More on Memorial Day

I pick up where I left off.

I must confess, Memorial Day is one of those holidays which concern me—not because I object to the premise. Vets and our fallen deserve all the thanks and glory we can give them.

Rather I am concerned because those who most publicly and noisily celebrate (or denigrate) the holiday seem to do so for their own quite narrow ends, with the Vets themselves being left behind somehow in all the sound and fury.

I think this is true for both the political Right and the political Left. I find them both quite equally guilty.

Let me begin with the Left first. People on that side of the public debate tend to us Memorial Day to disparage War in general. ("What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.")

And that is good and fine. I agree. War is a waste, and evil. But, two things: first, in the process of disparaging war sometimes…sometimes… some members of the Left find themselves disparaging those men and women who have fought in themit In their dialogues there is expressed or implied the idea that soldiers are at best fools, and at worse imperialists and brutes, and either way not worth our sympathy or our support.

The second error of the Left is, I think, more humane, more subtle, but more dangerous. It is that War is not only inevitably wrong but easily avoided. They say that any war, any confrontation, can be escaped if only you make Nice-Nice. If only you are willing to negotiate, to seek compromise… if only you are intelligent enough to sidestep the oncoming truck…then bloodshed simply will not happen.

Ah, but there's the rub. That isn't the case. I don't care how intelligent you, how un-aggressive, how reasonable, how "un-testosteronal," how much on the side of the Angels…eventually you will encounter someone who isn't. Eventually, you will meet someone who simply wants to kill you, or harm your children, or enslave you, and nothing you can do will change their mind. Hitler was not going to learn to love Jews. Stalin would not have seen the error of his ways. European imperialists and slave traders were not going to abandon their wealth for Christian principles. Genghis Khan and his successors were not going to become gentle pastoralists in a day. (In case you're interested, the Khans' mostly unprovoked wars seem to have killed so many people that the world actually grew cooler, as the amount of CO2 in the air was reduced. Fewer people breathing, you see. Plus the fact that farmlands were being abandoned to trees and other carbon sinks.)

In such situations, violence is perfectly justified. It may, indeed, be the only moral course of action, if the alternative is the destruction or degradation of those near and dear to you. It may not be wholesale battle, with armies and warships. It may be a quiet assassination rather than a noisy artillery barrage, but it will be violence all the same.

That the Left does not understand this, is …troubling. And it explains much of why it was that on 9-11, even as the dead fell in rubble to the streets of New York, there were many of the Educated and the Elite who could think of nothing more to say than that "We brought it on ourselves."

Many among them are saying it sill.

*

The Right…

It is worse than the Left. Far worse.

The Right claims to honor the Fallen. To thank the Vet.

But have how you ever noticed how often there is an ulterior motive in what's said? How often the oh-so-pious platitude is accompanied by other things? By a subtext? By the implication that if you support the Vet, if you stand with her or him, then you must also support future wars?

The logic is bizarre, but you hear it time and time again. It is overt, it is covert, it is whispered or shouted from rooftops…but it is there. If you "stand with the Vets, with our boys (and, oh, yes, girls)," then you must also support the War. Any war. Any war on offer. Any war at any time.

It is all the more remarkable because the same people who say these things are so often (albeit not always, but often) the first to vote the cutbacks in services for vets, or their families…the first to cry boondoggle and pork…the last to notice that the men and women they claim to honor are sick, or homeless, or dying in the street…

There is something horrible about that. Something unforgivable.

*

I am appalled by this nation's treatment of its veterans. I am appalled by the numbers—the soaring number of veterans who commit suicide; who suffer from debilitating or deadly diseases that experts pompously announce do not, in fact, exist and therefore do not need to be treated at public expense ("Gulf War Syndrome" was just the first of many); whose lives and families collapse …

I read the other day that there are now more homeless female vets with their children on the street than at any other time in our history.

I find that fact uniquely horrible. There should not be any homeless vets, period. And there should certainly be no homeless mothers who have served in uniform.


