The Energy of the Future

Last year I had a pretty amazing opportunity to visit Greece. Besides the "amazingness" of the whole trip, I noticed that CNN International had an awful lot to report on environmental problems all over the world. Now, I'm not talking about stories like Anderson Cooper's Planet in Peril, I'm talking about the small day to day stories about water shortage problems in northern Africa, erosion problems in parts of Asia, and smog in central Europe. It struck me that, in this country at least, we don't see this type of small consistent reporting on issues of the world's environment.

Now here's what really hit it home for me. I was in Arizona last week, the desert for all intents and purposes, and there were very few homes with solar panels, water recapturing systems, or even energy efficient architecture.

How did we come to this place where computer chips get smaller and smaller but cars and homes get larger and larger? We have the ability to begin making our day to day tools more energy efficient but the investment in these technologies doesn't match the potential for improvements.

As energy becomes more expensive, as resources become more scarce, as investment in green technologies increases, and political and social will spreads, we will be better able to adapt to our planet and live more harmoniously with our surroundings.

Take a look at my post on "What our Future Looks Like" and check out the Orquideorama. This stuff isn't going away.

Photo by: Marcin Wichary