Looking at the World of Energy and the Environment Differently

by craigshieldsPosted on February 20, 2014 Posted in Renewables - Science

The paradigms that govern our explorations in science function as both flashlights and blinders.  They help us to peer into previously dark areas that are most likely to yield results, but they prevent us from looking in new directions.  That’s why we’re so amazed at the great figures of history who somehow escaped the confines of the viewpoints of the day and looked at the world in bold new ways.  Certainly, this is what we so deeply much admire about the work of people like Newton, Darwin, and Einstein. 

Obviously, this discussion is not limited to science; it applies equally to art, architecture, and music.  Here’s a good example, using a song most Americans know: Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” released in 1963.    In the years since Cash’s recording, many dozens of people covered the song – each one mimicking the basic hard-driving rhythm and pace of the original.  But then along came Ruthie Foster (pictured), who totally rethought the song from the ground up, and, in her own inimitable way, reinvented it as an expression of  love, rather than a twisted image of violence and hate, somehow springing up from hell-fire.  I hope you’ll give it a listen, and, as you do, realize how beautifully innovative this is.  At the same time, please take the moment to consider that it’s often the process of throwing away the rules and the strictures of conformity that allows great things to happen. 

Yes, we could use some out-of-the-box thinking in clean energy to take us over the top.  Though, truth told, we don’t need a technological breakthrough to put an end to the damage that is, day by day, being inflicted on this planet and its people from the process of generating energy from fossil fuels.  The costs of renewables are steadily declining, and the efficiencies rising, to the point that the only thing standing in our way is a messy confluence of money and politics.  But that’s a minor detail for people of compassion and innovation.   Best of all, you’re one of them.