When it comes to the environment, to planetary climate change, and the like, I for one think that the long-term timeline that they’ve calculated, of 50 to 100 years, is probably not going to hold true. I believe that we’re in for faster changes than we think. I think that climate change is going to be causing us more problems than we bargained for in the short term. But I believe that what we need to do is what we have known was necessary for the past 50 years.

So I was born in 1959 and went to school in the sixties. I was in grade school in the sixties and even back then they were teaching us about climate change so I am not sure why it seems to be news to everyone.

I learned the science in grade school and it’s been around for quite a while so I know that it’s just convenient to say “we don’t know” or “we didn’t know, we only just found out.” I think that’s just a convenient lie being told so that we don’t have to take the blame when things go wrong. It’s being told so that we don’t have to feel guilty. We really do have to change things. We’ve got enough resources now that if we start to focus on halting it, as a desirable goal for the United States. We can influence the world and we can influence it in a very positive way.

I’m living in Arizona currently and one of the large utilities here, APS (Arizona Public Service bureau), has decided that the solar powered households should pay more. They now need to pay a monthly fee to stay connected to the grid. So they’re charged something like $50 per month ($600 per year), which you have to add onto your solar cost, in addition to purchasing it and everything else.

At a time when the planet is in dire need of assistance, we should be encouraging people to use this type of power, and we should start using this energy for other things as well. We can start to fuel cars more with it, among other things. The companies will adapt. The vehicles will become more efficient, easier to use, and easier to charge, and the technology will start to move forward.

The technology is moving as fast as it can right now, but with an influx of money, it could certainly move forward at a much greater pace. Something could then be done to offset the fuel taxation we’re experiencing. Electric cars or hybrids don’t currently generate much funding for roads and freeways with fuel taxes.

I believe that there is a lot we could do to discourage companies from, for instance, charging $50 per month for electrical fuel. I do think that there should be a charge for being connected to the grid. A grid is expensive to build. The thing is that most companies who build these grids have made their profits at this point. They probably didn’t project this far into the future when they were planning their profitability. There are going to be winners and losers all the time. We need to decide who that’s going to be. The energy corporations need to become providers of choice if they want to survive in the new economy. This is what happens in other industries when disruptive technology comes along. Everyone has to adapt. As it stands, the energy companies don’t need to adapt because clearly we all love them. They’ve given us energy for all these years and all these generations. We don’t need them anymore but we still have to pay for their healthcare.

Corporate welfares are a real problem in the United States and this issue needs to be addressed. There’s a lot of focus on disparity in income and the divide between classes. Wealthy people are allowed to make more and more money and pay less and less in taxes while the rest of the population is thrown off the boat to sink or swim if need be. These are issues we need to change.

There’s no way we can build a great society without everyone working together to pick up trash and build an economy for sustainable energy. I’m not saying that everyone needs to be paid the same amount of money. The amount of money which we are allowing some people to make is obscene and they are making it without raising the water for all ships. Rising tides sell boats but there’s nobody left with enough money to buy them.

It’s as though the money goes out of circulation. Methods for hiding income and avoiding taxation are incredible. The people who work hard for wages are the worst off. There are more and more of them, and our economy needs to start working for these classes. If it can’t work for them, then we need to start voting for people who can implement the necessary changes.