Who would dispute that the energy that comes from the sun and falls freely on the earth every day, energy without pollution is energy from Heaven.  But what of Australia and America’s major energy source that we dig from the ground?

Coal fired power stations are responsible for the mercury in fish that makes some fish in 49 States and all freshwater fish in 19 States unsafe to eat.  It is responsible for 1 in 11 women in the United States having mercury levels that will cause birth defects.  It is responsible for 1 million days off sick from work each year due to asthma attacks and 60,000 deaths per year.  It is causing lost of mountain top forests in the Appalachian Mountains from acid rain.

Coal continues to quoted as the cheapest form of energy and we continue to build coal power stations, yet these figures fail to take into account the health costs of coal, the cost of government constructed and maintained roads for coal mines even before we start to try and account for the direct and indirect environmental costs.  Solar and wind energy are not far behind coal in cost terms without counting these subsidies and makes far more economic sense than building more coal power stations when these costs are counted.

The three trillion dollars the Iraq war will cost the US Government could have funded solar and wind power to meet the needs of the American nation at today’s construction costs and costs are reducing as the industry matures.  Many including the Rocky Mountain Institute consider that the conversion of America to renewable energy would have a far greater benefit to national security than all the “wars on terror” ever will.

Truly it is time for bold leadership and change to move from “Energy from Hell” to “Energy from Heaven”.

Inspired by and facts and figures from speech by Robert F Kennedy Jr at Earth Day, Austin Texas 2011