Take a look at the abundant pine trees and oaks scattered about. Take a step off of manmade hard surface and your foot will surely land on vegetation. Direct your eyes in any direction and biological life will appear. It’s evident that these things exist because of energy from the Sun. Most things in our reality wouldn’t exist without energy from the Sun. Look at the clothes that protect your body, the chair that is doing its job of holding you while you read this article, the vehicle that carries you about your day. Without energy from the Sun these objects would not exist. No Sun, no objects.
Look at your kids, your grandkids, your parents, your dog, your cat, your goldfish, and yourself; all here because of the Sun’s energy. When you stop to fill your car with gas, you’re pretty much pumping stored energy from the Sun into its tank, as the decayed plants and animals of millions and millions of years ago grew from the Sun’s energy. You might say, “Dan, what about nuclear, wind, tidal, wave energy, etc.?” Even those are harnessed because of engineered products made possible by energy from the Sun- fossil fueled energy generation electrified the manufacturing plants and supplied energy for construction.
Billions and billions of dollars have been and are being invested to create fusion power here on earth- decreasing solar panel demand and the mining practices associated with their construction. The generated heat from manmade fusion reactors, if successful, will power our world. So, we must, for the sake of civilization’s survival, create a comprehensive plan to harness the power of the Sun, be it through transformation of its rays to energy, or to create fusion power. There is no substitute that we know of presently.
The thing is, you see, we don’t have unlimited stored Sun energy (fossil fuels), but rather a finite amount, and anyone, any organization, any government that says we do is either lying or doesn’t comprehend that a spherical container can only hold so much product. I’ve heard arguments that we have plenty. Yes, plenty for you and me, but what about our grandchildren, their grandchildren, and all of humanity that follows us? The issue of converting to solar or fusion power isn’t a choice for humanities survival, it is a requirement, a must, a have to.
Political parties have done a terrible job concerning our next energy leap. Harnessing the energy of the Sun should not be politicized. There should be a partisan plan that utilizes our current forms of energy as a bridge to place our country, and hopefully the planet, on a course that utilizes energy captured from the Sun or fusion. We must agree that tearing down our current system is not the answer and that fossil fuels are finite. We must agree that a phased, palatable plan is required to replace fossil fuels, or we will have chosen to pass an existential problem to our decedents.
