Energy of Freedom

3 views
Skip to first unread message

Jon Freise

unread,
Mar 12, 2022, 11:12:36 AM3/12/22
to Transition Twin Cities
Hi Everyone,

It is hard to watch the invasion of Ukraine unfolding.  There is a lot of good coverage over on Resilience.org covering the energy and economics side of the conflict.  It is worth checking out.

I ran across this really good piece talking about Renewable Energy as "The Energy of Freedom" and I think we should carry that idea forward.  It should be on every car bumper and radio interview.

I have said this before: if we had spent the 3 trillion (or more) of funds we spent on the war in Iraq on switching to renewable energy and super insulating our homes, the US would barely be noticing that energy prices are shooting through the roof.


Germany, for instance, has announced this week that it intends to reach 100% renewable energy by 2035 to shake off its reliance on Russian gas, which could mark a potential tipping point in the energy transition across the European continent. Commenting on the announcement, German finance minister Christian Lindner labelled renewable energy as the “energy of freedom”.


There is a lot of other good coverage over on Resilience.org covering the same topics I have been thinking about: How Russia and Ukraine export so much wheat, how those export cuts are likely to destabilize governments across the world, just like the Arab Spring.  The grave dangers of nuclear power in a country undergoing a war.  Given the 10,000 year lifespan of nuclear waste and my belief that civilizations move through up and down cycles, those wastes will eventually be in many different conflicts and thus risk being released.

But today I wanted to highlight those articles highlighting "how do we turn this terrible situation toward something good?"  Europe and the US find ourselves unable to respond effectively to Russia because
1. We import so much energy and raw materials from Russia.
2. The US and Europe are no longer the world's only source of industrial goods.  Russia can turn to China and India for machines, spare parts, electronics, etc.  Russia was itself once self sufficient in industrial production.  Joining the "efficient" world market destroyed that resilience.
3. We allowed a large and powerful democracy to backslide into autocracy.  We need ways for people to support one another in maintaining governance.  We need to intercede before we get to the brink of nuclear war.  And we need to strengthen our own democratic systems.

We can solve the first by building out our renewable energy infrastructure and making our cities and homes more energy efficient.  And we can solve the second by shifting our tariffs to be more regional (thus favoring nearby economies over distant ones) and introducing an autocracy tariff that greatly reduces the profitability of nations that do not uphold democratic standards.

Given the coming food crisis this would be a great spring to build some community through planting Victory Gardens.  Preferably inviting in some neighbors for good company while doing that!

May you all stay well this spring.

-Jon

Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages