With the moon at its closest to earth, sunset at the north Pole last week

Not really relevant , but I couldn’t resist posting this stunning image that has been rattling its way around the Internet all week. It is of sunset at the North Pole, with the Moon at its nearest point to earth – somehow it serves as a metaphor for the times we are in. Serious change is upon us.. the moon is at its nearest and the oil age is ending! One cycle leads to another.

$12 million dollars an hour!… That’s what the Chinese are spending on renwable energy generation and clean technologies at the moment, a recent conference heard

The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has reported that China “doubled its entire installed capacity each year since 2005.” Last year, they became the largest wind market in the world, passing the U.S. and Europe.

The USA installed 9.9 gigawatts; they installed 13.

China is now also producing nearly 50% of the world’s solar cells annually, but that’s likely to grow to 70%. And they’re doing it more cheaply than their established German counterparts. (In fact, German companies have been finding it’s cheaper to buy from the Chinese than it is to make their own.)

For all the negative China stories ( they are building a new coal power station every 8 weeks or whatever) the reality is they are clear focussed on investment in sustainable energy; yes they have just signed a huge coal deal with (climate change denying) Australia (I wonder why) but a large part of that coal generated energy is going to be used to build renewables. (See Energy and Capital for source) and rest largely to make cheap throw away shit for the US/ EU market – because we are still suckers for that shit.

Not only that, but China is also planning to invest heavily in renewables factories and plant in the US, while the rest of the world is bickering about the details of climate change accords, it seems to me that China is going ahead full steam in converting its huge economy to be the first to really corner the renewables market. Maybe the whole AGW debate is a red herring, we dont even have to come with an agreement, or maybe we do but basically we just need to get on with it… but whilst the children in parliament bicker and fight we just need to get on with the inevitable.. oil is running out, the carbon age is over all bar the shouting and anyone who is not seeing the emerging picture really needs to go the opticians and get their eyes checked. (or their economists fired)

Invest in renewable energy generation and energy efficency, relocalise your food supply, and start researching into organics and teaching the nation permaculture design, anything else is simply a waste of time. We have been travelling in the wrong direction for a long time, and just because we as a nation and economy have so much invested in consumerism and oil use, still doesn’t change the fact that we have been wasting our energies going in the wrong direction and we have to change. As James Howard Kuntsler has said – the sub-urban consumerist economy has been the biggest mis-allocation of resources in our planet’s history.

$12 Million an hour.. that is serious investment and that is what it takes to turn this juggernaut around.. meanwhile we are pumping our savings and putting ourselvs in hock for a generation or more trying to prop up a collapsing economic paradigm. Oh yes lets us bail out the poor car industry….  no lets not!

Oil is not the future.. Greenpeace image from a recent campaign