*

Oh, an aside…regarding my concern for homeless female vets? I'm told by Those Who Know Best and Are Politically Correct that I've just committed an act of "Positive Sexism." It is, they explain, an act of "Micro-Aggression" which "Denies the Empowerment of Others."

I do not care. That any mother should be without a place for her children to rest their heads is intolerable. That the mother in question should also be a vet makes it all the more terrible.

And those Who Know Best? The Politically Correct?

They can jolly well go suck an egg.

*

Then there is the current VA crisis.

But, then, perhaps the less said about that the better.

It is too horrible.

*

I don't quite know how to end this piece. I've worked at it for a couple of days now. Nothing seems quite right. Nothing seems appropriate.

So, I suppose, I can do no more than default to the same sort of platitudes that I decry in others.

So… like it or not, war exists and always will, regardless of who might be in charge…or how benign that leadership might be. (Even the Second Coming, if you believe in that, is predicated on war.)

And, therefore, like it or not, we will always have among us those who must go to war. Who will die there. Who will suffer and be wounded in body, mind, and soul.

It will be, therefore, always incumbent upon us as a society to respect and care or those who fight for us…to heal their wounds, if possible, and to honor their memories if not.

For us to either proclaim them fools and "imperialists," or to make grand show of our love for them while in fact simply exploiting them for our own political gain, is grotesque.

Grotesque…and dangerous.

For, in time, if we do not support the fallen and the brave, they will begin to ask a very pertinent question.

Two wit, if we are not for them, then why should they be for us?

Memorial Day 2014

I write this on Memorial Day. As such, I use this entry to express my thanks to all the vets who lived and died in service to this nation and to peace everywhere.

Thank you.







*

One other thing…

I have been watching the VA scandal. You know the one I mean? The one that involves soldiers dying while the government stonewalled and falsified data?

And I have an idea.

We find out whoever is responsible. We take that person or persons, give them a full canteen, three days rations, and a sharp stick…

Then we airdrop 'em in someplace like, oh, I don't know, backwater Afghanistan, and let 'em walk home.

If they make it, no hard feelings. If they don't…well, that sort of solves the problem too, doesn't it?

Mother's Day

The first Mother's Day since her passing.

I am surprised by how little I feel. Or, rather, by how little I seem to be allowing myself to feel. I know the grief is there. I have had dreams in which I weep for her. More, I detect emotion…sadness…directly under the surface of my conscious awareness. It is like sensing the tremor of the fault under the apparently solid ground that supports your feet.

Why, then, do I feel, well, numb to it all? I suspect there are number of reasons. First, it is very soon. She died in March. That was only a few weeks ago. On some level I have not realized (emotionally) that she is genuinely gone.

Second, she spent two years in a state somewhere between life and death. In a way, I have already grieved for her. Or, at least, did so partially.

And, finally, I have been just so busy caring for my father and dealing with a thousand other matters that I simply haven't had time to explore my grief.

None of this, I know, is healthy. I know that, eventually, I will have to face my emotions regarding the death of my mother. It's only a question of time. Though, there's the rub. Who can say when that time will be?

*

There will be an interesting trial tomorrow. Martha has organized a small memorial service for her. It won't be large…just her, me, David, and the minister. But it will be difficult for me to repress my feelings in that setting. I hope I can, however. I do not want to weep uncontrollably in front of witnesses.

I will let you know how it works out.

Drones and Boko Haram

A lot of my friends have objections to the Drone Wars…that is, the use of Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs) for targeted killings.

I understand their reservations. And yet…

I'm reading about the abduction of all those poor girls in Nigeria. And about Boko Haram, the organization responsible. And about Abubakar Shekau, it's pathological leader.

And you know what?

I can't think of anyone on earth more deserving of a Hellfire missile up the left nostril.

And Last...

One last point about solar power.

I was walking to my father about all this. He made an interesting point.

Suppose, he said, you made it a law that every new home, new building, and new shopping center had to have solar cells on the roof.

It would make sense. It would move us yet further toward energy independence and a green economy. It would be inexpensive. It would not inconvenience homebuyers or builders more than a host of other, less sensible building regulations do already.

