couched in economic terms. The argument goes something like this: we absolutely have to save the economy, even if it costs thousands, perhaps millions, of lives. Now, we find this has become the dominant attitude; bars have opened (or are soon opening) in many parts of country. Despite warnings from key epidemiologists and virologists, politicians are feeling the heat from swarms of constituents (some strangely brandishing high-powered weapons).All of this is happening despite the reality that the UnitedStates has already witnessed the most deaths from this virulent, yetmicroscopic, virus. Thousands of first responders have lost their lives inorder to save others. More will undoubtedly perish/suffer as well, especiallyas hordes of people flock to bars, parties, and shopping malls. These actionsare being criticized by some but these responses are being overwhelmed by ourcollective compulsion to “shop” our way out of misery. And as with mostecologically harmful actions, the unwise decisions of the irresponsible and inconsiderateamong us will make matters worse for all. Yet, how many are asking key questions that deserve clear responses? Was this pandemic inevitable? (No, it wasn’t; I will likely write more on this later.) Why weren’t we prepared (and why does the U.S. appear to be among the least prepared of all)? Why are first responders’ lives being recklessly disregarded despite their exhibiting amazing bravery and compassion for an extended period of time. This extreme callousness by some leaders and residents alike is reminiscent of the way we treat our soldiers before, during and after combat. Absolutely despicable. Yet, the caskets keep getting filled and there is, yet, almost no accountability for the immoral acts of those in authority who have the power to mandate things like PPE for all responders, virus tests for all (not just the few and symptomatic), expanded resources to public health centers, and so many other consequential “life and death” programs and opportunities. Clearly, we need to really dig deeper and expose the lack of preparedness and other serious misgivings of our current government, media, and economic structures. Failure to do this serves to feed delusion and ensures that it maintains its hegemony in our collective psyche.To be sure, I have one of the most serious cases of delusion. I claim to have dedicated my life to make things better for all. I have tried a lot of things and I continue to do so. However, I still go about my business like most others. I also don’t have the courage to be a “first responder” nor the wherewithal to put my neck out there too far to expose the system for all its shortcomings. A blog that twenty people read doesn’t count for much. Much more needs to be done. A lot, lot more (my next Blog). I realize this and I am still trying to figure out what is next for me and possibly for us. Yet, the more I think about it, the more delusion creeps in, particularly when the wave of delusion from so many others seems to be growing exponentially in force.If others wiser and more insightful than I have ideas forwhat we can do to cure delusion, please let me know.You may hear the pundits and “wise men” say that we need thisperson to run the U.S. or that company to fix the economy. As I waken to a newyear, I am convinced that these are distractions to what we really need. Weneed more love in 2020. And unlike the other things that we “need”, and thereare many, love is something that we all have to give and, magically, no one canprevent us from giving it either. Let’s explore why love is what we need thisyear.Love is one of the most deeply rooted emotions. We know this. When we are loved, we wake up. When we aren’t, we either pretend we are or we shrink and stifle—both recipes for unpleasant outcomes. Research tells us that babies need love, preferably from their parents but, ultimately, from someone. This need continues as people grow (here is but one of millions of articles on this, link). Clearly, it is something we all need as it makes us more fully human and more fully our authentic selves as well.Love conquers evil and hatred. We all know this too. Howmany times have we heard/seen/experienced what happens when someone responds tohatred with love? Most of the time, hatred is neutralized. People prefer love.This love may come in the form of listening. It may come in the form of anhonest attempt to understand someone. It may come in the form of affection. Nomatter. Love has power. There is a lot of hatred and misunderstanding in oursociety. Love can do a ton to remedy these.Love is something we can all do. It can start with a phonecall or an email. It can start with a knock on a neighbor’s door. It can startwith a “thank you.” Try these “small acts of kindness” and see where it leads.Try doing them intentionally, each day. See what happens. Start with smalleracts of love and build up to larger ones. See what happens. See what happens tothe person/people you love and see what happens to you as well. A lot of people I know are depressed right