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Showing posts from July, 2009

"Let There be Light" and DESERTEC

Then God said, 'Let there be light," and there was light. God saw how good the light was. As the planet's climate grows more erratic and oil prices rise and fall bringing insecurity for non-oil nations and often war and autocratic governments within oil nations, people may finally be ready to go back to the beginning to rethink their energy sources. A huge solar project, DESTERTEC (www.desertec.org), is in the works as a joint effort between a group of European companies and the DESERTEC Foundation to build solar collectors in North Africa to supply 1/3 of Europe's energy needs and those of Morocco as well. The solar energy will heat water into steam which will turn turbines creating energy. This energy be transferred to European nations under the Mediterranean Sea. No small undertaking. It requires big vision and big investment, but the potential for payback is even greater. The elegance of this initiative and that of a similar one for the Sahara Desert is that the s...

From Genesis to Global Warming

In the book of Genesis, where we find God’s first self-revelation to humanity, there is a recurring refrain: “And God saw that it was good”. . . . God entrusted the whole of creation to the man and woman, and only then – as we read – could He rest “from all his work.” John Paul II Everyone can agree, people weren't around when the Earth was created and humans were the last species to show up on the scene, yet we've had the most varied capabilities and responsibilities upon our shoulders. Now religious leaders of all faiths, scientists, and Earth citizens are joining together to talk about these responsibilities and share them, bringing our varied tools, perspectives, and insights to bear. We've a long way to go, but this is an exciting time in the history of humanity, where the connections between faith, reason, and spiritual imagination can be knitted back together along with our insights from nature herself. This is our moment for the human sp...