Wind, solar and other renewable-energy technologies that were once considered more appropriate for single homes or small communities are reaching levels of scale and centralizing that were formerly the province of coal- and gas-fired plants and nuclear reactors. In other words, green is going giant. In the Philippines, where land area and living space are fast becoming constricted, limitations relative to areas necessary for installing solar panels, wind turbines and infrastructure for renewable energy technology are a hindrance to making policy decisions intended to cope with thrusts towards clean air and sustainable environment.
The Philippine National Building Code will have to be revised to keep it attune to the turbulence of technology and technical change. Sooner or later there will be a need to require homes, condominiums and shelters to have solar panels as roofing materials to do away with fossil fuel permanently. One drag about this idea is the reluctance of oil producers and oil marketers to relinquish business and take on the challenge of a new frontier where they will be groping for clout in a path less traveled.
Arizona Public Service, an electric utility based in Tucson, is already harnessing natural energy by using an array of mirrors to concentrate sunlight in order to heat mineral oil up to 550 degrees; the heat vaporizes a liquid hydrocarbon, which runs a generator to make electricity. In other places, windmills and turbines are employed to generate and store electricity to run factories and light homes.
Government should encourage business to thrive in these areas. But more often than not, engineers and technicians employed therein become trapped in a system where everything becomes trade secret thereby killing the industry that was primarily intended for public purpose. The real change should come not in newer technologies, but rather on the willingness and political will of government policy makers to adopt these technologies for the advancement of humanity and the preservation and renewal of global environment.
In the G20 Summit which started last Thursday night in Seoul, no agenda has been included pertaining to environmental protection, much less global warming and climate change. World leaders were all concerned about currency war, the ailing US economy and the uncertainty of the Euro. For all we know, issues and anxieties about environmental destruction in Africa and the Middle East and territorial marine disputes could be the underpinnings of terrorism, global unrest and the crashing world economy. In short, the real issue should be about the rising temperature of planet Earth and the man-made factors that contribute to the foreseen impending global catastrophe.
It is not amazing that impetus for global climate protectionism is usually hatched in smaller non-distinct countries where the effects of imbalances in nature and climate are heavily felt. Typhoons and other natural calamities are fast becoming a regular phenomenon if not a scourge. Billions of dollars are annually sucked in the drain by harsh force of nature of which man has no control except the willingness and resolve to mitigate it. Where IMF-WB loan funds seem limitless and unending, we still have to see an orchestrated effort from among the leaders of the world to pool those fund resources and equitably shared among qualified countries for the purpose of investments on programs to protect and preserve planet Earth--- with strict sanctions against heads of state in case of misappropriations. It can be done if we begin to think that we are all co-owners of this planet!
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