now. They are listeningto the “pundits” too much. This leaves them feeling angry and hopeless (but wantingto buy more things to assuage their frustrations). (Ever wonder why this is?Might it be intentional/deliberate, a natural outcome of those that run thenetworks?) I hope these individuals try to love more (and turn off the TVmore). I really do, they have so much love to give.I am often struck by the lack of concern people have regarding the future of humanity and the Earth’s biological systems. In general conversation, rarely do people mention such things as the plight of the insects or birds, climate change, or toxic pollution. Furthermore, it is the exception, not the rule, that one hears about people making much effort to confront these challenges. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that people just don’t care about such things. Or is it?Might the apparent silence and inaction on such criticalmatters represent something other than apathy? Might we be more focused onday-to-day matters (such as paying our bills, taking care of an aging relativeor performing well for a team we are a part of)? Might the constructive actionsof many be systematically ignored by major media outlets? Or, might ourindividual and collective fear of the future paralyze us so that we just avoiddiscussing or acting on these challenges? In other words, if “we are doomed,”what point is there to focus on such negative things? I am no scholar of psychology and nor do I claim to haveclairvoyance. Thus, I don’t know the answers to the above questions. But thatdoesn’t stop me from thinking a bit more about them. Let’s try a thought-experimentand see where it leads.What might you do if you knew that large meteorite was goingto hit Earth next year (causing the 7th mass extinction)? Would youstop your daily activities and conversations? Would you start studying physicsin hopes that you could figure out a way to deflect the meteorite away? Wouldyou sell all your personal belongings and give it to the military in hopes thatthey could find a way to do it? (Forget the question of whom you would beselling it to; wouldn’t all humanity be in the same situation.) Seriously, whatwould you do?Well, we are in a situation not so dissimilar from the above scenario. While the “meteor” (of climate change or toxic pollution) won’t hit next year (not for you at least; for an increasing numbers of humans and other life forms, however, the “meteor” has already hit), likely it will hit in the next several decades. Unfortunately, too many powerful influencers are deliberately ignoring or spreading misinformation about the impending “collision.” So, again I ask, what are you doing?I don’t ask this accusatorily. I ask it honestly. I,personally, think about this every day. Some days I am motivated to dosomething about it, other days I feel helpless or preoccupied. I am sure I amnot alone in this. We have groups set up to deal with/discuss alcoholism andcancer, but do we have groups set up to tackle humanity’s greatest challengeyet? Doesn’t it seem like we should set these groups up quickly, while we stillhave time?Let me end on this note. One of the premises that I opened with stipulates that very little is being said or done on these critical matters. This is patently false, though I suspect most of us operate as if it were true (so, does that make it “true”)? Of the nearly 8 billion humans on this planet, millions of them are doing lots of amazing things to confront our environmental challenges. We just need to promote more of their work and join in to help. (I hope to write about some of them in an upcoming blog…if you don’t want to wait, you can begin to find such people/efforts by searching for the Goldman Prize recipients or Champions of the Earth awardees.) Perhaps we can all commit to do something along these lines in 2020.Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Many conscientious people are busy figuring out what they can do to turn this “ship bound for a major iceberg around. I commend them. There is so much to do and we need all hands on deck. However, this past week or so, I have heard two environmentally-minded people say the following, We are doomed” the “ultimate negative,” if there every was one. Statements like this are better not said. They serve no function other than furthering hopelessness. Furthermore, they indicate a serious degree of self-righteousness as well. In such cases, I recommend that people just don t do it . Let me try to explain why I find these sort of sentiments so problematic. First off, they are stated as fact. No person knows what will happen. No person knows what can happen. Even the bleakest of situations can sometimes be resolved or return to a better state (history repeatedly shows us this). Such statements definitely ignore the incredible potential that exists in each one of us as well as the gargantuan power that we harness collectively. Importantly, they also completely fail to recognize the enormous power and potential that exists within nature. Our current