We need to begin thinking differently

I ready in the fabulous magazine Yes! http://www.yesmagazine.org/ that 1 square kilometre (247 acres) of hot desert receives solar energy equivalent tp 1.5 million barrels of oil. That means that worldwide several HUNDRED times more energy than we need. Similarly, analysts who have studied the solar resources of the US Southwest found that concentrating solar power could provide nearly 7,000 gigawatts of capacity, this is SEVEN times more than the current total US electric capacity. So the thought is - if we have so much energy at our disposal, more than we need, available from the sun alone, just waiting to be captured by processes currently available, we could take the budget invested in the war in Iraq and spend it on developing the energy this way, we wont need to fight for oil anymore, we don't need to send soldiers to get hurt and die, we don't need to kill civilians, pay for weapons. And if there is some money left over, we can create a microfinancing system for people to grow their vegetables and plant trees. I bet one day someone will read an old posting, dated 80 years ago, and laugh and share it with his friends with a comment: Can you believe they were just thinking of this as a possibility!?

more than 4000

I was watching yesterday on CNN how a person somewhere in Vermont set up a small white flag for every soldier killed in Iraq. The field is on a major road, and he did it so as people drive by they have a visual reminder. I am not sure a reminder of what. Of how many lives was has cost? of how many US soldiers killed? Of the price of war as the option to solve conflicts? I would like to see a field with one white flag for every life it has cost. Whether US soldier, or soldier from another country. Whether civilian, contractor, Iraqi, just counting lives. May be it could help to spend a while in a space shuttle, and see the earth from above. From there it's more clear, that it's just lives of planet habitants. There is this great game I've read about in Paul Hawken's book "Blessed Unrest", where he invites a group of executives to think and plan life for one year in a space shuttle, the size of their choice. They have no restrictions in what they can do or take on board. It becomes interesting to think of the earth as a large size shuttle, and we are all travelling on it together.

Interesting ad

I saw a very interesting ad yesterday in a movie theater in Munich, Germany. A man was sitting, fishing, on a pretty dirty looking dock, looked like in mid of a city, harbour, something like that. Another man passed by, walking his dog. The fisher man looked pretty bored, and it made me think of a recent comment that man have an easier time setting their minds blank, therefore the passion for such a calm activity like fishing. After a while, the fisherman pulled out something, and it was some kind of glove. He took it off the hook, and piled it on his side, where there were already some other objects that he had fished, garbage. The dog walker shook his head. Then a message came on the screen, big. Use your time purposeful. Give time, not money. And then an address of an non for profit organization was displayed, an organization that needs volunteering support. Nothing against fishing - but many times when I see the different ways we spend our time, I ask myself if it is really the best way to spend that half an hour - and what difference a half an hour could make in someone's life.