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 ***
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