understanding of the natural world is still in its infancy, something the field of biomimicry has made clear over the past two decades.Secondly, fatalism isn’t good for your/our health. We know from scientific research that animals/babies that aren’t loved don’t fair as well as those that are. Articulating the “ultimate negative” can’t be a good thing for our psyche or our physical well-being.Thirdly, such negative thoughts don’t lead to action. They actually lead to inaction and paralysis. They may even lead to self-harm or, worse, harm done to others. I imagine some of the “suicide” acts we have observed in recent years are driven by people who have “no hope.”Fourthly, negativism breeds negativism. People hear what you say and react to it. If you are so glum as to speak the “ultimate negative,” you should say it privately (and then seek support from others). Otherwise, if others hear you, they too will likely become more depressed and inactive.Lastly, consider the sentiment a victory for those very powerful entities that have created the extreme injustice and cynicism in the general populace. As long as “we the sheeple” continue to behave as if “we are all doomed”, they continue to control us, our lives, our bodies, and our minds.So, “just don’t do it”.[After writing this, I heard an amazing couple that perform UPBEAT jazz Pippi Daniel what a special duo they are!]Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) [I want to thank Monica Gagliano, a biologist in Western, Australia, whose Bioneers 2018 talk (link) caused me to do some serious introspection this morning at the 8th Prairie Fire Bioneers Conference held at Knox College.]I’ve recently fallen in love with plants. It has taken some time, it wasn’t something that happened overnight. Over the past ten or so years, I been surrounding myself with plants more and more. It started with me growing 13’ okra with my neighbor. This led me to help start a community farm that still exists in my small city. Then I started an educational farm on my college’s campus. Next came building a raised bed of plants in the front of my house (how you treat your front yard is a political statement) then installing a butterfly waystation (also in my front lawn). Currently, my freezer has seeds of many plants, my basement is full of aging seeds, pawpaw seeds are germinating in my living room, and houseplant propagation has become a regular activity. Last semester I even remember bringing spider plants to my class and saying, confidently, “this is the beginning of a major campaign. I plan to put plants in every classroom in the world!” So, as you can see, my love has become somewhat of an obsession.Yet, despite all this effort, I never really understood what was driving me to do this. As of this morning, I may have an inkling. Plants have imaginations (if you are incredulous about this, please watch Gagliano’s video and check out her scientific articles and books). What does this have to do with me? Well, as most can attest, I have quite an imagination as well. As a child, relatives called me “Mr. non-sequitur.” As an aspiring local politician, I was described (in print), somewhat pejoratively, “a dreamer.”Where does my imagination take me? I firmly believe that humans will resolve our current “insurmountable” challenges. I know we can do so. I live every day with this in mind and heart. I don’t know how, but I am “audacious” (to borrow a term used by Gagliano) enough to imagine a world where hunger, poverty, preventable disease, racism, misogyny and pollution don’t exist. Plants imagine these things to. How do I know? Why wouldn’t they? Haven’t their ancestors lived in a world without these horrible things? This is why I think I’ve been surrounding myself with plants. They imagine this world and they live everyday to make it happen (again). We probably have a non-verbal, mutualistic, hopeful exchange daily. Sadly, many of the people I know can’t seem to imagine these things. And I think I have been becoming a bit more reclusive (to humans) in reaction to this.I think this “state of mind” that I have is the ultimate privilege. I think our deeply racist, capitalist, misogynist, nationalistic, militaristic world has destroyed most people’s ability to imagine a different world. Fortunately, Bioneers has repeatedly reminded me that many humans are still able to imagine such things and are working every day to achieve them. I am glad to have this local Bioneers “shot” every year and I am also grateful to have plants around to remind me that another world is not only possible, it is imperative.Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) [I haven’t blogged in a long time, the longest hiatus since I started this project in 2016. There are several reasons for this. One, the insanity of our world has only gotten more pervasive, intensive, and perplexing. I’ve probably started five blogs in the meantime only to put off finishing them due to mental and emotional exhaustion writing them engender. Two, I had to put the bulk of my intellectual energy into finishing my first (co-authored) book—The Earth is Not For Sale (www.theearthisnotforsale.org) which hit the presses this fall.]In the previous piece (Part I, see below), I laid out how most of our everyday actions are insane and why we continue to do them despite the illogic nature of doing so. Despite the provocative spirit of my first installment and the near invisible lack of response/reaction from those that took the time to read it, one might wonder why I persist with this topic. I guess it just feels therapeutic to get it out of my mind (where it simmers and infests other parts of my body). More importantly, I feel compelled to initiate a conversation on one of the questions I ended with, namely, “what might compel us to stop acting insanely?”We will stop acting insanely when we come to terms with this simple understanding: “if we don’t, our lives will continue to suffer and our species will take an early exit from this amazing planet.” Since the second part of this statement is hard to fathom (particularly when our species continues to grow exponentially larger), it is advisable to hone in on the first part. Our lives are all much worse because of the insanity. Most of us realize this but we escape its implications because it just makes us feel worse. Perhaps an analogy will help here. Imagine being told you are dying from a disease. People handle this news differently. Many immediately shut down in disbelief. Others get really angry and ask, “why me?” Eventually, most come to terms with this horrific information and do what they can every day to make their lives livable without dwelling on it. This is what I think most of us do with our lives right now. We know that we live in a dysfunctional and insane world and we try to avoid focusing on it, which inevitably means we support and recreate its insanity by our actions (as discussed in Part I).But what if we were to learn that there is a cure for our disease. I expect that many would try to cure/treat it by whatever means we can afford and access. I’ve known people to travel thousands of miles to seek wisdom and insight from non-conventional methods of disease response, for example. I have witnessed some spending their last dimes to help themselves or someone else enduring some great physical challenge. This is a reasonable response as being alive is something that we cherish and is much preferred to its alternative. However, when it comes to our everyday lives, our malaise (and continued participation in an insane society) doesn’t produce nearly the same type of response. Why? I think it is because we don’t think there is a cure for our insanity. And why should we when we are indoctrinated from the moment we come out of the womb to think that everything that is going on is “normal”/”proper” or inevitable. How many of these memes have you been taught (and how many do you believe—or at least act as if you believe)?: humans are inherently violent (hence, war is inevitable) money brings happiness economic inequality is natural (hence, an underclass is acceptable) significant numbers of people need to be “put away” as they are not fit for society (and they are not “curable”) nature’s creatures compete for preciously limited resources to survive pollution is a sign/result of progress feeding everyone requires us to grow mostly GMO grains modern humans are smarter than our ancestors humans are too insignificant to impair the planet significantlyIn contrast, how many of these do you accept/believe? (reject if you feel that are naïve or overoptimistic): humans from different cultures can coexist peacefully there is enough space, food, resources for all 7+ billion people on Earth rainwater and rivers should be clean enough to drink humans are inherently kind and resourceful species cooperate to survive and maintain environmental conditions conducive to life diversity enhances survivability money is just one medium to facilitate exchange of needs there is no such thing as waste plants and mushrooms are intelligenct organismsNow subtract the number of memes you accept/believe in the second list from the number of such memes in the first list. So how did you do? Did your subtraction net a positive number? Probably not and this is a major part of the problem.Before we will do anything, we need to be motivated. If we look at the prospects for ourselves and species in the near term, I suspect most of us, particularly young people, will understand the need to change our ways. Now let’s assume that you agree with this but are rather skeptical that others will be sufficiently motivated to change too. Well, this is where a leap of faith comes in. You need to have faith in others (the fourth element in the second list). True, you cannot control others but you should be able to control yourself, at least to a greater degree than you probably allow; oddly enough, as I write this I am struck by the extraordinary efforts by the mass media and the advertising industry to make us conform (by accepting one of the first list’s memes or buying one of the millions of mass produced items that they offer). Yes, it is with this faith in others that must be the foundation of any change in the world or on your part.But thankfully, you don’t need to act on your own and merely wait for others. Others have already made this leap of faith and are making positive changes all over the place. You just have to look; hint, it probably won’t be on your television. It is happening in your neighborhood too, so you don’t need to move to a more progressive place to get busy. I’ll end here but I will provide concrete examples of what I am talking about in a future blog. In the meantime, let others know you are changing (you can comment here for instance) and may it become contagious!Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Many people now realize that the world is largely insane. However, every day these “sane” people continue their lives as best they can. Since so many aspects of our dominant culture and society are ruled largely by insane principles, these “sane” people can’t help but support (and thereby preserve) the insanity as they go about with their lives. To give some examples of what I am talking about, I consider the following “every day activities” as critically contributing to the continuance of our cultural insanity: buying “normal” (non-local, non-organic, “free” trade) food; using electronics and communication systems which are ruthlessly toxic in so many ways; watching mind-numbing entertainment; following mainstream news (which focuses almost all of our attention on the insanities in our world, but does so in such uncritical ways that it only normalizes the insanity it covers); paying taxes (which we know largely supports subsidies for unsustainable and inhumane practices including the jumbo-sized military and prison system); putting our money in national/international banks, investing in blue-chip stocks, or using credit-cards (all which directly support the insanely unequal distribution of wealth that exists); and, promoting consumeristic values (by adorning ourselves with material goods containing subtle or in-your-face advertisements, such as, a “F-I-L-A” hat or CK jeans, or having “bling-bling” qualities, such as, a diamond ring, gold necklace, faux fur, or Rolex watch). For many of us these activities appear very normal and even mundane. Some reading this may in fact be quite annoyed at the insinuation that these are “insane” activities. However, the harm that they do (by perpetuating a materialistic, profit-at-any-cost system) is immeasurable. Then, if they are so harmful, why do the vast majority of us continue to do them? And what might be done to make us stop? These questions cut to the core of whether our society will endure or collapse (through war, disease or climate catastrophe)? I don’t pretend to be an expert when it comes to answering these questions, and I am not sure such experts exist, given that so few of us seriously consider changing the way things are. In this vein, I offer some thoughts to stimulate discussion in these largely ignored areas.First, why do so many of us continue to act in ways that are insane? Well, some of us do so because we don’t have any other choice. Poverty is at epidemic levels in the US (the “richest” country in the world—how insane is that?) and income inequality continues to grow. In my community, over 60% of children are granted “free and reduced” lunch (and breakfast) because the government recognizes how desperate things are (hungry children lead to very angry citizens). A recent national report documents that more than 1/5 of children nationally suffer from food insecurity during the year. As tragic as this is, the poverty that affects so many has a paralyzing effect. Living day-to-day (paying this or that bill, deciding between dinner, a car repair, or a bus ride home) makes it nearly impossible to act outside the norm. (Interestingly, when you hit rock bottom, such as homeless people, you often must do things outside the norm (such as dumpster diving) to survive. In this sense, these folks are one of the few that aren’t perpetuating the insanity.) Even middle-class folks in the US have limited options. Although they may have some money saved or invested, they recognize that they are often one life challenge from losing their home/apartment, their car, or their educational dreams. Thus, they too work tirelessly to stay one step ahead—the system tells us all that as long as we work hard enough, we’ll be alright, and this satisfies our anxiety enough to keep moving on the “treadmill”. Many are also told that “we could be the lucky ones,” and this belief leads to many low- and middle-class people buying lottery tickets with the little that they have; in my community, over $6 million a year (~$200 per head) is spent now in mini-slot machines that have begun dotting our cultural landscape over the past few years. Our insatiable thirst for entertainment (500 cable channels, social media, sports on “steroids”) represents an escape from the realities of