Don Quixote

I have a hard time understanding why there aren't set amounts of natural energy that we need to collect every year. There should be goals set, and timetables made to integrate natural energy, especially wind power, into the American infrastructure. Wind power has no waste products, and has been made very affordable through advances in the technology that runs the collectors. Their is of course the added expense of building the collectors, but I have an idea: stop subsidizing farmers who grow soybeans, lease their land and build them there. Of course you won't be actually making any more money, but you won't be paying for something that we don't use just because it would be great if we DID use it. It is an investment in our future, blah, blah, blah... but it just makes sense. I also think that we need to stop hoping that businesses will do the right thing as far as energy politics goes, and instead give them real monetary incentives. I am not saying we give them any money, but that we show them that money can be made while "being green". And here is what I propose: No lobbying, no advertisements. High-profile project transparency. Greenpeace, or "Save the Whales" or whatever (maybe a conglomerate) saves their money (by not advertising) and buys a block of New York real estate. Then you let every Rainbow, Moonbeam and Shitazoo (I assume that hippie-dippie environmentalists engineers aren't named Tom, Dick and Harry) give you ideas on what to do, to build an environmentally sound building.

Insert example: There is a guy who has a plan to cut lighting cost and energy needs. He replaced light bulbs with fiber optic cable that has one end pointing at the sun. He coupled this with a rechargeable battery and a solar panel. So when the sun is shining, you get your light pumped into your room by flipping a switch that connects the strips of cable hanging from your ceiling with the central line that points at the sun. When it is dark or cloudy you get it from the stored light from the panel. This saves money. Energy costs are cut, and after installation there are a lot fewer repairs than in a normal building. This is the kind of stuff I am talking about.

So you build this, we'll say office building, fill it from top to bottom with this stuff and then rent it out, use it yourself or maybe even invite the government to use it as a town hall. Whatever. The important thing is you post all costs on a website. Energy, money and materials going in and out should be noted and posted. Let that do the talking.

The point is that you can't get everyone at once. We are wasting too much energy trying to make the herd turn, when all we need to do is start focusing in on one individual at a time. It won't take long until more and more people want a building that runs as cheap as yours. The same can be done for household budgets: just show people how much money real people are saving with your new brand of hybrid cars. Lead by example.

Matt made me think about something: you should all use this as a space for your ideas. That way we all have people to bounce off of. I will still be posting other stuff, so I am going to stay the soul administrator, but I invite you to use the comments as freely as you want. I get notified of ever post, so if you write in an older entry I will still notice. As a suggestion I think it would be good to stick to the theme of the original idea, but feel free to suggest new topics for a new entry.