The world was made for love,
And if ye love it not,
So much the less ye liveth.
John Slade
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
American Offshore Wind Turbines
Consider:
The Global Wind Energy Council, headquartered in Brussels, recently stated that "2010 was a record year for offshore wind development in Europe". (That means jobs.)
On the average, the offshore wind farms (clusters of wind turbines standing in the sea) were 27.1 kilometers from the coast. On the average, the turbines stood in water that was 17.4 meters deep.
So many European countries are building offshore wind farms that the European nations are now planning "a future transnational offshore super grid". (That means jobs.)
The grid will "improve the ability to trade electricity in Europe". Such trade will encourage a steady supply of electricity at a competitive price.
The transnational grid will also create an exercise in teamwork, "thereby contributing dramatically to Europe's energy security." Russia may cut off the flow of oil and gas to Europe, but the wind will blow forever.
Ten countries are now planning this international grid: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Their teamwork extends into the universities, where the next generation of electrical engineers, and clean energy economists, and clean energy lawyers, are preparing to build a genuine response to climate change.
On the other hand, the United States does not have one single offshore wind turbine. Along the entire Atlantic coast, in the Gulf of Mexico, along the entire Pacific coast, and in each of the Great Lakes: not a single wind turbine. Zero.
Perhaps one day we shall bestir ourselves to ask, "Why?"
John Slade
The Global Wind Energy Council, headquartered in Brussels, recently stated that "2010 was a record year for offshore wind development in Europe". (That means jobs.)
On the average, the offshore wind farms (clusters of wind turbines standing in the sea) were 27.1 kilometers from the coast. On the average, the turbines stood in water that was 17.4 meters deep.
So many European countries are building offshore wind farms that the European nations are now planning "a future transnational offshore super grid". (That means jobs.)
The grid will "improve the ability to trade electricity in Europe". Such trade will encourage a steady supply of electricity at a competitive price.
The transnational grid will also create an exercise in teamwork, "thereby contributing dramatically to Europe's energy security." Russia may cut off the flow of oil and gas to Europe, but the wind will blow forever.
Ten countries are now planning this international grid: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Their teamwork extends into the universities, where the next generation of electrical engineers, and clean energy economists, and clean energy lawyers, are preparing to build a genuine response to climate change.
On the other hand, the United States does not have one single offshore wind turbine. Along the entire Atlantic coast, in the Gulf of Mexico, along the entire Pacific coast, and in each of the Great Lakes: not a single wind turbine. Zero.
Perhaps one day we shall bestir ourselves to ask, "Why?"
John Slade
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The Global College of Democracy
The Global College of Democracy
No one ever started a war over a wind turbine.
The wind belongs to all of us, not to nations,
Nor to stockholders.
The wind, and the sun, would teach us to share,
Not to hoard;
Would teach us to learn from each other,
Not to stifle ingenuity.
The wind and the sun would
Bring our global children together
As together they master
The challenges of clean energy.
The wind and the sun do not call foreign children
"Collateral damage.”
The wind and the sun know no trade barriers,
No ethnic hatred.
The wind would give our spirits a genuine frontier,
Better than the moon,
For both the challenges and the blessings
Would belong to all of us.
The wind and the sun knock on all doors equally.
We quarrel over oil,
And claim to fight our wars for democracy.
What is more democratic than
The wind turning turbines for all, equally,
Providing electricity for all, equally,
And thus jobs and classrooms for all, equally?
Let us learn, equally and together, how to build
A clean and prosperous world.
No one ever fought a war over a wind turbine.
John Slade
Coloring book about wind turbines
For a free coloring book about wind turbines and kids, see list on right bottom of blog.
Any child, any parent, any teacher, anywhere in the world, may print and color this book for free.
To hear John Slade reading the poem in the coloring book, please go to his website, http://www.woodgateintl.com/ You will see a baby crawling out of the sea. Scroll down to a farm with wind turbines beneath a blue sky. Just under this picture, click on both the coloring book, and Listen to 'What Kind of World'.
Please use headphones if you listen to the reading. You will hear The Voice.
Any child, any parent, any teacher, anywhere in the world, may print and color this book for free.
To hear John Slade reading the poem in the coloring book, please go to his website, http://www.woodgateintl.com/ You will see a baby crawling out of the sea. Scroll down to a farm with wind turbines beneath a blue sky. Just under this picture, click on both the coloring book, and Listen to 'What Kind of World'.
Please use headphones if you listen to the reading. You will hear The Voice.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The world is a quilt
The world is a quilt of disparate pieces,
Woven by the thread of wanderers.
John Slade
If anything will save us
If anything will save us from self-destruction,
It is simply to see how beautiful we are.
John Slade
The world was made for love
The world was made for love,
And if ye love it not,
So much the less ye liveth.
John Slade
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Global Wind Day is June 15
John is holding a map of . . . Home.
(Click on picture to enlarge.)
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