And…

And...

And can you envision the pure fury that such an idea would almost certainly generate? The calls of "Communism!" "Socialism!" "Totalitarianism!" "UnAmericanism!" and all the rest of it? The Swift-Boating and accusations of Treason and references to blue dresses (with stains) in the Oval Office? The not-so-subtle implications of Islamic Fundamentalism in the State House if not the White House?

And all of it coming from people who…surprise, surprise…just happen to have a vested interest in keeping things exactly the way they are? Even if it means making life worse for everyone else?

Rather takes the breath away.

Solar Power: Of Koch and Coal and (Pseudo)-Capitalism

So before I get started, I need to mention the Tea Party.

I need to, because I need to explain that what I'm about to talk about — solar power —isn't a Liberal vs. Conservative issue. It isn't a socialists vs. capitalists issue. It isn't even a Democrats vs. Republicans issue.

It's a people issue.

And to prove that, allow me to present Exhibit A: the Tea Party.

Yes, folks, the Tea Party, that bastion of traditionalism and conservatism, wants you to go sunny. Solar Power, it turns out, is a very big deal with the Tea Partiers. They think it is just terrific.

No. Really. They do. Go read this if you don't believe me: The Tea Party Wants to Help You Go Solar (http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/04/tea-party-wants-help-you-go-solar).

The Tea Partiers see it, you see, as a way for Americans to be even more independent that they are now.

So, if that's the case…if the Tea Party and the Green Party and the Tree Huggers and the Strip Miners and everyone in between is united on this…. who could be anti-solar?

Funny you should ask.


*

Suppose every home had solar panels on the roof.

It is really quite an attractive idea. If they invest in a few solar cells, homeowners not only don't have to pay …or at least not as much…for electricity but they even stand a chance of making a buck or two. The system as it stands requires that the utilities buy your unused power. You may not make a bunch, but a penny here and a penny there and eventually it adds up.

Truth be told, it's even a pretty good deal for the utility. The company isn't paying a huge sum for your spare watts. And since you're the one who shelled out for the solar cells in the first place, it doesn't have to pay for the infrastructure. And, again, while it may not be much, every erg it gets from its customers is energy it didn't have to pay for in terms of coal, gas, or whatever.

Still, even every roof had a solar panel, eventually…eventually!...this sort of thing would make the utilities far less important than they are now. And, hence, less profitable. Which was my father's point (see the previous posting).

I suppose, then, I could understand why utilities, oil companies, and so on would therefore oppose solar power. I could see why they would try to have laws passed making it difficult or expensive for someone to use their competitors' products. (Though, there is some irony in the fact that the same people and companies who are the first to preach the virtues of "free enterprise" when they're winning are the first to practice restraint of trade when they're not.)

What is a complete mystery to me is why companies and people who seem to have little or nothing to lose from solar power are, for some reason, dead-set against it.

Case in point: the Koch Brothers.


*


You know the Koch Brothers, of course. Specifically, you know of Charles G. and David H. Koch, rich and powerful 1%ers, terror of liberals everywhere (and a few conservatives, actually), sugar daddies to reactionary causes of every stripe, and sons of Fred C. Koch (who, in turn, was the builder of a vast fortune, briefly an admirer of the USSR, later a devoted anti-Communist and a founder of the John Birch Society. Fred C. was also didn't much care for folks of dusky hue. Or to put it another way, he was certain that African-Americans were just this side of being zoo-material.)

Okay, Charles and David between them control the vast Koch Industries. They also bankroll an enormous number of conservative and libertarian organizations. That, of course, is entirely within their rights. They are as free as anyone else to support candidates and express opinions…even though they do so with do with far greater force than normal people can.

But, in any case, they support or at least claim to support free enterprise. Unfettered, rough and tumble, no holds barred capitalism like mother used to make. Which is fine and dandy if you like that sort of thing.

