BP: BEYOND PETROLEUM

Web page www.MirrorOfNature.org, email paulcarr@alum.mit.edu

BP was founded as British Petroleum. Several years ago it has used this in its BEYOND PETROLEUM ads , to emphasize its investment alternate energy sources like biofuels, solar, wind. Ironically, its oil spill in the Golf of Mexico, which may well turn it into a Dead Sea, dramatizes our need to end our oil addiction.

The $700 billion per year we spent in 2008 to import oil from countries, often hostile and politically unstable, puts our national security and economy at risk. This money could create renewable-energy jobs in our own country. Wind and solar energy is FREE, after the up-front cost is paid off, and will last until the sun burns out, billions of years from now. The US, with 5 per cent of the world’s population, is using 20% of the earth’s energy resources. This and a renewed appreciation of the intrinsic beauty of nature can motivate its conservation. “Energy efficiency and conservation can be very sexy and very high tech,” according to Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu.

Global climate change, driven largely by the combustion of fossil fuels and by deforestation, is a growing threat to human well-being. Glaciers are melting, causing ocean levels to rise and threaten coastal populations. Increasing carbon dioxide levels cause the oceans to become more acidic, dissolving the calcium carbonate shells of tiny phytoplankton and killing them. These plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, which supports animal and human life. The phytoplankton’s demise from the bottom of the food chain will result in starvation for fish and whales and the loss of this major sink for carbon sequestration. The challenge now is to keep climate change from becoming a catastrophe.

The solution to climate change and national security is the same: wind, solar, biomass, and nuclear and tidal energy. Wind power is and thermal solar is rapidly becoming cost-competitive with fossil fuels. The First Solar Inc. proprietary technique of making solar photovoltaic cells, by depositing thin CdTe/CdS films on large sheets of glass, promises to be competitive with coal within five years. Stirling Energy Systems has achieved 31% efficiency by using a parabolic dish to focus sunlight on a Stirling engine which drives an electrical generator. New renewable energy technology is the most lasting legacy that we can leave to our grandchildren.

Paul H. Carr, lives in Bedford, NH. He earned his B.S. & M.S. from MIT and his Ph.D. Physics from Brandeis U. He led a branch at the AF Research Laboratory, Bedford, MA, where he is emeritus. His 80 scientific papers and 10 patents have contributed to new components for radar, TV, and cell phones. He is a life fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and a life member of the American Physical Society. From 1998 to 2000 he taught philosophy courses on science and religion at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. This gave birth to his book, Beauty in Science and Spirit, described on his web page www.MirrorOfNature.org .1