This picture is not in Australia. That's the problem. We recently saw an article on the SBS news about a new solar power tower, in Seville, Spain. We are constantly hearing on the news here that Australian citizens produce more greenhouse emissions per capita than any people on Earth. So it is interesting to hear the Australian government come out with a new budget which emphasizes carbon sequestration for coal plants (essentially pumping the CO2 from the smokestacks back into the ground). John Howard has also floated the idea of widening the use of nuclear power.

This in a country where, at least up here in northern latitudes, it is still hitting 98 degrees daily at the end of autumn. This sunburned country would be a natural place to use and develop solar power in a big way. One article quotes a leading scientist who states that "the amount of solar energy that hits Australia alone in one summer day alone is about half the total global annual energy demand." Yet this same scientist, who has worked on solar power for 30 years, left Australia for the U.S. in January of this year.

The vast majority of people here seem to me to be taking global warming seriously. I hope the mood has become more accepting back home in the U.S. At a time when both our countries should be concerned about both energy independence and maintaining the environment for our children and grandchildren, we should all be writing our legislators and demanding that more R&D and subsidy money go into solar power (and wind and energy conservation).

And how does this impact indigenous people? A report from the U.S. Worldwatch institute details how the Lakota people are using solar power to cut down the degradation of their reservation and conserve money. Generating electricity from their own lands also fits cultural ties to the land as the source of life. Many Aboriginal remote communities, such as Kandiwell, rely on solar power because they are off the grid. A few have built larger power stations. But perhaps this would be an industry that would be non-polluting, friendly to the land, and a source of jobs and income for Aboriginal people, with a little kick-start from the powers-that-be in Australia?

But what really got me thinking was an article discussing the difficulty of finding really ancient Aboriginal archaeological sites. You see, the problem is that 40,000 years ago, before the last ice age, when Aboriginal people likely first came to Australia, the sea levels were 20-100 meters lower than they are today. That means all the coastal sites, where the First Australians likely settled are now deep underwater.

If the climate scientists are correct and the ocean rises another 25-50 meters in the next century due to global warming, all of Derby and many miles of the beautiful coastline I posted photos of (in the Kandiwell folder) will be submersed. And this would include a lot of traditional lands for Aboriginal people all over Australia.

For a more critical review about solar power in Australia, read this article as well.