Except…except…

Among the groups they support is something called Americans for Prosperity. They also fund something else called the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec). Both organizations are dead-set against solar and doing their level best to keep homeowners from putting solar cells on their roofs. They are lobbying for laws and regulations to make certain it just doesn't happen.

Why? Well, now, that's a good question.

In theory, the objection is that homeowners who go solar are "freeloading." The solar power users are not, you see, contributing their fair share to the cost of the generators, transmission lines, etc.  Other customers, non-solar customers, have to pick up the slack.

Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. You dirty solar moochers, you.


*

The reality, of course, is that this is all ridiculous. Solar power users aren't mooching. They are electing to purchase smaller amounts of a particular commodity. If they decided not to water their lawns, they'd being doing exactly the same thing but with water.

If you believe in Libertarianism, and free enterprise, and say your prayers to Ayn Rand, and all that …then you have to say that a customer has every right to decide what and how much there are going to buy, and from whom they are going to buy it. If you don’t want to purchase power from your local utility, then by George, you shouldn't have too.

And, oh, by the way, in perfectly good capitalist logic, if that means one supplier or another has to figure out how to make its product more attractive or otherwise win back customers, that's their job. It's not up to the customers (or the tax payers, or state governments) to make life easier for private companies or privately owned utilities.

So logically, the Kochs, as defenders of all that free market stuff, ought to be keeping their grubby little hands off solar. They ought to be letting the Market Take Its Course.

But they're not. They're in there with everything short of flame throwers to try to take down solar wherever it rears its shinning little head.


*

So what's the real motivation for the Koch Bro's crusade against solar?

At first I thought it was that Koch Industries had a lot from solar. I thought maybe they own lots of utility stock and oil, gas, and coal companies.

And that may be true. Among Koch properties are Koch Carbon (coal) and Koch Exploration (oil). But, a little research reveals fairly quickly that the energy companies that Koch owns are often into things like gasoline and diesel (the brothers own Chevron, instance). Which means home heating and local electricity aren't as big in the Koch portfolio as you might think.

Besides, the Koch boys own a whole lot of stuff…as you know if you're a good left-winger and try to boycott Koch products. Pretty soon you find out that you can't even buy toilet paper without giving Koch industries its cut. Even if, somehow, solar power started to really eat into the Brothers' holdings, they could always simply rely on other parts of the empire to compensate. In other words, they'd still be rich as freaking Croesus no matter what the average homeowner does with his/her roof.

Besides #2, the Kochs are supposed to be capitalists. They are supposed to being looking ahead in time and dodging bullets. So solar is going to nibble a bit into their oil and gas holdings? Okay, now is the time to get into solar cell manufacturing. That's the sort of thing that capitalists do.

What they don't do is hire tame congressmen to pass laws against competition.


*

Well, then…


How do I answer my own query? How do I explain why a few really powerful people working so hard against solar power? If, that is, it really isn't that big threat to them?


Just a guess...

Could it be…could it just possible be…because they simply don't like it?

Because they don't like the idea that serfs and peasants can get uppity and unplug form the big, powerful, hierarchical, fossil fuel companies.

They want you to know your place…you pathetic little man who doesn't own a yacht, didn't go to expensive schools, and dare to think that your absurd little existence is as important as that of theirs.


*

I am not entirely certain that the above is the real answer to my questions. I hope it isn't.

But…

If it is anywhere near the truth, then we have all of us got a much bigger riddle to solve.


To wit: what the hell are we going to do about it?


*

My Sources

"The Koch Attack on Solar Energy," Sunday Review, New York Times, April 26, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/opinion/sunday/the-koch-attack-on-solar-energy.html?_r=1

Suzanne Goldenberg and Ed Pilkington, "ALEC calls for penalties on 'freerider' homeowners in assault on clean energy," The Guardian, December 4 2013 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/alec-freerider-homeowners-assault-clean-energy

Lindsay Abrams, "The Koch brothers are going after solar panels," Salon, April 21, 2014. http://www.salon.com/2014/04/21/the_koch_brothers_are_going_after_solar_panels/

George ("Fish Out of Water") Birchard, "Now That Solar Capacity Is Soaring—Koch Brothers Demand Tax on the Sun," Daily Kaos, Alter Net, April 28, 2014, http://www.alternet.org/environment/now-solar-capacity-soaring-koch-brothers-demand-tax-sun

Evan Halper, "Koch brothers, big utilities attack solar, green energy policies," Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2014, http://articles.latimes.com/2014/apr/19/nation/la-na-solar-kochs-20140420.

