A Little Missed Sunshine
by Amy Goodman
TruthDig.com: September 15, 2010
BONN, Germany-When first lady Michelle Obama started an organic garden at
the White House, she sparked a national discussion on food, obesity, health
and sustainability. But the green action on the White House lawn hasn't made
it to the White House roof, unfortunately.
Back in 1979, President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the roof of
the West Wing as part of a new solar strategy. "In the year 2000," Carter
said, "the solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today,
will still be here, supplying cheap, efficient energy. A generation from
now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example
of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest
and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people."
Sadly, after President Ronald Reagan came into office, he had the panels
removed, and some of them did end up in museums. Environmental activist Bill
McKibben, founder of the group 350.org, told me, "You know where one of
these other panels is? It's in the private museum of the Chinese
entrepreneur who's built the world's largest solar thermal company on earth,
Himin Solar. They've installed 60 million arrays like this across China."
In 1990, the White House panels were retrieved from government storage and
put back into use by Unity College in Maine. To make the case for solar,
McKibben joined with a group of Unity College students and drove one of the
panels from their campus to the White House, asking that it be put back on
the roof. The White House declined the offer.
President Barack Obama campaigned on the pledge that he would create
millions of new green jobs. He hired Van Jones as his White House green jobs
czar-only to fire him shortly after Jones became the target of what he
called a "vicious smear campaign," which was promulgated by Fox News
Channel. Now Obama faces a massive unemployment problem, jeopardizing not
only the livelihoods of tens of millions, but the political prospects for
the Democrats.
Here in Bonn, the answer couldn't be clearer: Use stimulus money and policy
to jump-start a green job sector, to help create, for example, solar panel
manufacturing, installation and servicing.
Germany, one of the most advanced economies in the world, did just that.
Now, as reported in the Financial Times, German photovoltaic cell
installations last year amount to more than one-half of those in the world.
I'm here covering the 30th anniversary of the Right Livelihood Awards, an
amazing gathering of scores of activists and thinkers from around the world.
Among them is Hermann Scheer, a member of the German Parliament.
When he received his Right Livelihood Award, he said: "Solar energy is the
energy of the people. To use this energy does not require big investments of
only a few big corporations. It requires billions of investments by billions
of people. They have the opportunity to switch from being a part of the
problem to becoming a part of the global solution."
And Germany is making this happen. Small-scale residential and commercial
solar power installations are not only providing jobs, increased efficiency
and cost savings-they actually are allowing the owners of the systems to
sell excess power back to the power grid, running their meters in reverse,
when conditions allow.
Here, too, are representatives of the Bangladeshi organization Grameen
Shakti, which makes loans and offers technical assistance to allow poor,
rural people to install solar power in their homes, often granting access to
electricity for the first time in their family's history. They have helped
install more than 110,000 systems, often with a woman hired to maintain the
system-creating jobs, empowering women and raising the standard of living.
Also in Bonn is the headquarters of the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change, the sponsor of the failed Copenhagen climate talks last
year. U.N. member countries and other stakeholders will meet again in
December in Cancun, Mexico, with expectations for substantial progress
declining almost daily.
The Obamas' organic garden shows that when the most powerful, public couple
takes a stand, people pay attention. Instead of just saying no, President
Obama could make an important statement in restoring the White House solar
panels to the roof: After the BP Gulf oil disaster, after the reckless
invasion and profoundly costly occupation of Iraq (which many believe was
based on our need for oil), after the massive, ongoing loss of jobs, we are
changing. We will power a vital movement away from fossil fuels, to
sustainable energy, to green jobs.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
© 2010 Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio
news hour airing on 800 stations in North America. She was awarded the 2008
Right Livelihood Award, dubbed the "Alternative Nobel" prize, and received
the award in the Swedish Parliament in December.
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