By: Derek Polzer, Rewild NJ Movement Member
It’s becoming crucial, I believe, that we temper the frantic & panicked demands of the “Green” zealots who are promoting high-tech solutions & broad-brush remedies as ways to address our present planetary “climate crisis” without considering its actual impact of these technologies on habitat & wildlife, nor do they seem to consider the long term consequences of the mining & processing of the materials necessary to manufacture these “renewable” energy sources.
I agree that the climate crisis needs to be addressed because there is more at stake than the threats to our present urban & suburban lifestyles. Every living thing on this planet is threatened & they must be part of the equation when seeking solutions.
I’m not opposed to all technological intervention; I just want the application to be appropriate to the environmental factors where they are being placed. But I am opposed to any overly centralized power production such as corporately own “solar farms”. Whether they are solar panels or wind turbines it must be remembered that these are only temporary solutions. Band-aid fixes will not lead to a sustainable future.
At the moment, I do not see any truly sustainable solutions to our problem of power generation other than that we begin to lessen our dependency on electricity, but with the increase in electric cars & the shift to all electric households we are creating much greater demand. This debate is going to be a long one.
In the meantime, I believe we need to begin to address the root causes of our present environmental crisis, & we need to start by considering our own personal lifestyles & our own patterns of consumption. The very nature of the global, national, & local economies need to be restructured. We must begin to think & act locally. A start would be to return to small, local agriculture & manufacturing, & reconsidering a return to older forms of transporting people & good by reviving older technologies like sail power or canal boats.
I’m not a Luddite (well, maybe, to some degree?), but I highly respect what they attempted to do & why they “smashed the looms”, but on the other hand, I do not want to see a high-tech, AI generated Ecotopia as promised by “Green” corporations & Eco-zealots.
The possible alternatives are many, but I believe we must first begin to slow down & experience time differently by reducing our chronic sense of urgency, & reconsider what we mean by “efficiency”. It was the 19th century English philosopher, John Stuart Mills, said “No labor-saving device ever save anybody any labor”. Using older technologies may take longer to move or produce things, but they will radically reduce the need for fossil fuels.
These changes we are working on will take as much time to enact as they did to get us into this situation. There are no quick-fix solutions no matter what the Zealots promise. It will take time for a new “Green” society & culture to evolve & for the old one to be dismantled, so take a deep breath, spend some time on a river, or wander arounds in the woods & think about what you might do to start to change what you can right now. It will make a difference; the possibilities are limitless!
…paddling ever onward! Derek Polzer
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One response to “The View from 3rd Mountain: Tempering the Zealots”
Wow! Sail power or canal boats? It will take as long to get the new iPhone as it did to get the Trump phone.
There is no way civilization would go on without everyone killing each other if we didn’t have electrical power. Old ways might have worked 2000 years ago but imagine not having enough food because there was no refrigeration during a heat wave. Starving people will do anything to feed themselves and their family. We see the worst of humanity in areas where there is a breakdown of modern infrastructures.
Energy is the currency of life, from our own mitochondria to power plants. And electricity is the most versatile form of energy. Creating solar energy may not be completely sustainable, and you are right to note the mining, manufacturing and shipping concerns, but it is the best next step.
At least in my area of NJ, solar developers are small businesses run by people who want to be an alternative to fossil energy. Hopefully soon, NJ residents will be able to purchase and install balcony/plug-in solar panels and provide a portion of their own energy needs. There is also community solar which allows a homeowner to take part in energy savings as mostly rooftop solar arrays are established. Agrivoltaics, is another type of solar used on farm or feed land with little to no impact to agriculture. Rutgers University has several agrivoltaic trials going on right now.
So while I am with you on that walk in the woods and considering how to go about making changes, I think you are misjudging the importance and value of solar electric power.
Thanks for your writing.
Art
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