the world—a relatively innocuous escape compared to the many destructive vices that many (people of all economic classes) engage in for the same effect. Also, just as most industrial farmers are trapped by huge unpaid loans (for their mega-machines) and rising annual seed and pesticide payments, middle class people are trapped by their rent/mortgage, health care, car payment, cell phone, and cable bill. Then, you have the upper classes and the rich and it is pretty obvious why they perpetuate the insanity. They benefit from it, at least relatively, so they have no motivation for changing it, though they have the most power to do so. It should be noted that some thoughtful “wealthy” people assuage their guilt or fear (from the horrors of “poisoned” food and chemical-laced pillows) by purchasing hybrid cars and organic briskets. Unfortunately, while these acts are more sensible than other options, their contributions are not yet significant enough to overwhelm the “insanity” that dominates other components of their lives (such as, their many flights ginormous homes and lawns) and other’s lives. There you have it. The system of insanity continues because a few benefit from it while the masses can’t really see any other way. Okay, so what might compel us to stop acting insanely? Does it have to be this way? You can comment your thoughts on this (I hope) and/or you can wait for my next blog ?.Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) (Part A)How big a solar array is necessary to provide all the electricity currently used in the United States?Renewable energy (particularly, solar and wind) use is way up over the last 20 years, both globally and in the United States. Annually, rates of growth for PV (photovoltaic) solar and wind are both above 20% over this time, with solar being closer to +40%. This amazing growth appears ready to continue as more and more areas of the world are looking to install solar due to its many benefits (ref 1). However, some believe that solar would have to cover huge expanses of land in order to make a significant contributor to our energy portfolio. Let’s take a look at this belief by asking a simple question, “How big a solar array is necessary to provide all the electricity currently used in the United States?”Well, there is some background information and a few assumptions that one needs to make in order to calculate this.First, how much electricity do we use in the U.S.? Looking this up, we find:(1) 12.6 Q = 3,704 PWh (ref 2)(1 Q = 1 Quad BTU = 294 PWh, where 1 PWh is 10 to the 12th power (or 1,000,000,000,000) Watt-hours)Next, we need to know how much electricity is produced by a typical solar panel. This requires other information as well:(a) Power rating for solar panel = 345 W(b) Size of solar panel (61” x 41”) = 17.37 square feetThus, Maximum power output = (a)/(b) = 19.9 W/sq. ftNote: From these values one can compute an efficiency for the panel (which is typically between 15-20%), but one need not calculate the efficiency for our purposes.Since no panel produces maximally (due to inverting DC current to AC current, losses in wires, snow/dust on panels, etc.), a “de-rating” of 75% is typically used.(c) Power output expected = Max. power * de-rating = 19.9 W/sq. ft * 0.75 = 14.9 W/sq. ftNow we need to consider how many hours of sunlight there will be for this panel. Typically, this is done by computing the “average” number of “full-sun” hours per day a panel would be expected to receive at a location. In the U.S., most locations range from 3.5-6.5 hours. We’ll take 4.5 “full-sun” hours to be conservative (central IL has these types of values).Thus, (d) True electricity provided = Power output expected * “full-sun” hours (daily) * days in year(2) = 14.9 W/sq. ft * 4.5 hrs/day * 365 days/year = 24.5 kWh/sq. ftNow, we can determine how many square feet we need to provide the electricity for the entire nation of the United States:Size of solar array = Electricity usage (nation)/Electricity production density= (1)/(2)= 3,704 PWh/24.5 kWh per sq. ft= 151,184,000,000 sq. ftWow, 151 billion square feet. That’s huge, isn’t it? Let’s convert this to square miles:# square feet in a square mile => 1 sq. mile = (5280 ft) * (5280 ft) = 27,900,000 sq. ftSo, 151.2 billion square feet is __X__ square miles; where,X = 151,200,000,000 sq. ft/(27,900,000 sq. ft/sq. mile) = 5418 sq. milesBut, how much is 5,418 square miles?Just about a squared area with 74 miles on a side! The area of the state of Illinois is ~58,000 square miles. So, 5,418 square miles is ~9.3% of the state! It is also only 25-times the combined size of the 10 largest airports in the United States. This area, again, if covered with solar panels, would be produce enough electricity to power the entire nation!In conclusion, the belief that solar panels sufficient to power the U.S. would have to cover a huge amount of area is just plain wrong! Wondering why this information isn’t widely distributed? Well, are you going to distribute it or not? If not, why not? This might provide you part of the answer as to why it isn’t widely known.