Sitting looking out to sea, I’m imagining the thrill of knowing that just beyond the horizon there are windmills capturing the power of the wind, and turbines turning to the power of the tides, sending that power to hundreds and hundreds of homes and businesses on shore.
And the sun shining on every roof — especially the roofs of large office buildings, schools, stores, businesses, warehouses and parking facilities — is harnessed as well, to power those buildings and many others.
And the need for power from burning coal, oil, and gas has decreased to nothing. And the electricity generated by those renewable sources will power us into the future.
Poor people will no longer endure fossil fuel power plants polluting the air near their homes (because you’ll never find a rich man’s house near a power plant — not even the house of the man getting rich from the power plant). And there will be no more fossil-burning power plants spewing carbon dioxide or methane into the atmosphere. The globe can cease — and even reverse — the warming that has been accelerating since the dawn of the industrial revolution.
Our children and grandchildren can look to a future more similar to our past, than the overheated, droughted and drowning planet they currently face.
Why not make this happen? It’s well past time to do so, but we can make it happen and happen quickly enough to save our children and grandchildren from that inferno of a future. Imagine with me the thrill: of leaving a better planet than we face now; of knowing that those renewable resources are powering our and their future; of knowing and living real independence from fossil fuels, from any country.
Laurie O’Loughlin, Pinehurst