Solar Power #3: More On Disruption

My father and I resumed our conversation the following day. This time we were on our way to coffee. I was driving him to the Starbucks up at the intersection of Academy and Tramway.

Consider the utility company, he said.

I considered.

Utilities, and power companies in general (he said) appeared at a very specific point in our civilization's existence. They came about when we could only generate electricity by making big metal things move around in a circle. Dynamos, generators, and so on are basically just that…enormous metal wheels that rotate in a magnetic field. That's how you get electricity.

And so we built and sheltered large companies which did nothing but that. They constructed wheels and turned them, using coal or oil or gas or nuclear power to do it.

Okay, but now we have cheap solar power. Suppose you had every house with a roof covered with such solar cells. Each home generates a certain amount of electricity, uses some, and whatever is left over it puts back into the power grid, where it is stored and used later on.

Okay, if that's case, my father asked, what do you need a utility for?


*

Of course, he said, there's always a need for the power grid, and for some way of storing energy, and probably for backup generation in case of emergency…

But, if you had enough houses producing their own solar energy, and feeding that energy back into the grid, then things get interesting. You start to ask why you have quite so many big companies building gigantic wheels and making them go around in circles. You wonder why you are paying …though your tax dollars as well as via your utility bills…for all that coal that's being strip-mined out of the earth. And the oil that's being taken out of increasingly dangerous places…like Iraq, where we seem to have fought a full-scale war expressly for the benefit of the oil industry. And the natural gas that's being gotten by means of fracking every piece of rock from here to hell and back again. And the nuclear reactors that are, somehow, sitting in the way of tidal waves like in a Japan a while back. And the enormous dams that contain mountains of concrete and take billions of dollars to construct.

Again, he said, that isn't to say you wouldn't have some of those things about. The utilities, the coal mines, the generators, the coal mines, the oil wells, and, yes, even the nuclear reactors would still exist.

But we wouldn't need quite so many of them.

Maybe we'd only need a very, very few.

Which would make things…complicated. And certain people…very important people…might be angry.

Because, you see, they might lose quite a lot of money.

And people fight over money.

Always.


*

We came to the Starbucks. I parked the car and we entered. We found a table and we had our coffees.

I asked him if he really thought powerful people might genuinely be willing to use certain measures …fierce measures…against those who would promote solar power.

He raised an eyebrow. He pointed out that I was the one with two degrees in history. What did I think? What had I seen in the past to indicate the future?

And…

Despite the hot coffee. Despite the warm weather of this desert state.

I was chill.

Solar Power #2: The Myth Of Subsidy, or, Where Are The Libertarians Hiding?

You remember I said that solar power was going to be a disruptive technology? Well, here's a little more background. And it's where my own father comes into the picture.

It's like this. I have heard for years…and you probably have too…that solar power would not be economical if it weren't for the fact that the government is subsidizing it. It gets special tax breaks and, in some cases, outright grants from Washington.

So, goes the logic, solar power doesn't really pay for itself. It is, in fact, a parasite. You hear it on talk shows. You see it in financial publications. If it weren't for your taxes going to those people (long haired hippie freaks and greenie weenies) then solar wouldn't exist.

Not like oil. Which is based on sound principles. And stands on its own two feet. Like a man. You betcha.

Except …except….


*

My father.

My father is an 85-year-old man. He's getting quite frail, now. He has trouble seeing. He no longer drives (thank God). He has trouble walking.

But, all the brains works just fine, thank you very much.

