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| SOLAR POWER |
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Green Mountain Energy SM
Solar, at Berkeley, CA.
Built because of customer demand for cleaner electricity. |
Solar energy takes many
shapes and forms, and is rapidly becoming one of America's
major growth industries. Photovoltaic (PV) cells, which
transform sunlight directly into electricity, are now
becoming a significant contributor to the electric supply
system of emerging nations, which do not want to build
large central power grids. PV is also becoming a factor
in new home construction, thanks in part to breakthroughs
that now allow roofing shingles and window glass to generate
electricity on their own. Passive solar architecture provides
free heating and cooling for millions of homes worldwide.
Biomass---the use of crops for energy---is also emerging
as a major growth industry. As is ocean thermal, which
uses the temperature differential between warmer water
at the ocean's surface and the cooler water below. In
concert with wind power, there is no doubt that all the
earth's energy needs can, and soon will, be supplied by
the sun.
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| WIND POWER |
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Clean and Green Wind
Farm.
Built because of customer demand for cleaner electricity. |
Wind Energy is the cheapest
and fastest growing new source of energy capacity on earth.
About 6,374 megawatts of wind power capacity were
installed in the U.S. (as of January 2004), generating
over 16 billion kilowatt-hours annually. That is as much
electricity as about 1.6 million average American households
use each year! Worldwide, wind power is the fastest
growing power source — with an average annual growth
rate of more than 30% per year, with the biggest gains
in western Europe, especially Germany. Once considered
a "tree hugger side show," wind power is now
a multi-billion-dollar industry with limitless potential.
Huge windmills offshore and in "the Saudi Arabia
of Wind" between the Mississippi and the Rockies,
will very soon be supplying a very substantial portion
of our electricity cleanly, cheaply, safely and with great
reliability.
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BIODIESEL |
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Biodiesel Fuel is domestically produced
from natural, renewable resources such as vegetable oils,
soybean oil and recycled restaurant grease. Biodiesel
is like diesel fuel except it's organically produced.
It is safe for the environment, biodegradable and produces
less air pollution than diesel fuel. |
Biodiesel is a new way
to describe our oldest fuel. Plants, primarily wood, have
been burned for their stored solar energy since the dawn
of time. However, today we have advanced new ways of turning
crops into power. Soy beans are being transformed into
a high-grade diesel oil that powers huge trucks and buses---including
ALL on Bonnie's tour. Corn is becoming ethanol, now being
burned in millions of automobiles. (While Bonnie supports
the use of crops as bio-fuels, she also supports organic
growing methods, and is opposed to the spread of genetically
modified foods.) Other fuel crops, such as switchgrass,
jerusalem artichokes and industrial hemp--- stand waiting
in the wings, with enormous potential. Even leftover cooking
oil is being used to power vehicles. All that needs to
happen to fully tap into this endless resource is to stop
wasting our money on fossil fuels and failed experiments
like nuclear power.
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| NUCLEAR POWER |
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Byron Nuclear power plant near Rockford, IL. Photo provided
by the
Union
of Concerned Scientists. |
Nuclear power is the most
expensive technological failure in human history. Once
touted as being "too cheap to meter," nukes
have swallowed more than a trillion dollars in invested
capital in the US alone. Yet today America's 100-plus
reactors are more dangerous, unreliable and expensive
than ever. In the long run, they cannot compete with wind
power or emerging solar technologies. They are dangerously
vulnerable to potential terrorist attacks. They are unreliable
and unsafe in their day-to-day operations. They regularly
emit deadly radiation which harms nearby children, their
parents, and even future generations. Their radioactive
waste problems remain a technological and political quaqmire.
And despite the best promises of the industry's promoters,
the reactors are rapidly deteriorating and becoming increasingly
dangerous. In the wake of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl,
there is no sane future for nuclear power except a rapid
phase-out in concert with the spread of renewables and
efficiency.
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| FORESTS |
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Pacific Lumber clearcuts surround remaining ancient redwood
forest in the Headwaters complex at Shaw Creek. Aerial photo
by NicholasWilson/LightHawk, September, 1995.
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Priceless forests the
world over are being destroyed for private profit, to
the detriment of us all. Clear cutting, over logging,
conversion of forest land to grazing land---they are turning
our lush green forestland into barren deserts, causing
runoff that destroys our rivers and streams, leaving ecological
catastrophe where once there were vital ecosystems and
the natural balancing mechanisms to combat global warming.
We simply cannot afford to lose more irreplaceable forests
to rapacious corporations whose only concern is their
quarterly bank statement, rather than the long-term health
of the planet
--Harvey Wasserman
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