I recently decided to expand my solar power system because I’ve begun implementing more electric appliances in my house to get me off of propane, the only fossil fuel I use in the home. The system I used was super easy and incorporated a microinverter, which allows a connection without a charge controller and some of the expensive components required for a traditional power system. For about $500 I was able to add 810W to my system. As of the posting of this video I’d already made back about $100 of that investment in utility bill savings.
I have a tiny power system compared to most, but that’s because I live simply and sustainably in a small house in an ecovillage. But this system can be upscaled for any application anywhere. The benefits are that all you need to buy is the panels, a microinverter, wiring, and fuses. It’s basically plug and play, as I demonstrate in this video.
Thanks, Dan, for this excellent video. I especially liked your comments toward the end. It seems to me that the uncertainty and risk of what the future holds for us is good cause for some anxiety from any informed person. But I ask the question: can we trust the sources of information that each of us takes in? Are they trustworthy? Have we looked deeply enough into our sources of information to know whether or not we should trust them?
I’m with you, Dan, in seeing that it’s the structure of our ecomomic system that has prioritized profit over people. We must look carefully at the powerful and rich corporations to understand that the drive for more profit and power is almost always at odds with the well-being and happiness of the people. I mean, just look at how the tech giants have massive profits to be made by the misguided and dangerous race to scale up artificial intelligence. While the shareholders are licking their chops, millions, maybe tens of millions of people are going to lose their jobs. I think there is truth in the expression that things have to get worse before they get better.
With regard to the other than human world, it seems that most people don’t understand the direct and deep relationship between the excessive and extreme production and consumption of so much stuff/junk on the one hand, and the destruction and pollution of our ecosystem/plants and animals. The loss of biodiversity and human caused climate change is so worrying. We must recognize that humans ARE nature. And we can learn so much by getting out in the woods and really observing plants and animals so that we can really know and feel and love them.
In the last few years, there has been a lot of research, mostly in Europe, of alternatives to “business as usual” capitalism. There are different names and takes for this. Social ecology, degrowth, post growth, ecological economics, etc. Something that really stands out to me is the importance of reducing/taking away the power and control of corporations to make all the decisions about what to make and how to make it. We must question whether or not it makes any sense to extract raw materials (trees, minerals, water, etc.) to make things that simply shouldn’t made at all!. Reducing consumption does NOT mean that we’ll have to go back to living in a very primitive way. It DOES mean that we have to be smarter about what it is that we produce and consume. For example, should billionaires be allowed to fly into space and relentlessly search for more and more profit? While wasting precious materials and energy that should be used to help all the suffering beings, animal and plant, in our world?
To the capitalist, the answer is a resounding YES. The selfishness of out of control capitalism/globalization is incredible. I don’t believe that it’s an intentional selfishness or a conspiricy theory. But that it’s because of the inertia of 500 years of living within an economic system (and cultural values that form around it) and seeing that system as the only choice available.
We must have an awakening, an opening for looking at other alternatives. As the acceleration of AI and continued destruction of our ecosystem intensifies, there will be increased suffering, anger and a willingness to imagine other ways to live. And it seems to me that the best chance we have to do this, is to build relationships/community which will create the passion and power to make the needed changes. Also, we must learn to live in a decentralized and non-hierchical way so that important decisions are made by people and not fascist authoritarian “leaders”.
Finally, many worry that there just isn’t enough time to do these things before conditions for life become very bleak. I think for me, even though I’m not optomistic, I’ve decided that we must continue to try. Why? Because I have a deep and abiding love and understanding of the beauty of life. Its desire to live and its resilience to adapt to adverse conditions. I am reminded of an expression that my mother would frequently say: where there’s life, there’s hope.
Thanks for your well thought out comment. Sorry that it got posted so late. I don’t always notice when people leave comments on my website and I have to approve them because I get so much spam.
I totally agree with your comment. I’m not sure I know what you mean about trust of sources of information, and particularly what I said that you might question the source of. I’ve been following political issues and various kinds of media for decades and think I’m able to read between the lines and examine the source of the information before I spread it to others. Maybe it’s the antigovernment stuff. I am well aware of our government’s ability to spread misinformation, but that changes dramatically administration to administration, and depending on which area of information it is. I think when the government has programs intended to help the poor, their intentions can be good. Of course, sometimes you end up with compromises that help people but are also a concession to big business, such as Obamacare. And then you have Israel, which gets a kind word from any politician, Democrat or Republican, and support for genocide and actions that are comparable to what the Nazis did.
But other than that, you are right on with what you said and what’s needed for a better future. No billionaires are needed.