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| Japanese solar farm built on an abandoned golf course elevates it to a higher purpose. |
You would think it was 1951 the way some Canadians are talking about building a new pipeline they say is "needed" to ship tar sand goop to China for the next 60 years.
Meanwhile, in Japan they are converting unwanted golf courses into solar farms.
And in New Zealand they have just made all new off-shore oil and gas exploration off limits. It is the biggest oil exclusion zone in the world.
Pipeline proponents haven't noticed that China is becoming the biggest thing in renewable energy in the world. Will they really want our dirty oil shipments until 2078?
I doubt it.
It is time for the big oil deep state to lay down their economic threats, environmental degradation, drilling rigs, leaky pipelines and orphaned wells, and see what the rest of us see - the end of our dependence on their dirty products.
It's happening, and no amount of fake oil industry memes will change that.
Even big banks are getting in on oil divestment. HSBC announced that they will no longer be financing Alberta tar sands developments, or other oil and gas projects.
Oil slick leaders tell us that pipelines are in the "national interest", but are they really? We already subsidize fossil fuel producers to the tune of $3.3 billion dollars a year. Now we are going to fork out billions more in taxpayer money to build a pipeline owned by a private corporation?
I can imagine what 3.3 billion a year in subsidies would do for the green energy sector, but big oil wouldn't like it.
Even if pipelines were in Canada's best interest, is it in our global interest to be promoting dirty energy projects when renewables are finally getting off the ground in a big way?
Pipelines don't make environmental, economic, or social sense any more. It is time to drop the 1950s oil attitude and get with the renewable energy program.
I hear your pain, Australia are just as stupid, idiotic and shortsighted. The golf course made me really, really happy. I love that photo.
ReplyDeletePretty happy with the decision our (young, pregnant *gasp*) prime minister has made about having an oil exclusion zone actually... But plenty are not. These are likely folk who can't imagine alternative energy sources or life without oil. I also love our transition town movement and time banking communities that seem to be growing in popularity in many towns here. The problem is that they're not profitable financially and therefore will likely never become mainstream....not voluntarily anyway!
ReplyDeleteI love the picture. It gives me hope. Soon I hope more countries, including the US, will see the value in renewable energy sources. In the small university town I live in we have windmills and some solar that feeds our municipal utility company. It’s small but it’s a start. Thanks for keeping the hope alive.
ReplyDeleteIf we stop oil use, we won't have plastic. Yes! We know solar is better. We've known it for a long time. It's not profitable enough to the oil companies to make a more radical switch to solar. Solar makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks for the update on what some other countries are doing. I learn so much here at NBA.
ReplyDeleteIt is commendable what the Japanese did with that unused golf course, but it must be remembered that everything comes with a cost. Of course the first cost to recognize is how many materials were taken from the planet to produce all those solar panels. Another cost is the how it affects wildlife. Golf courses are not great habitats, but they do have wide open spaces that hawks and falcons can hunt over, and geese/ducks/etc can land on for resting. Many if not most golf courses chase away those geese/ducks, but it is a place of rest. With the panels there, that open space for hunting and resting is gone, just so that humans can turn on more electric things. That too has its "goods"and "bads" - many of the electric things are medical in nature and needed for life, but it is also general consumer products (TVs, microwaves, cords to charge your phone) that use that electricity.
ReplyDeleteI don't have an answer. I use electricity - obviously as I am typing this on my powered computer. And I still drive my car. But I think about these things, and remember that any action has an affect - good and bad.
OK, stepping off my soap box now...
Mary