MB Civic

Dear friends:

In my view, the most frustrating aspect of President Obama’s reign is that he has shown so little sign of living up to that which we projected onto him: that he would be, as many of us so hoped, a leader with the magnetism and gift for inspiring us in the way that John F. Kennedy did when, on the occasion of his inauguration, he said: “Ask not what your country can do for you…”

And moreso when JFK announced that by the end of the 1960’s, we would put a man on the moon.

In doing so, he spelled out for us an achievable national goal, one that excited and united us as a people.

And we did achieve it. And in the process, far greater than simply increasing national pride, we created new technologies resulting in a still-growing, untold number of jobs – and whole careers that didn’t exist back then — for workers throughout the world.

There is such a goal, a note to be struck by this president, if only we can reach him and convince him to take the step, to utter the words – to set this achievable goal — that by the end of this decade, we will be independent of fossil fuels (and thus – happily and not incidentally — free to allow the oil-rich people of the Middle East to reside where they prefer to be – in the 12^th century).

How to accomplish this?

SPACE BASED SOLAR POWER

The National Security Space Office (NSSO) estimates that, in theory, one kilometer of (orbiting) solar collectors can collect a supply of energy, on an annual basis, “equal to the energy contained in all of the known recoverable conventional oil reserves on Earth today.”*

*http://www.greenlivingonline.com/article/space-based-solar-power-101

Or, go to: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/eads-astrium-plans-put-solar-collecting-demo-satellite-space

I am certainly not a scientist, but I can find neither research nor arguments on the web stating that this cannot be accomplished.

Are there problems that will need solving? Are there technologies that will require tweaking or even outright invention? Will there be resistance from entrenched interests? Of course. Could we accomplish it this week? Certainly not. But imagine the power, the impetus that those words, spoken by this president, will have, the enormous positive thrust such an effort will create for our country, and for the world — that by 2020 we will be independent of fossil fuels.