Doxa: Goals

Saturday, November 6, 2021

It saddens me to see so many young people at COP26 - and

even older adults - decry the failiure of the current exercise and

accuse one and all of 'greenwashing'. I remember how panicked we

were at the time. renewables sounded very nice in principle, but in

practice were a nightmare because the energy they generated could not

be stored, or easily transported. And would be dependent on abundant

sunshine, not very likely here in Canada in the winter months.

Granted things do not seem to be changing overnight, but a petrol free future

is in the works. In 1972, the report of the Club of Rome the Limits to Growth

came out; to my mind, that was the year we became a planet, and not just the

citizens of this or that country. That was a momentous change.

Low and behold, today solar energy can be stored, at large scale, and transported,

across continents. And nobody worries about the neighbors...And we have electric

cars in the cities, with recharging points and Big Oil didn't sabotage anybody.

All my paper and plastic gets recycled - how were we ever going to get ordinary

citizens on board for that - and one can bicycle in Paris; how did that happen in

this most urban endroit.

The myriad changes I have lived through, computers and total connectedness not

the least of them, argue that we have not failed to adapt. We just need to take a moment

and feel a bit better about ourselves.

So the crunch at the moment is how to 'phase out' oil and gas. I am not concerned about

the calendar, but I do think we need goals about what to change next. Indeed it might

take quite a bit of oil and gas to build and maintain for the thechnologies of the future,

but with planning and good will, we can make it.

The energy is stored in a molten salt tower...

Doxa