He's also a physicist. And, sometimes, when I take him out for coffee in the afternoons, we'll talk energy. A couple of days ago, while we were at Satellite Coffee down on Montgomery, the subject of solar power came up. He told me some of his thoughts. He mentioned the dropping costs of solar cells, and the rising costs of oil, and all the rest.

I was curious. I had never thought I'd hear such things from him…not the hardened realistist who told me how the solar tower at Sandia was basically useless.  So, as an experiment, I quoted back at him something I'd read in Forbes…about the "false economy" of solar power, and how it didn't work, and how it was only attractive because of government supports.

He gave me that smile of his. The one he reserves for moments when I've revealed a particularly endearing brand of stupidity.

"But," he said, "oil is subsidized, too."

"What? You're kidding."

"Oh, no. It is. Big time."

I whipped out the old smart phone and did a search. He was, of course, absolutely right. Big oil, big fossil fuel companies, consume government money like you would not believe. They get billions …and billions…of dollars. Either directly, or indirectly in the form of tax breaks.

I'm not sure if anyone even really knows how much the oil industry gets. I've seen numbers anywhere from $100 to $400 billion. But, if you're interested, here's some places to look. I found most of them on my cell phone that morning in the coffee shop:

*"America's Most Obvious Tax Reform Idea: Kill the Oil and Gas Subsidies," by Jordan Weissmann, The Atlantic, theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/03/americas-most-obvious-tax-reform-idea-kill-the-oil-and-gas-subsidies/274121/

*"As Oil Industry Fights a Tax, It Reaps Subsidies," by David Kocieniewski, International New York Times, nytimes.com/2010/07/04/business/04bptax.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

*"Fossil Fuel Subsidies in the U.S.," Oil Change International, priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies/

Yes, folks, your taxes are going to the same vast fuel companies that are already earning jaw-dropping profits…while moving their operations and HQs overseas, the way that Halliburton moved to Dubai. Your money is going to the very same companies that announce sanctimoniously that solar and other renewable energy supplies are viable only because they get government subsidies.

Subsidies which look like peanuts compared to what the oil companies themselves get.


*

"So what I want to know," my father asked, over his triple espresso and cranberry scone, "is where are the Libertarians?"

Where, indeed?  Where are the Libertarians? Where are the Ayn Randers? Where are the defenders of free enterprise? Of less government and more freedom? Why aren't they out protesting? Why aren't they in the streets? 

Could it be they just don't know? Could it be that no one ever explained to them just how much money the fossil fuel companies were taking out of their paychecks and savings? Could none of their leaders have pointed this out to them?

Or, could it be that, in fact, their leaders have lied to them? That their leaders do not care about the free enterprise and the opportunity they claim to treasure? That, in fact, in their heart of hearts they believe that the welfare state is just fine, so long as the recipients of the monthly checks are rich and powerful corporations with many lawyers and more lobbyists? Not just ordinary serfs…like the ones they employ?

Just asking.


*


Does it make you uncomfortable to consider that thought? Perhaps you are a Libertarian and you value the power of capitalism to improve the world. Perhaps it seems to you that I am attacking the very concept of free enterprise.

I am not. I am, rather, defending it.

If it would make easier for you, remember the vast sums of money that the oil companies are getting from the government. With that in mind, it is easier to see them for what they are: not private enterprises but rather state-corporations, what the Europeans and South Americans used to call para-state or "parastatal" corporations. They look like private enterprises. Sometimes they act like private enterprises.

But they're not.

Not really.


*


The point is, if you really believe in free enterprise, in capitalism, and in opportunity for all, then government subsidies have to go…for the enormous oil companies as well as for the little solar power startups.

And if that ever happens (I know it is unlikely, but if) then it will be interesting to see who has the better chances of survival—the solar startups, tiny and new, or the fossil fuel giants, who have done so little and prospered so long.


*

But I have not explained why I said that solar would be disruptive.

For that, I must return to my conversation with my father. I asked him if I thought the oil and other fossil fuel companies would oppose solar, in whatever way they could.

