Since our species found out that fire could be a good thing, mankind has been on a hydrocarbon binge. We went from burning wood, to coal, to oil and gas, without a thought of what the byproducts of all that burning might do. Such innocense is no longer justified in view of the fact that we have slowly learned how CO2 affects our climate.
Years ago, when there was an oil shortage in the 1970's, some of us began to look for an alternative to the use of hydrocarbons. I looked at what was available and what was being proposed and decided that solar energy was the ultimate replacement. My conclusion was not based on scientific knowledge, it was based on simple observation and extrapolation. If the sun made the plants grow and if most life on our planet depended on both land and water plants, and if fuels like wood, coal, and oil came from ancient plant and animal life, then it seemed reasonable to go directly to the source for the energy we need.
For too long we have busied ourselves with "going with the flow". We, especially in the U.S.A., always looked for faster and cheaper. Most of us honestly thought that we could ask the planet to endlessly provide us whatever we wanted. Now, slowly, many are beginning to wonder if we haven't been misguided. Like passengers on a Ship of Fools, we are headed for disaster unless we join together and take over the helm. We have to change primary energy sources before the options are taken from us by natural destruction on an unimaginable scale.
