News from Mother: Renewables to the Rescue
The $2.2 trillion spent on the Iraq war could have built enough renewable energy to meet all of our energy needs!
April/May 2007
By the Mother Earth News editors
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Invest in Wind, not War.
MATTHEW T. STALLBAUMER
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Earth Day 2007 is approaching, and some still doubt that human activities are causing global warming. But many more are now deeply concerned, and there is a growing consensus that major policy changes are urgently needed to stabilize our climate. April 14 has been designated as a National Day of Climate Action, and a new group, Step It Up 2007, is helping to organize hundreds of local rallies. Tens of thousands of citizens will join together on the 14th to press our elected officials to “step it up” and stop global warming. To learn how you can contribute and to find the events nearest you, visit www.stepitup2007.org.
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And if you have friends who still doubt that it’s possible to end our addiction to oil and shift to clean, secure renewable energy, show them this tidy little fact that the ace researchers at the Earth Policy Institute calculated for us:
According to the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, the Iraq war will cost American taxpayers $2,200,000,000,000 — that’s 2.2 trillion dollars. If, instead, we invested that $2.2 trillion in wind power, it would give us enough energy to provide roughly 150 percent of our energy needs. That’s right — if we spent that amount of money on renewable energy just once, it would provide more than enough power to replace all our fossil fuel energy production — including coal, oil and gas — as well as nuclear! This shows that a serious investment in renewables would pay giant dividends for years to come, including reducing air pollution, curbing global warming and permanently ending our dependence on fossil fuels!