(Part B)Now, what if we wanted to produce all the energy resources we use, not just electricity, with solar PV power? Understandably, most things that use fossil fuels now are not currently able to use electricity (as in, most of the cars/trucks on the road are not yet electric), but most could be made to use electricity if it was available. So, then, if we need to produce 97.3 Quad (not 12.6 Q which is the current electricity demand alone), we’d need ~7.7 times (or 97.3/12.6) more land than stated above. However, since our fossil-fuel dominant energy economy currently requires 37.5 Q of energy to produce 12.6 Q of electricity (due to the inefficiencies in the use of such sources), we actually wouldn’t need to use this wasted energy (or 24.9 Q (37.5 Q – 12.6 Q)) at all; this is a HUGE understated benefit of moving towards solar energy sources. Thus, we would need only to produce 72.4 Quad which would require 5.7 times more land than calculated in Part A, or ~31,000 square miles. This amounts to about 11% of the land area of the state of Texas, not much land considering the size of the United States. In fact, since the area of the U.S. is 3.8 million square miles, we would need to cover less than 1% of the U.S. land surface with solar PV in order to produce all the energy we would need in a fully “electrified” nation! (A recent study by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) found that we could provide 1,432 TWh of electricity by putting solar panels on suitable buildings in the United States. This would be enough to provide 39% of our national electricity needs and 7% of our national energy needs!; see report.)Caveats: The above calculations only relate to solar PV. The future renewable energy system, that will become dominate in the 21st Century, displacing almost all fossil fuels, will rely on wind, geothermal and hydropower as well. In addition, the need for the world’s poor to use more energy than they do now (in order to live fully actualized lives) will require greater amounts of energy to be produced. Additionally, as the U.S. is one of the more wasteful energy users, its consumption could easily decline (perhaps by 50%) without any detrimental impacts. These factors are important when looking at the future land needs of the entire energy system.Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) We often are told that we should vote. Yet, how many of us have ever participated in an election where our vote was the deciding one? Consider that a national or statewide election usually consists of millions of votes, the opportunity to be the deciding vote is clearly very rare. However, not to long ago there was a national vote that was extremely close and it had huge consequences on the course of history.November 7, 2000 appeared to be a normal voting day in the United States. Two major party candidates as well as several dedicated third-party ones were running for the premier office—the Presidency of the United States. What would transpire that evening and the subsequent days caught most of us by surprise and its ultimate outcome certainly reminds us of the importance of voting.George W. Bush beat Albert Gore by winning the electoral votes by less than 1% (actually, 0.93%) in one of the closest races in history; Gore actually won the popular vote by 1% (actually, 0.51%), or 540,000+ votes. And while these are very close numbers indeed, nothing was closer than what took place in the state of Florida (although there were 5 states that were decided by less than a 0.5% margin—and all of these others narrowly supported Gore over Bush).When all the votes were “counted” and confirmed (though 20 U.S. Representatives objected to the Florida recount), Bush won the Florida popular vote over Gore by a mere 547 votes. Now, the closeness of this result needs to be properly understood. In the state of Florida, there were nearly 6 million votes counted for the U.S. Presidency in 2000. Thus, 547 votes out of 6 million represents 0.009%. Converted into a language that we might understand better, this represents approximately 1 in 10,000. Thus, if just 1 in every 10,000 voters had voted for Gore, rather than Bush (or any other Presidential candidate on the ballot), Gore would have won the state of Florida’s 25 electoral votes, and, therefore, the election. Now that is about as close as it gets!(This mathematical exercise ignores the huge issue of voter suppression revealed in 2000, which continues today, and the amazing potentiality of voter fraud given the issue of “hanging-chads” or electronic voting machines (that often had/have no credible validation option). These are huge omissions and for the sake of completion, links to such issues are provided below, for interested parties.)Voter Suppression:In 2000: ref 1In 2012: ref 2In 2016: ref 3a, ref 3bHanging Chads: ref 4a, ref 4bElectronic Voting Machines: ref 5a, ref 5bClick to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)

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