Is sustainable energy as sustainable as we believe it is? Or we want to it to be?

First of all, I would like to start this post with a feeling of gratitude, a thank you ... I've noticed that lately my words have been reaching new people from different places, places I have never been and maybe will never visit... The last comment I received on this blog from someone 'anonymous' really made my day.
So to who-ever reads this and feels connected - thank you. Keep on reading and sharing. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Live life to the fullest.

Tonight I've attended a (quite informal) lecture on sustainable energy in my country. It was hosted by the - let's say - most environmental party of my country. They were giving us the facts and numbers about the energy suppliers, how much it costs our families and how 'sustainable' or green certain suppliers really are or let's say in general aren't.
I must admit that mainly I didn't really learn anything new. In my former house in this city I already had made the change to a 100% sustainable energy supplier, just by calculating it on a website and making the arrangments.
Tonight I did leave with some questions that were kept unanswered. I suppose I can look it up online - when I find the time. But I wonder how many people present tonight have asked themselves the same questions.
Anyway, I tried to bring them forward but I didn't work. So here they are.

Before we go into details, sustainable energy is basically defined as 'the provision of energy that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs'.
Not really how we're doing it now, eh?

So... if we are talking about sustainable energy, on national scale, my first question would be... if we look at the stats Greenpeace provides us with (http://www.greenpeace.org/belgium/nl/e-ranking/vlaanderen/), how important is it that we take the source of that energy into account? I'm referring to the actual 'origin' of the sustainable energy, more specifically, where is this energy produced? Because to me, it sounds kind of paradoxical that we would invest in consuming (or buying) sustainable energy in our country that is produced in a country thousands of kilometres away from us - not even providing the inhabitants of that country with that type of energy...
Okay, I know this might sound a little fussy, but... I think it's a question worth considering.

Thus we are all about 'renewable energy', mainly energy that comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat instead of using up the sources that aren't renewable such as oil, gas, coal or nuclear power (putting aside the huge waste problems of the latter). Great!

Again, my next question is probably easily answered by several links on the internet... Then again, which one should I trust and who can help me broaden my knowledge on this one?
How durable and environmental-friendly are the production-processes of the so-called 'vehicles' of sustainable energy? What is the environmental cost of windmills, solar panels, etc? How much emissions are due to their production and even more - how (long)lasting/durable are they?

It's obviously great that nations all over the world are - some more than others - valueing a possible switchover to more and also more affordable sustainable energy. In a lot of countries, windmills start popping out like sunflowers and solar panels decorate roofs.  But then again, will we add our used solar panels to the dumps in the South? How much have we really contributed to a healthier and happier planet if the production of our windmills is so contaminating that it might take ages to compensate this, not even considering adding some 'positive' energy-use to our society?


Anyway, I don't want to conclude this post with a negative vibe, because everywhere there's concern and action, there will be positive results. I steadily want to believe this until I die.
So I'll leave you with this video to watch and hopefully in a few days after some research I'll be wiser on the issues touched above.

*** Good Night ***

Renewing my vegetarianism and giving you an option : I

Pretty tipicial isn't it, after neglecting this 'blog', space for sharing ideas and thoughts, I come back with such an ethical and heavy issue as 'vegetarianism'. I can imagine people rolling their eyes or laughing at 'the idealistic girl' with her 'world-bettering' ideas. But give it a shot. Just read it and then make up your mind.

Anyway, my vegetarianism has become much clearer and more logical, after being informed about what's the deal with the meat you eat. I should tell you, I used to be a 'flexible' vegetarian. After a trip to South-America where I discovered I could easily survive without meat, I chose - as I was about to live in a student's residence without parental supervision - not to eat meat anymore. My main motive wasn't because of the constant abuse of the animals or the bad circumstances in which they were bred. After 18 years of eating meat on daily basis, I discovered I was happy without eating it. I liked the idea of being happy and sufficiently fed without having to eat animals. Apart from that, I wasn't happy with the soy grown in Brazil and being fed to our cows. While people were/are starving living next to the soy fields... But in one way or another, I managed NOT to inform myself about real ethical reasons not to eat animals... I think I was afraid to face it. I mean, why bother? Why take another worry you can't affect individually? I was wrong...

I remember that when I was a kid on my way home, I passed this field with cows from a local farmer. I used to feel so guilty looking at their peaceful behaviour and imagining them on my plate as lunch...

Well, animals...as I had 'hushed' my mind with the declining of steaks, I kept on eating fish.You have to admit, the white, crusty fishfingers or fishburgers hardly remind you of vivid, jumping fish. Apart from that, I used to believe they were leading a happy life in  the ocean, and then were suddenly caught and prepared for lunch. I didn't know or did not want to know that 1. our ocean is extremely contaminated and is being 'emptied' by our fishing strategiess 2. a big part of the fish we consume is also bred, genetically manipulated and is fed chemical bullshit. Yuck!

So... I decided to take a stand. I decided to inform myself and make a well-reasoned decision based on several sources. I was partly convinced after reading 'No Impact Man' by Colin Beavan (see an earlier post). But it wasn't until I read 'Eating Animals' by Jonathan Safran Foer that I made this decision.

"I will totally delete animals from my food list unless I am positively sure that the animal I am about to eat has had a nice, outdoor, animal life, has been fed real food (no chemicals or additional feeding) and has been slaughtered with uttermost respect." 

Basically, in the society we are living in now, it's a synonym for declining all animals as a food source, because main stream meat or fish on your plate has NOT experienced any of what I described above...

One of the main reasons I was attracted to this book was his motive to write the book... Compared to a lot of activists who write pro-vegetarianism-books out of really animalcaring reasons - which I do not reject at all but I believe they can't connect with a lot of 'mainstream' people - Jonathan wrote the book out of a concern for his own progeny:

"But on the brink of fatherhood—facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child’s behalf—his casual questioning took on an urgency. This quest ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong."

For many, having a family is the most natural thing to do. It connects thousands and thousands of people. And everyone wants the best for his/her kin isnt' it? How come so many people have never even questioned what they feed their beloved ones? I'm glad Jonathan did it.

In his book Jonathan sails from 'how to justify vegetarianism in your social life' til investigating the turkey farms where a lot of people's Thanksgiving or X-mas-turkey is bred...


I hope I have aroused some reader's interest here...

I will leave you with this website to hopefully keep you interested and have you follow my story...

www.eatinganimals.com

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