tao of cid viscous

wired ran an article recently which got me thinking.

nuclear technology has long had a stigma of being unstable and of producing nasty byproducts. but we take for granted what we know about combustibles and keep on holding up the status quo.

coal, gasoline, even natural gas and diesel pour out a huge amount of toxic material everyday. and coal power plants don't just leave radioactive goo in tightly sealed buckets (which we still don't know what to do with). these nasty byproducts are spewed straight into the air.

and don't kid yourself. a lot of the crap coming out of those big smokestacks, and the ford parked in your driveway are just as radioactive as those aforementioned buckets of goo.

bottom line--we have to do something. i'm not saying nuclear is our only option, but at least the waste is something under our control--after that carbon and those noxious gases are ejected into the biosphere, they just float around and do whatever they want.

and so many of the other 'alternative power sources' are too unreliable, or too inefficient. that's no reason to give up, though. in fact, this should be a sign, a wake up call. we've got to pump more resources into education.

and not just the kids, either. starting them young is paramount, but we've got to fight the idea that old dogs can't learn new tricks. we need to teach society as a whole. begin dealing with our problems instead of living with them...

a long time ago, when i was young, i remember reading a book with fantastic predictions about what the future would hold for us. oh, some of the ideas were far fetched, but some of them have already come true.

anyway, one in particular stands out in my mind. the idea was to take a long polymer 'banner' for lack of a better word, and affix many piezoelectric strips or plates to it. the bottom would be anchored to the ocean floor. the top tethered to a buoy. suspended upright, fields of these could be planted, and the movement of the tides would generate power.

i've thought about this idea more than you'll ever know, and whether it would be feasible or not i do not know, but my point is, we've got to act. we know we are killing our planet, not to mention messing things up for ourselves and our progeny, but there are other choices.

take a stand. talk to your friends, write to your congressmen and women, educate yourselves. we've got to take responsibility. to step up and face our challenges. that is the only way we will ever grow as a race. the human race.

if you've got something to say, make a post, or hit me up at cidViscous@gmail.com.

--cid