China Throws Down a Renewable Energy Challenge to the World

While it is currently one of the world's most heavily polluted countries and it needs to import over 90% of its oil, China has decided to act in a manner that needs to be applauded: http://seekingalpha.com/article/142617-china-becomes-global-green-leader-with-massive-solar-projects?source=yahoo I am grateful to Dr Mayraj Fahim for this link showing where South Asian countries, which enjoy the same climatic conditions and suffer from similarly high pollution, are lagging seriously behind. So, for that matter, is the USA where the only action forward seems to be Barack Obama's pious talk along with the constant and stale applause of his drum-beaters in the media and in the blogosphere. While well intentioned US plans like the Pickens proposals fall by the wayside, the Chinese seem to power ahead with their desire to insulate their country from the vagaries and whims of the oil producing nations and of oil traders and their manipulations.

Yes, China has coal - so does India, but the Chinese consider their coal reserves a finite asset. India has no hesitation in preserving some of its own coal reserves while it encourages massive environmental degradation in Indonesia, Australia, South Africa and elsewhere by mining for coal there and pollutes the air and the seas by shipping it back to India. And, though India has recently articulated a massive proposal to work on solar power, it is going to be difficult for it to do much as it is way behind China on the neccessary manufacturing infrastructure to produce solar and other RE equipment.

However, this is a situation that could be a wake-up call if you ask me. There is no reason why South Asian countries - and India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc all have excellent engineers and facilities with which to manufacture / develop renewable energy products. This could be the spark with which to ignite a powerful flame (well, yes, this is an inept simile) of Renewable Energy in South Asia. Our antions would be wealthier because of money saved, our air, water and soil cleaner, and our workers treated more humanely as they no longer have to work in near-slavish conditions in Arab countries.

Let's hope this competition is joined, and, at the soonest.

Hawaii Focuses on Electric Cars

The beautiful state of Hawaii has decided to focus on electric cars and has brought in Israeli transportation pioneer Shai Agassi to help in this as this article in today's New York Times explains: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/technology/start-ups/03hawaii.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink Mr Agassi is an Iaraeli, the citizen of a country that faces a boycott from the Gulf nations for political reasons and he has chosen to make it his mission to reduce his country's dependence on oil for that reason. However, he belongs to a particularly intelligent group of people - the Jews are a capable, thoughtful people and they have many great achievements in several fields to their credit. I do think that the rest of the world needs to look at the Agassi projects in Israel, Hawaii, San Francisco and elsewhere.

Israel is a very good friend of India and I must stress that I believe that India looks at this project with the same interest that the US state of Hawaii and cities like San Francisco are looking. One more nail in the fossil fuel coffin would mean cleaner air for us to breathe, less money going to the Saudi despots among sundry tyrants around the world, and savings that stay at home helping local economies everywhere.

Piracy and the Danger to Fossil Fuel Supplies

Over the past few weeks the dangers that the world faces from piracy have been more and more apparent. At first, a Ukrainian ship carrying a number of Main Battle Tanks was taken by Somali pirates. Then came one successful engagement by the Indian navy with the pirates where they drove some of these thugs off, immediately followed by the taking of a ship with mainly Indian crew who seem to have been released following the payment of a substantial ransom. In fact, over 70 ships seem to have been taken in recent weeks by the same thieves who seem to operate with impunity in the region.

Now comes the most audacious act of these pirates, the taking of the Saudi oil tanker, the Sirius Star owned by the huge Saudi Aramco business. The tanker is reputed to be carrying crude oil worth $ 100 million at today's low prices, still an enormous amount of money by any standards you may want to use. From the raison d'etre of this blog, there is an argument to be made against fossil fuels using the hijacking of this tanker as an example. If frustrated, the pirates could do what Saddam Hussein did when he set the Kuwaiti oilfields ablaze - set this tanker ablaze. Or, they could damage the vessel and dump crude in the sea causing a major ecological disaster like Saddam did, again, when his army was driven from Kuwait and he wanted to render the Kuwaiti water desalination facilities unusable. These are all pointers to the risks that arise solely from using fossil fuels in an increasingly dangerous world. The situation in Somalia, therefore, is one more reason why this filthy fuel, oil, and its family in coal need to be done away with the world over.

There is too much at stake to continue to use this trash anymore.