Egyptians are dancing in the streets celebrating a Good-Bye to the Cruel World of Hosni Mubarek's leadership. The question is, of course, what are they saying hello to? While this 'answer' will unfold in the coming days, weeks, months, years, decades, clearly there are choices and opportunities. A real option: to leverage Clean Energy to make a more prosperous, cleaner, and more peaceful future not just for Egypt and Egyptians, but for the whole region.
The outside world might have the ability to offer a serious enough carrot (perhaps with serious enough stick) to open this opportunity for Egyptians and other nations in the region. The common opportunity of all the peoples, of all the nations: the common enemy of global warming and fossil fuel energy dependency impoverishment creating the opportunity for a powerful path toward prosperity.
Solar-Powering a path to the Future?
In the face of Peak Oil, amid Global Warming, and the reality of ever heightened tensions, the 'sustainability' path might be core to finding a path toward sustainable peace in the region.
Let us postulate a few things. Whether state creation myth or otherwise, Israel has:
- Successfully "greened" the desert and conducted significant reforestration;
- Developed advances in desert agricultural techniques that, at times and in places, they have 'exported', with technical assistance, to other nations/societies;'
- Deployed renewable energy (especially solar hot water) and have companies that are leading edge in some renewable energy domains.
- Committed itself, via Better Place, to an all-electric (new) automobile fleet by 2018, with 100% of the electricity for the vehicles to come from renewable electricity sources (mainly solar power from the Negev Desert).
And, much like the Jewish Diaspora, a good number of Palestinians (in diaspora and otherwise) have found solace and opportunity in the pursuit of education, including technical and engineering education. If Israel/Israelis have been leading edge in some technical domains and in desert agriculture, if the bridges can be made, Palestinians could be strong partners for strengthening that technology and 'exporting' technology/techniques through a large swath of the world.
And, going back to today's revolution, Egyptians are a well educated populace with a serious dearth of job and economic opportunities for its educated population. Education combined with unemployment is, as we have just seen, a recipe for revolution. Can that recipe marry up with Israeli and Palestinian skills to create a new revolution for the region: a clean energy revolution?
But, what are some of these visions and techniques. Why should they matter?
Let's take a look, for a moment, at Desertrec/TREC, a European vision for a renewable energy project that would link from Iceland to Saudi Arabia. One of the core technologies to be used would be concentrated solar thermal power (CSTP) for generating electricity. CSTP, which is getting a bitof attention(for reason), has the potential for quite serious benefitsbeyond just the cleanly generated electricity:
- Desalinization of water as a 'by-product' of electrical power generation
- Shaded areas under the mirrors of CSP plants are protected from the full glare of harsh tropical sunlight and may be used for many purposes, including horticulture using desalinated sea water.
Now, by the way, a number of Israeli companies have leadership positions in CSTP, such as
Zenith and
Brightsource.
Hmmmm ...
Rather relying on oil or other polluting sources for electricity, from Saudi Arabia through Morocco (including Israel), imagine CSTP providing the electrical power.
Imagine the jobs that would be created to build and operate the systems.
Imagine, the farmland that could be created with the water coming from these plants.
Imagine the potential 'greening the desert' that could occur via a marriage of CSTP, desalinization of water, biochar from the burning of agricultural wastes enriching the soil while sequestering carbon.
Imagine this as a path toward reduced tensions.
Imagine, if ...
Imagine if a leadership stepped forward within Israel (prompted by friends of Israel, like J-Street, as discussed here) to foster CSTP electrical power generation for the Gaza strip and into Egypt, providing not just reliable non-polluting energy but also a source for fresh water and good jobs. To provide not just electricity, but also a building block toward sustainability, including toward sustainable piece.
Will Israeli security be better served through generating ever greater hatred through the killing and maiming of Palestinians (whether 'combatants' or three-year-old children) and an ever greater impoverishment of Palestinian populations or through fostering a path toward economic betterment among those with whom Israelis (eventually?) want to have peace?
And, with international assistance, imagine jobs and stability that TREC could provide for newly liberated Egyptians.
And, for the globe, in the face of Peak Oil and Global Warming and conflict, would not paths for renewable power through this part of the globe, renewable power that means more than just electricity, be a fruitful path to pursue?
CSTP is not the only thing to consider.
Sustainable agricultural (see Greening the Desert) practices to reclaim desert land.
The adoption of biochar to foster ever-healthier (and productive) soil while sequestering carbon.
The creation of a region-wide smart grid (a la TREC) to foster ever-greater efficiency in use of energy and the ability to move energy efficiently across the region to help cover intermittency of power.
Is their a path to energize the Arab-Israeli dynamic -- amid the revolutionary fervor of underemployed educated people -- from a cycle of ever-greater destructiveness to future prospects to something offer the promise of a better tomorrow?
Could an Energy Smart vision become a reality to help foster reduced Arab-Israeli tensions while also helping the globe navigate through the perfect the perfect storm of economic devastation, Peak Oil, and Global Warming?
Imagine ...
Imagine ... a mutual Arab-Israeli recognition of a common threat and a common opportunity.
Imagine ... a readiness to confront that threat and seize that opportunity.
Imagine ...
Imagine ... how little it might take, in terms of international aid to start this process moving forward and to entrench it solidly. $5 billion? $10 billion? What price is it worth to the international community to foster a path toward a far less polluting, prosperity enhancing, peace reinforcing Arab-Israeli dynamic? What if the international community were to offer up, "we will fund this in Israel, in the Palestinian territories / Palestine (either / or / both ...) / Jordan / Sinai portions of Egypt. Join in and we'll fund you. Chose to sit out and watch your neighbors prosper." Hmmm ... Would Israel? Would Egypt? Would the Palestinians? Would Jordan? Would any of the key actors sit out this opportunity?
NOTE: To be clear, the concept that sustainable energy could transform the prospect for Middle Eastern peace is far from original with this author. (Not even a start of a taste ... Re-Thinking the Mediterranean; Environmental NGOs & Palestinian-Israeli Cooperation; etc ...) In the face of Peak Oil, amid Global Warming, and the reality of ever heightened tensions, the 'sustainability' path might be core to finding a path toward sustainable peace in the region.
The TREC vision is a compelling one, with multiple reinforcing benefits and opportunities. For an exploration of these, see Energy COOL: A power renewable vision.
PS ... And with this diary, I say GBCW to the DKos 3 ... and await the trials and travails of an emergent new world. ...