Last year on Earth Day I showed off pictures of solar panels on Ibisians houses. This year I missed earth day but today’s only the day after earth day, and I don’t want that mother to think I’ve forgotten her. I still want to talk a bit about solar panels, and some of the other stuff in the post from last year.
Back when Jimmy Carter was in the White House (30 years ago), there was a huge nationwide effort in renewable and alternative energy. The country still remembered the gas crisis of 1973. One incongruity: for some reason, Detroit kept building cars as big as the hairstyles of the day. There were a lot of government programs trying to solve the energy crisis via various avenues. Mr. Carter put solar panels on the roof of the White House. Nobody on the ground could see them, and I’m not so sure it really provided much of the White House’s energy needs, but it was a good symbolic gesture. Then something happened on the way to energy independence.
When Ronald Reagan moved into the White House-as a symbolic act of his dickishness-HE HAD THEM REMOVED. I’m still astonished by this. All solar research stopped, and the best and brightest scientists turned their brainpower to the ill-fated “star wars” missile defense system. The good news is that other countries are funding massive research in alternative energy. The cost of a kilowatt of electricity from a Photovoltaic panel has been reduced by over 90% in the last 15-20 years, and as fossil fuels begin to live up to their name and go away and die, solar electricity suddenly looks like it’s worth checking out again.
As mentioned, back then there was a lot of talk and action on energy independence and finding alternative ways to keep us warm and cool and mobile. And cycling enjoyed a huge boom in the 70’s.
A friend sent me this little gem from yesterday’s Missoulian (I’m going to jump out on a limb here and guess it’s a newspaper in Missoula MT). The cartoon is by Greg Siple, done 30 years ago, and was reprinted this year and accompanied by a nice, to the point editorial written for small town Missoula.
My, how things haven’t changed…
Speaking of traffic and planning, here where I live in Sonoma County California, there’s a fair amount of divisiveness on the road. Many cyclists are puzzled by it, because all it takes is a tiny switch in viewpoint to completely diffuse the issue. Greg’s editorial says:
I understand that a few people will never consider riding a bicycle under any circumstance. But they should applaud those who do ride, and also support investment in public bicycle facilities such as trails and bridges. Bicyclists do not compete for fuel and parking spaces, and they shorten the lines of cars waiting for green at our intersections. In addition, more bicycle riding and less driving overall means less wear and tear on our roads, which extends the life of the pavement.
That sounds like reason enough to me to accept cycling, without even talking about health benefits or the reduction in carbon footprint.
While we cry over $4.00 a gallon gas in the mean time, several European cities (Paris, Lyon, Munich, Bilbao are the ones I’ve seen personally) have wonderful public bicycle fleets allowing their residents to travel relatively hassle free around their cities. We have squat.
We were on the way there 30 years ago buy got lost. Let’s hope it doesn’t take another thirty years to find our way again.