He gave me that smile again. He reminded me of another news story. You probably saw it too. It seems that in Oklahoma there was an attempt by the state legislature, backed by utility and other energy companies to impose a special tax on homeowners who dared to put solar panels on their roofs (1). There were all sorts of glib reasons given for the move…it was unfair for some state residents not to pay as much for electricity as others, etc. …but come right down to it, the real reason for the law was obvious. Solar was a threat to certain special interests, and the measure was meant to punish those of us peasants who got out of line.

Need one add that a later New York Times article revealed the effort to establish such laws is being led by organizations associated with the Koch Brothers? I didn't think so (2).

My father then repeated my question to me. Would they resist? The oil companies? The fossil fuel giants? Using tactics both fair and foul, and often foul?

How could I not see…my father said… that it had already begun?

He brushed away the crumbs of the scone. "But," he added, again with the deadly smile, "that's a problem for your generation, isn't it?"

And then he suggested it might be time to leave.








*



(1) weather.com/news/science/environment/oklahoma-alternative-energy-taxes-20140423

(2) nytimes.com/2014/04/27/opinion/sunday/the-koch-attack-on-solar-energy.html?_r=0

I am a born again Solar Power Freak #1

I seem to be becoming a solar power freak. This is weird. This is very weird. This is downright alarming.

Here's the thing: many decades ago, in my long lost youth, when dinosaurs ruled the earth and people actually listened to disco (No. Really. They did), I paid a lot of attention to solar power. This was the 1970s and we were just getting our first taste of energy famine. OPEC had just screwed the tap down tight and it seemed pretty clear that it was a sign of things to come. (And it was.)

So I spent some time casting about for alternatives. What, I wondered, could take the place of oil. One of the things I looked at was solar power.

There are several ways of extracting electricity for sunlight. You can, for instance, focus the sun's rays on a boiler. Water turns to steam and turns a turbine. In the 1970s, I could even see such a system in operation. I was living in New Mexico in those days (as I am now) and Sandia Federal Labs had an enormous solar power program underway.

It was quite amazing, really. On some land south of the city, the scientists had constructed an enormous field of mirrors which focused the sun's light on a tower in their midst. You could see it from almost any place in town. And when it was in operation…Lord! The tower glowed like steel in a blast furnace.

As I say, impressive. The problem? It actually produced very little energy. Not really. Oh, it could turn water to steam and turn a turbine and all that, but it also consumed power, usually in passive ways. My father was working at Sandia at the time, and he put it simply and distressingly. "As near as I can tell," he told me, "it can produce almost enough energy to keep its own mirrors clean."

That was the kicker, you see. You don't just stick a mirror or lens out in a field and hope for the best. It gets dusty, particularly in a desert, and you have to polish it. Or it degrades in the environment. Ordinary mirrors lose their reflectiveness after a while, which is why antique mirrors often seem so dim and brown. So, you need to develop entirely new kinds of mirrors, things what will stay bright even after decades in the open. And, at the time, there were no such mirrors out there, or at least none that could be produced cheaply enough to make solar competitive with oil or coal.

*

Okay, that seemed to pretty well take solar boilers out of the game…at least in most parts of the world. So, I turned to photovoltaics…that is, solar cells, materials that turn sunlight directly into energy. It's what people usually think when they say "solar power."

Solar cells are quick and convenient. You could use them pretty much anywhere. You can plaster your roof with 'em.

So, why not go with them?

Because…in the 1970s, they cost a lot, and they weren't too efficient, and they tended to degrade (like mirrors) over time. I remember looking at the numbers. In those days, solar cells were proven money losers. They consumed more energy to produce and maintain than they could possibly generate.

And that, as far as I was concerned, put paid to that.

I decided (around about 1980), that solar simply wasn't in the cards. What we needed to do, I thought, was focus on developing some other means of power production…Fusion, in particular. And, until we got that problem licked, we'd need to rely on a combination of oil, coal, and gas.

Which was about where my thinking stopped.


*


Okay, now fast-forward about thirty years. Give or take a little.

I began, dimly, in my limited way, to notice some things.

