Solar Power and World Peace
In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic and discovered the Americas. He wrote in his journal that he thought the people who lived there were weak, and that he “could conquer the whole of them with fifty men and govern them as I please.” Columbus and his cronies brought food, gold, parrots, cotton and slaves back to Spain for their sponsor, the Spanish monarchy.
For the next 300 years, the Spanish battled, conquered, enslaved and infected the Native Americans, causing the population to shrink by up to 90%.
That is just one example of how, for thousands of years, nations have been fighting over our planet’s precious resources.
In 2003, the USA invaded Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Their declared purpose was “to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), to end Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.” In 2005, the CIA reported that no WMD were found in Iraq.
In 2007, the real reason for the US invasion of Iraq emerged.
In that year, the Bush administration pushed the Iraq Oil Law through the Iraqi Cabinet. The new law ensured that profits from oil production were split between the local government and foreign oil companies (mainly US). The law also guaranteed that the United States would have a steady supply of oil.
In fact, this seemed a bit predictable considering the invasion was initially codenamed Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL)…
Some of the most oil-rich countries in Africa are Angola, Nigeria, Gabon, Sudan, the Congo and Chad. It should follow that these countries should be wealthy, with the inhabitants enjoying abundant food and good living conditions. Yet instead, these countries are plagued with famine due to civil wars, coups and military rule.
As long as the world depends on oil to power their homes, cars, trains and ships, nations will battle over oil reserves. As long as oil retains its (artificially) high value, wars will continue to be fought over it.
An important aspiration of all developed countries should be to kick their oil addiction. There are plenty of renewable sources of energy:
- The amount of sunlight that falls on one square kilometer of the earth’s surface is enough to power the whole planet several times over.
- The amount of wind blowing around the upper atmosphere is enough to power even those places where the sun doesn’t shine.
If developed countries invested just 10% of the amount they spend on oil, into solar and wind power research instead, then the world would be a better place.
And when the world runs on clean, green, solar energy, there will be one less thing to fight about.
