I know that Mondays is usually my day for discussing politics, but I kinda feel like a different direction. So, lets talk about saving our planet. 😎

---

I am hoping that we have now turned away from our dark side and sometime in near future environmental impact will be the overriding theme for our country and the world. We certainly have undeniable evidence that what we do to our planet can and likely will have catastrophic results for future generations. The sooner we get into the environment impact mode the better.

There is still too much going on in the world that is driven by greed with no consideration for the future. One small example of that is the cable TV show Gold-Rush. It is about how a group of men and using mammoth machines to dig for gold in Alaska. What they leave in the aftermath represents a lunar landscape.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not an extreme-tree-hugger. I realize that we need to mine for resources that are critical to our existence. Things like aluminum, and most metals are needed to sustain our world. But gold is primarily valuable only because someone says it is. You can’t eat gold, you can’t live in gold houses so why rape the landscape to get a few ounces of it as is the case in the previously mentioned cable TV show. I know that potholes throughout Alaska are not a big concern, but that type of action is more symbolic of those who still deny that we have a problem.

I know this pandemic is taking front-and-center on almost everything, and that is as it should be, but we must get into a longer worldview before that is impossible to do. There is a lot of encouraging news of that front. The auto industry has seemingly gotten the message and electric vehicles are in fast-forward development. We also seem to be in another paradigm shift when it comes to energy storage. The next leap in cheaper more reliable batteries is now approaching the horizon.

Another leap forward is that China is now committed to being fossil fuel dependent by the end of this decade. Thirty years ago, when China finally decided to become part of the world community they, like many other undeveloped countries clung to coal for their energy needs as it was the cheapest resource. Third World countries will continue to repeat that until other sources become available to them that they can afford.

Solar and wind energy costs have been drastically reducing for much of the last decade and are on the cusp of being a major source of energy. When that finally happens we will be able to start figuring out if it is possible to actually reverse the damage done to our planet.

I’m not ready to write off our great-grandkids future just yet. If we do what can and needs to be done they will have a bright future beyond what us old-timer ever dreamed. Won’t that be wonderful?? 😁