New Times / Letter To The Editor

We can get energy from a lot of sources

Gerald Manata

This letter is in reference to exploiting California’s Monterey shale oil deposit, building the Keystone pipeline, and other such things.

The world is awash in free energy. The earth receives about 274 million gigawatt-years of power from the sun, more than 20,000 times as much as all energy from all sources currently used by humans. Earth’s winds at 100 meters create about 1,700 terrawatts. Then there is the energy from tides and waves, from flowing rivers and the Earth’s geothermal energy. We now know how to and can tap into all of this, easily supplying all of our energy needs. Then there is the energy from things like falling rain, lightning (40 strikes a second on the Earth), and other EM phenomena or earthquakes that one day we may find how to harness.

With all we now know about pollution and global warming, taking the time and energy to drill, process, and burn more fossil fuels at this point is plain stupid. Yet there are greedy, shortsighted politicians who would sacrifice the future of their own and our children to support expanding our fossil fuel use. Such politicians must be voted out of office ASAP.