So.... remember the slogans 'a chicken in every pot', 'a car in every backyard'? Well, why not "solar panels on every roof"???? Obviously in real life, these may not be possible for EVERY situation. But why not strive for such regarding solar panels? Why not require it for every roof of either homes or businesses where it is feasible to produce electricity and hot water?
For far too many decades, we have been putting off the job of making this world sustainable. We live on a finite planet yet we always act as if there are infinite resources available for us to use and waste. Hello future..... we're here! With our tremendously high human population, we need to do everything possible to reduce our impact on the very environment that sustains us. And that needs to include producing energy as close to the use point as possbile. That is the most efficient and, in the long run, really the most sustainable.
It's time to change building codes and regulation departments to require each new building as well as every remodeled building to have such installations unless they can PROVE why it will not work. We mandate double pane windows, fire blocking exterior doors, smoke alarms, etc. It is not new to have requirements that improve our use of land and our safety.
With things like the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant fiasco, the Black Forest desctruction, the loss of arctic ice and more, we need to recognize that what we have been doing to provide ourselves with cheap power all these years has had a huge long term cost. A cost that does not allow regeneration of what took millenia to create in many cases. This needs to stop and stop now.
So, I think I'll go get myself a bumper sticker: "Solar Panels on Every Roof"
Add new comment