As the world debates climate change and contemplates ways to reduce the use of fossil fuels, President Obama says he wants to spend $7 billion to bring electrical power to rural Africa.
The president, of course, is not talking about coal-fired power plants, but rather developing new sources of clean energy to benefit those who currently live off the power grid.
This is a worthy goal, although one wonders if we yet have the technology—or money—to accomplish it without fossil fuels.
Energy use has jumped exponentially around the world as people everywhere plug in, turn on, and demand even more of the electronic devices and 21st Century conveniences that eat energy like hungry wolves. The world’s population has grown by leaps and bounds. Air and automobile travel are at record levels. And consumer goods and agricultural projects are being shipped to even more distant markets.
One idea that has been floated by the president’s team is a soccer ball that generates electricity when kids kick it around, storing up energy for later uses, such as powering home light bulbs, or charging phones. Ideas like this may be a testament to mankind’s ingenuity, but are we really going to electrify the world and meet our growing energy needs with such inventions?
Excuse our skepticism, but maybe this is just one more way to launder U.S. tax dollars for other purposes—such as special-interest payoffs and perpetual political campaigns.
Whatever the motivation—noble or otherwise—we probably have a long way to go before we solve the fossil fuel problem.
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