----- Forwarded Message ---- Sent: Mon, November 30, 2009 11:03:12 PM Subject: Power to the People, 100% Renewables by 2050 The intended recipient for this message is antonhart...@yahoo.com Science Society Sustainability ======================================================== Lecture 30/11/09 Power to the People, 100% Renewables by 2050 Being 100 percent renewable and green is good, regardless of whether you believe in climate change. It solves our energy problem, puts people back in control, and gives us a cleaner, safer, healthier environment. Launch of Green Energies - 100% Renewable by 2050, 25 November 2009 The presentation can be downloaded Power to the people in all senses of the word We are thrilled to have such strong recommendations for our report. Alan Simpson, special advisor to Secretary of State for Energy and Climate calls it “a road map for survival” and “the get out of jail” card for Britain and many other countries for avoiding “climate chaos”. Chee Yokeling, Director of Third World Network, says “it is just what world governments need to renew their commitment to the UN Convention on Climate Change.” That alone tells us there is nothing to divide the peoples of the developed and developing world as far as renewable energies and saving the climate is concerned. What we need is to restore power to the people in all senses of the word ‘power’, through a commitment to 100 percent renewable energies by 2050. This is realistic, much more so than the non-renewable options favoured by the UK and other governments, and much more affordable. Renewable energy is inexhaustible energy that does not run out. Moreover, it is free; once you install your own equipment to capture it, no one can meter it, if you don’t want them to, or cut off your supply. It is in principle available to all, so there is no need to fight over it. We, the people, are in control. Being renewable is not enough. It has to be green, which means also being environmentally friendly, healthy, safe, non-polluting, and sustainable. Sustainable needs more comment as it has been hi-jacked too often to mean just the opposite. Being sustainable is to endure for hundreds or thousands of years like natural ecosystems, thanks to a circular economy of reciprocity and cooperation that renews and regenerates the whole (The Rainbow And The Worm). It is just the opposite of the dominant neo-liberal economy driven by competition and exploitation that has brought the planet and its inhabitants to the brink of irreversible catastrophe, not to mention the actual financial collapse (see Financing Poverty). Therefore it is important to modify Bruntland’s definition of sustainability as follows: to use natural resources responsibly and equitably, to meet the needs of all in the present without compromising the needs of future generation. This makes sense, as truly green and renewable energies are freely available to all in any case. Unfortunately, our political leaders are overwhelmingly blind to these simple facts. They are committed to the neo- liberal paradigm, and held to ransom by big business. Truly green renewable energies that give power to the people do not leave enough profit to satisfy greedy big business! That‘s why the Copenhagen summit is collapsing before it begins. Big business and big governments are fighting people to prevent them taking power, and fighting one another to get a larger slice of the power pie. ... [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]