Advanced Silver Solution

Whilst discussing a certain issue, somebody once said to me that it doesn’t matter what we think, it is an idea whose time has come.  That is actually quite a profound statement, you can’t stop an idea once it has gathered enough momentum and even the most powerful goverments have to yield.  Ideas made English barons force the King to sign the Magna Carta (which led to the democracy that we take for granted these days).  The idea of power going to people rather than being hereditary led to the French revolution and challenged the accepted methods of government throughout Europe at that time.

The old saying that the pen is mightier than the sword is true, as the sword is used to do the bidding of the idea (pen).

I believe that an idea who’s time has come is, “green recovery”.  That is, investing in renewable fuels, efficiency and new technology to both save the planet and create jobs at the same time.  This is being discussed by people the world over from US President Obama to the Chinese leader, Hu Jintao (and course, many many bloggers like us).

US and Chinese political doctines have made them rivals in many ways, yet dispite that they are begining to speak the same language when it comes to saving the planet.  The US has already committed itself to investing almost 1% of its economic output to sustainable recovery programs, whilst China is putting over a third of it big stimulus package into green investments.  Furthermore, the South Koreans are investing two-thirds of its package in energy efficiency, green jobs, public transport and renewable energy.

Ironically, the communist system in China puts them in a better position to combat climate change than the West.  I read years ago that many Chinese cities have an environmental committee that will actually shut down factories for several days if the local pollution levels get too high.  Some people I have told this too have argued: yes but how bad does it have to be before the Chinese will actually do that, it will have to be really bad. 

I don’t know what levels the Chinese set before they will close factories, the bottom line is they do it, we in the West don’t.  Why don’t we do it.  Imagine if we closed a factory in one city for a few days, they would be screaming blue murder that their competitors in other cities were having an unfair advantage as they were not closed.  Our governments/councils have more concern that they may be sued over this than they have concern for our health or the planets future.  Now I am not arguing for or against communism (this is not a political blog), but the communist system does have certain advantages when it comes to environmental controls.

It should be no big surprise then that the biggest threat to progressing green recovery comes from the West, with the biggest dirty poluters paying a small army of lobbyists to undermine any green laws being discussed.  Their only interests is in their profits.

Many people feel that they are too small and insignificant to make a difference, but we can. 
Green recovery is  an idea whose time has come.

Talk about it, blog about it, send links about it to your friends and join groups that lobby in favour of green issues.  Maybe we should update that saying about the pen being mightier than the sword to the keyboard is mightier than the bomb.