Us and them

The government was highly aware of the calamitous effects that global warming might have on the population of the country if they didn’t embrace a greener way to produce power.

Unless they found a way to do so, they had been assured that the country would be faced with the prospect of warmer temperatures and higher sea levels, both of which would cause catastrophes of sizable proportions.

But as if the problem of global warming from conventional power plants and the transport sector wasn’t troublesome enough, with a lack of any substantial oil, gas and coal reserves of its own, the country was forced to import much of its supplies from foreign countries, some of which the government believed could potentially turn unfriendly at a whim, plunging the country into the dark ages as they cut off supplies in an instant.

To the folks that ran the country it seemed obvious that the solution to both of the impending problems could be solved quite simply. If the country could create enough green energy from renewable resources then this could be used not only to power industries and homesteads, but also deliver enough power to fuel a nation of all-electric car drivers to boot.

The people who lived in that country could not fault the argument of those in charge. They accepted the fact that they would need to pay a premium for the electricity from the renewable energy plants and they acknowledged the reality that the electric cars would be more expensive than their internal combustion counterparts.

But as painful as those additional costs might be, they also realised that the new green power plants and their all-electric electric vehicles would free them from the shackles of supplies from rogue nations and help to save the country from overheating and floods to boot. So they all signed up to the deal.

What they all failed to understand was that the new power generation systems and electric vehicles would also bring their own set of issues. Not in the least of which was that the raw materials that were used in their design and construction were for the most part, sourced from several parts of the globe that few had ever visited: Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and China.

Needless to say in the early stages of energy reform that political hot potato was quickly swept under the carpet by the government, which preferred not to widely acknowledge the fact – aware that if they did, the green revolution might be substantially slowed through years of incessant deliberations.

These days, of course, everyone is driving around electrically under unpolluted skies, heating and cooling their homes and factories with green energy that no longer leaves a carbon footprint on the planet. The government achieved all its green goals and the inhabitants seem happy enough with the results.

But the word on the street is that the folks in the far flung corners of the earth are now planning a green revolution of their own. And that can mean only one thing – that the majority of the precious resources they had previously exported to the western world will now be being put to use in their countries instead.

So as much as the folks in the developed world thought that they had already paid the price for going green, I’m afraid the worst of the financial news is yet to come.

Dave Wilson
Editor, Electronicstalk

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