"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 sun is by nature a diversified and democratic product. The building of the a line of solar collectors across the desert would require massive employment, engineering expertise, and technological connections and communications with the rest of the world. The ripple effects of such an infrastructure initiative would help stabilize any country economy and society it is in and offer hope in many forms for its future.

Africa, with its abundance of deserts, could use an abundance of dreams. The varied countries could supply their own energy needs and become energy producers with a clean energy that does not harm workers with diseases like black lung or produce air or water pollution. It is sophisticated technology that requires investments in another resource, that of peoples' intelligence and creative energies, thus it would support and depend upon the building of schools.

Such projects, coupled with the Green Movement of communities planting trees to stop the desertification of non-desert areas, can be transformative forces in developing countries. But such efforts require investment funds that are not readily available in most countries rich with deserts. So it is to these types of projects our eyes can turn when looking for socially responsible, sustainable, and peaceable development programs to invest in as individuals, groups, nations, the United Nations and World Bank.

"My command to you is: love your enemies, pray for your persecutors. This will prove you are the sons and daughters of your heavenly Father, for his sun rises on bad and the good, he rains on the just and unjust." (Matt:5-44-45).