It's All About Energy… – Re-localizing politics and energy capture

Only through securing localized progressive political control , eg: the ability to control energy sources and forms of harnessing energy, will we be able to move to a more just and equitable society based on sustainable practices. *Note: The term “localized” needs defining by the user: a parameter that will be variably dependent on population density, for example, and tempered by bio-regional realities of resource availability.

It is essential that the decisions that are made on energy source, capture and distribution need to include the impacts on all affected communities ( all living things, cradle to grave /end-users) as well as eco-system services—for example, oxygen production (plants) and water filtration (wet-lands). Unless we internalize all the costs of ‘doing business’ we will not be able to reach equitable energy solutions, guaranteeing conflicts over siting, capture and distribution.
The path of re-imagining society, or really of re-building society, can only be paved with the building blocks of green, sustainable, locally controlled energy sources…. which will come about only if supported by local political decisions.

It is a moibus loop, in some sense, that allows us to break in where ever we can: Our work can start in the boardroom, with shareholder resolutions;it can start in an elementary school with a young activist club replacing styrofoam trays with a dishwasher; it can start with support for a green party candidate; it can begin in the City Council chambers or through wind turbines on the roof of the community center. We must work from where we are, and from what we love. We can start with tools and strategies we are comfortable with, and branch out from there. The essential element is the organizing unit: building a working group, a support network, an affinity group or cell that can build skills, competency, empowerment, education, redundancy, accountability and therefore resiliency into the work we do. Again, back to a bedrock principle: making the means as important as the ends, while keeping the big picture in mind.

Energy is on the top of the list… Because of the immediacy of the climate crisis, the issue of peak oil, and the amount of political control the fossil fuel industries wield…. We must break free of our fossil fuel addiction in order to be able to move forward on any of the other basic human needs in any kind of equitable and sustainable fashion. And in this moment of conversation about the crisis of the climate and the crisis of our current energy system, there is the opportunity to change paths and put our money into greener energy capture for the future.

ZNet