The Editor,
Energy has become the most important commodity of our industrial age so why are our energy ambitions not based on promoting and using free energy, endless energy renewed every day, every second, energy that carries no pollution, energy that cannot be owned or controlled exclusively by hungry, grumpy industrial giants like Cameco, Shell or BP?
These are agencies that have a historical cycle of booming one minute and crashing spectacularly the next. Renewable energy does not crash. It can be and is owned by individuals and local organizations who harvest it locally, often from their own roof tops. Expanding renewable energy production means steady employment in the energy industry transferring jobs from specific remote locations like the Tar Sands to local sites like your home, your town or reserve. Keeping the young, working people at home creates stronger and more vibrant communities. Employment in renewable energy offers that opportunity.
The sun, the wind and the water are not controllable therefore not dependent on the fickle attitude of the stock market, they provide a source of energy production wherever they exist and renewable energy is not limited to just those elements. We live in a soup of energy. It surrounds us in radio waves, microwaves, waves we have yet to discover, we ourselves are energy. All we need to do is capture natural occurring energy and funnel it to our progressive uses. Renewable energy has the advantage that it does not have to be exploited for profits; in fact it can save us tons of money as well as saving our environment.
The present, biggest challenge in the growth of renewable energy is because it erodes the power of the dirty energy producers. It is obvious that this transition in energy production must happen and the sooner the better. I do not draw this conclusion based just on my own common sense. Scientific evidence tells you it is suicidal to endlessly pollute the Earth, air and water that we need for life to exist. Dirty energy production holds fact-based scientific evidence of environmental degradation as an enemy to be denied. As long as immediate massive profit is the soul incentive for the extraction of non-renewable resources our environment is in jeopardy.
For the sake of our future generations, let’s not continue to be stupid about this. Shake the suicidal complacency Canadians are so famous for. Divest dirty energy, and invest in clean, cheap endlessly renewable energy.
Greg Chatterson
Green Party, candidate Regina Qu’Appelle
