Power Surge 56 minute NOVA look at Energy Demands Now

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA.

">OK... If you can spare 56 minutes of your life to see some pretty incredible facts about what is happening with energy... I mean current through the Japan Nuke melt down... very informative.

This really points toward the US "Sputnik Moment" for this generation.  The game is ours to be won or lost with regard to who will supply the world with the energy needs in the future.

If your short on time... jump to minute 24-25 to watch the demonstration on the amount of carbon it takes to make a short drive to the neighborhood store.... and then take that out over the average year it translates into 14 tons of carbon (coal or oil) per year just for your car alone.

Seriously... take a look around you... I was watching a video tape done in our back yard in Oakland Township just 10 years ago and there is a noticeable difference in surroundings around us.  Consider the parallel to say a friend or cousin who is a long distance relative who you only see once every few years.  As a parent you really don't notice the differences day to day in your children since you see them every day.  You do however catch those moment in time where you say.... wow... look at how you've changes since this picture!  That is what I notice about my own yard and the "health" of the surrounding area.   Walk through the forest across the street and what do you see?  More evidence of changes.  Trees that have died off on a mass scale and fallen laying everywhere.  Is that just because of the introduction of the emerald ash borer or something more?   The same can be discovered in the Austrian Pines that were planted in the area... they are also dying off on a mass scale... due to a blight?   I can recall sitting out in the yard and in the spring time the line of blue spruce and pines where thick like a fur coat.   Now they are thin and spindly with mass needle drops all around the area.  Blight?  Change in PH?  Change in soil?  I think it is all of the above.

The point is that something is happened over the past 10 years to create change on a mass scale to our surroundings.  Many of my friends like to stick their heads in the sand and say it is not changing... the world has always changed... it changed with the dinosaurs it will change again in our life time.  All that is true... however it is really an excuse for not wanting to take responsibility for being part of the bigger problem.

I am not a big Al Gore fan... after all... we all joke that he somehow proclaimed he created the Internet... right?  Well... one thing big AL got right is that... this problem of these conditions changing around us... is... well...INCONVENIENT.   Do I really have to give up my gas guzzler, do I really have to put more money into my house that is already decreased in value?  "I'll never get the return on the investment to put in that new  energy savings/creation device."

The answer is... yes you do... and I've heard the greatest generation membership say "Well... as long as I am not being told I have to ....I am ok with it ... and they walk away and continue the same selfish behavior.  How many have I talked with that say "It's not my problem... I'm only going to be here a short while... It's your problem... your kids problem...?  What the F??

Sorry Grandpa.... move over and take a back seat cause I'm taking the wheel.  You've done enough damage feller!