Been having shining thoughts lately.

This is a great piece, how solar is performing the simple task of providing light to Bangladeshi’s. If a person has light they can see. If they can see they can read. If they can read they learn. If they can learn they can earn. If they can earn they can provide. If they can provide they can move their family from a grass hut without electricity to a home with electricity and plumbing.

In Rural Bangladesh, Solar Power Dents Poverty

I go to a lot of concerts. Concerts create a lot of waste. Next time you go to a concert look around at all the trash left behind. It’s mountains of waste. I was recently at Desert Trip. What a show. The show was in the desert. I’ve never seen so many people go back and forth for bags of ice or to fill up their water containers. Not only that, the concert grounds have to be watered down once a day to keep the dust down.

Between the people going back and forth for water and ice and the crews spraying water on the grounds, there had to be millions of gallons of water used. That’s bad. Really bad.

Desert Trip sold a lot of camping and RV spaces. Each RV uses a lot of electricity. Then add in all the power used by people charging their devices, that’s a lot of water and electricity being used.

So concerts are definitely bad for the planet. Mother Nature takes a big kick in the gut each time a concert takes place. Looking around at all the waste a concert creates, I wondered what the solution would be. Here’s some ideas I floated.

Every camper gets a solar panel, generator, and a refrigerator.  The Goal Zero Boulder 90 Solar Panel on the HIPEVAN charges my two, Goal Zero Yeti 400 Solar Generators. Fully charged, I had enough power to charge my iPhone, Apple Watch, UE Megaboom and my Macbook Pro as often as needed. I had enough power for all my inside lights and my Engel refrigerator. My fridge stores 4 days of food.

I was gone for a week. On the last day I got down to 40% charge in my generators. The reason why the charge dropped so low was because I had the camper top up the whole time. With the camper top up, the solar panel isn’t getting direct sun for charging. But after being on the road for a few hours in the sun, I was back up to 100% charge. So in other words, I never came close to running out of power. I had all my own food and water. I took the little trash I created with me.

Every concert goer should be encouraged and motivated to supply their own power, to bring their food and water, and take their trash with them. To create incentives, offer concert goers some kind of spiff for doing so. A free event t-shirt? So if everyone had a solar panel and a generator, they could charge their devices. If they had a fridge, they could store their food. If they took their trash with them, they’d create less waste.

Taking road trips you see things you’d never find out about otherwise. I was blown away by this beautiful wind farm driving back into Los Angeles to see Bob Weir.

One of most exciting developments lately is the advancements in wind power. Check out what’s happening with off shore wind on the East Coast. If we put wind mills in shallow water where there’s a lot of wind, we can create a lot of power. As the piece states, this truly is the “dawn of a new age of an entirely new source of U.S. energy”. It’s beautiful.

Providence’s Deepwater Wind leads the way in U.S. offshore power

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way back home I always look forward to driving by Ivanpah, the world’s largest solar farm. It’s wonderful.

 

Fracking is a threat to clean water. Oil and gas is bad for Mother Earth. Mother Earth can no longer take the punishment we’ve been giving her. She’s fighting back now. Respect Mother Earth. All investment in energy from here on out should be in alternative energy such as solar, wind, and TWR (traveling wave reactor).

We can save ourselves from ourselves. But only if we’re willing to do what’s really uncomfortable and make really big sacrifices.

I see this two ways, and only two ways.

1. Each of us needs to start making radical changes that respect Mother Earth. Big changes such as start paying attention, going vegan, voting for Senators and Congressman who make no compromises on the environment, stop buying clothes that aren’t made with organic cotton or made by companies such as Patagonia, start going to thrift stores to buy clothes.
2. Admit that the world is toast and you’re not going to do anything about it.

Please don’t give up. I’m begging you. We can provide our own energy, we can save the world and make a better world for our children and our children’s children. Please, “Don’t trade away, our children’s days”.

And btw. Fuck Monsanto and their kind.