Like, for instance: the cost of solar cells has dropped like a gawdamn rock. I meant it has freaking plummeted. New manufacturing technologies, plus the advantages of sheer scale as more and more companies have come into the solar cell business, has brought them way, way down in price. (As I write this in early 2014, I can get enough solar panels to almost power my whole house for under $2K, depending on the supplier.)

And they've gotten more efficient. New solar cells are getting damn competitive with oil, gas, and coal in terms of generating energy…and they're getting better every day.

But the real news isn't in the cells themselves. It is in lots of other stuff. Like that batteries are getting better now. And a lot of our electronics don't consume that much energy any more. Your cell phone does things that would put a mainframe computer of the year 1980 to shame…but consumes so little power that it can be charged in under hour from any outlet.

And then there's weight. Things don't weigh what they used to. Which means it doesn't require as much energy to move them.

Case in point: in New Mexico there's a company named Titan Areospace. It makes drone aircraft. Not the kind that blow up people. Rather, the kind that drift up to high altitudes and hang out there for, say, five years or so.

And guess what? They're solar powered.

Titan just got bought by Google which is interested in the aircraft as alternatives to satellites for the delivery of wireless Internet (take that, Comcast! And Verizon!)

But Titan's drones would be impossible were it not for a host of new materials, new batteries, and new everything else. They are so bloody light, and so energy efficient, that they can cruise the skies, and do it all without a drop of jet fuel.


*

It was ironic, really. For years I'd been waiting for a technological revolution in energy production…fusion, thorium fission, space-based power satellites…and all the while the revolution was coming from quite a different quarter, from materials science.

But, better late than never. I now more or less admit that "renewables" in general and solar in particular are going to be a major part of our energy future. I still think we ought to keep up work on things like fusion and space-based power and all that other stuff. I also still think that solar power advocates need to face up to just how hard it is going to be to build a solar powered economy. And I suspect that, yes, there will always be a need for big generators somewhere in the system, if only to provide for backup or to power industry.

But clearly, the sun is going to be a very big part of our energy future.

Now, that said…I also think that solar is going to be a disruptive technology. Maybe even as disruptive as computers were before them. Maybe more.

Which is to say that there will be people who fight it, and progress in general, tooth and nail.

But that's for next time…

I am not sufficiently arrogant to be happy

I was feeling a little depressed last night. All right, a lot depressed. And, of course, me being me, I then became depressed about the fact that I was depressed. A really ripping chap of stout build and firm mind would (you see) be able to overcome it. I should, by sheer force of will, make myself chipper regardless of my circumstances. By God, it's the American way.

Then…I got to thinking about it. What exactly is my situation at the moment? Well, my mother died a month ago after two long years in a succession of nursing facilities and hospitals. My father grows ever more frail. My wife is putting up with me (no easy task). My kid is in the middle of finals. My career continues its unconventional trajectory (i.e., upward, but by way of a swamp). And the world as a whole resolutely refuses to rotate in the direction I would prefer.

So…

Given all that, what right do I have to be a cheery little ray of gawdamn sunshine?


*

Actually, just as I finished typing that, I realized there is something serious in it. We are taught from the cradle that the optimum condition of life is to be happy, to be cheerful and bright. It is good for us, and pleasant for others.

Yet, everyone around me is not in a good place at the moment. My father is grieving, though (the boy from a former generation) he refuses to admit it, or speak of it. Martha, too, is dealing with her feelings, and with mine. And, besides, she wrestles with some of her own demons (she adjusts, not always easily, to being retired). My son is well, but he hurries to complete all his work for the semester, and it is a lot of work.

And I…well, I have all my own problems.

If I were to deny all that, to be chippy in spite of it, then I would be denying their pain, as well as my own. I would have to somehow not feel the sadness, concern, and sympathy which is normal and humane to feel in such conditions. I would have to be in other words, a sociopath.

There is something frightening in that thought. It suggests, you see, that to be Polyanna one must be not quite human.

And, maybe, rather terrible.