A couple of years back I sat staring at my monitor agonizing
over just what I was going to say to an audience of solid waste professionals at
an event for which I had consented to provide the keynote address. The theme for
the forum was “The Evolution of Waste,” a thesis I didn’t buy into but lacked
the wits how to voice my differing vision. As luck would have it, my screen was
not as blank as my mind, and after several minutes of wandering reverie I began
to focus on the image in front of me … the stunning NASA scene titled
Earth_Lights that circulated the Internet in mid-2004.Initially I was drawn to the mosaic out of curiosity and by
the sheer beauty of the familiar yet haunting pattern that showed the purposeful
hand of man, so I installed it as my computer’s wallpaper. Over time it became a
talisman of sorts, in much the same way I’ve come to regard the mountains
embracing my town … a presence that is at once comforting and challenging.
Questions of “Why this?” or “Why not there?” have emerged
without fanfare, and here while I pondered the history and fate of waste I once
again found myself drawn into the night scene without any sense of purpose. It
was as if what I needed to say had been waiting there ready to snare me … and it
did.
The same hand of man my wallpaper depicted through myriad
points of light produced the base materials with which my soon-to-be audience
wrestled on a daily basis, but the significance of the mosaic didn’t end
there…indeed far from it.
I’ll ask you, as I did my live audience, to take a moment to
let the image wash through you, and then consider some points of interest.
*Electrification as it now exists is little
more than a century old
*When it began to emerge, the world’s
population stood at 1.4 billion people—roughly 10 times what it was at the time
of Christ.
*Today, the world’s population has grown
five-fold—to 7 billion, headed for 8 billion by
2020.
*If the present rate is to continue, we will
have achieved another 10-times population expansion in less than 200
years.
*Worldwide gross product has grown 100-fold in
the last century.
A World
Lit by More Than Fire
Now look at the image again. Does it look the same to you, or
does it stir up some new thoughts about life here on Earth 100 years ago, today,
and into the time of our children? To me, it raises strings of questions chief
among which is, “To what extent does the maintenance and/or growth of the
world’s current population depend on the production and delivery of reliable and
affordable energy?”
Without the guarantee of reliable, affordable, and secure
energy, not only is the industry necessary to meet the needs of our soaring
population growth, but so too the ability to sustain that which already
exists.
Earth_Lights, if you look behind the shimmering dots, is a
grim depiction of a house of cards at the mercy of forces largely beyond our
control. Our salvation, I would like to suggest, lies in our ability to develop
and maintain options…one of which is an expansion of distributed energy
resources and solutions.
What are your feelings about converting non-recyclable
organic waste materials to energy?
Email John