Third day ...
In the boat that takes us along the Douro River, sitting on the side of the vessel, the cold feel of the "invicta" sticks into my bones, and creates an opportunity to reflect a little bit about my perspective on renewable energy, now that I am alone and in a meditative mood.
Yesterday I spoke of the link between energy and the way we live in the world, and also explained that the Earth gives us all the tools to build our own future in a sustainable manner.
Having this kind of "questions and answers game" in the head, i am not tired of thinking that the answers to my questions are within the reach of my hand, simply by reflecting a bit, and even by looking to the concept of life, because life is always about our existence.
When thinking of life, I remember what I know about it, as a little scientific and literary man that I am. Life started in water, with an unusual mixture of nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen. From the water to the land, started the evolution of animal to animal, and in the end mankind appeared in all its mightyness.
I know that there are theories that define the line of human evolution as a pyramid, where there is a growing cognitive expansion of the human being just to come to an end point where, from then it regresses.
I do not believe in this but the concept of regression is not so bad if we can look at it. Mankind has much to learn from what we have done in the past, especially if looking for its own development.
We are at a time where development requires a critical change in our daily habits and how we see basic questions that before we thought to be of universal and immediate response.
Today nothing is certain.
We are at a time where we talk about renewable energy and ways to obtain energy in a sustainable way. We are at a time where we witness a landmark in the history of the evolution of man:
Change the way of consuming what is fundamental to our survival as an evolving specie: Energy!
And it is precisely by looking ahead to another step of evolution, that, in my opinion, we must look back to where it all began. I just need to look around me, here in the middle of the River Douro...
Water.
For me the answer is in the water. 71% of the land surface is covered with water. In energy terms, it contains more stored energy per unit volume than the solar radiation or wind, and can be used in different ways, such as in sea currents, or in the movement of tides, or the force of waves...
For me, the future of humanity, in the energy field, is exactly the same thing from where came all forms of life: water.
Of course there it is always a problem: Technology
The technology of renewable energy is still heavily in development. We need large investments and high amounts of money to estabilish, for example, a wind farm as what we saw today, in the hills of Caramulo.
But the popular wisdom says that money generates money and there is no doubt that not only humanity is evolving, but technology too! Increasingly there are new technologies to harness the energy contained in water, quite apart from dams or windmills in the tide. Increasingly there are new projects and new ideas ready to be exploited...
In Portugal, looking back in the evolution of man, we can also look at your past and remember that there were times when we were the owners of the Ocean. Through it, we got to places that were once only imagined, get wealth and name around the world, all thanks to water and our spirit of conquer it.
Portugal is a land of sea and sun, with all the strength of the Mediterranean people, so we all want to be a renewable power even greater than we are now. Therefore, we have an obligation to move, looking into the past in order to build the moral of the future, without giving ear to Velhos do Restelo or greedy and selfish lobbys.
We are a nation of sailors, the people with the largest coastline of Europe, a kingdom that sleeps with the Atlantic at the door.
We are portuguese, we are energy sailors and our power lays in the sea.
So, as Captain Jack Sparrow would say:
"Now... bring me that horizon... and really bad eggs."
