I would invite everyone to say thanks for what we have. I'd invite the thought that if anyone has shelter, food, electricity, a fridge, a washing machine, Internet access and a town library, we can consider them very privileged. If anyone does not have these things, let's prioritize delivering them.
I'd invite children and adults to learn about their local resources, starting with water. Trace water from their tap to their watershed, to precipitation. In your town, what percentage of water goes to households? to industry, to golf courses? Trace the minerals and ores in your region.
Instead of encouraging the ideas that "you can be anything/anyone you want to be" and "the sky's the limit" and "your success is up to you", I'd teach respect for the Earth and respect for ecological limits. I'd celebrate limits. They offer reality and inspire creativity.
I'd have forums for illuminating our dependence on clean water and biodiversity and for discussing what we need collectively, as parts of ecosystems in peril.
I'd explain what manufacturing (including solar PVs, industrial wind, batteries and e-vehicles) does to the Earth from the product's cradle to its grave.
I'd invite everyone to prepare for power outages and/or the Internet's shut-down.
I'd explain that even our food depends now on telecommunications and the global super-factory. I'd celebrate people who can teach us how to build topsoil, compost and grow vegetables through four seasons.
I'd explain why solar PVs don't help us.
I'd say thanks, again, for all that we have.
Why solar PVs don't help us
Advertisers call solar power "clean" and "zero-emitting." This ignores what it takes to manufacture solar PV systems. It ignores what solar-using consumers do for electricity on cloudy days and at night. It ignores the fact that at end-of-life, these systems are hazardous waste.
Solar PVs make users dependent on the fossil-fuel-guzzling, extraction-guzzling, water-guzzling, toxic waste-emitting global super-factory. We can't rightly call that "energy independence."
Manufacturing solar PVs ravages the Earth. For starters, making solar panels burns trees and coal. The panels are mounted on cement. Producing 1 kg of cement emits 0.5 - 0.9 kg of carbon dioxide, accounting for 5% - 7% of global carbon emissions. Just because manufacturing remains invisible to most consumers does not make solar PVs "green, clean, zero-emitting."
Solar PVs provide only intermittent power. Users who expect electricity 24/7 require backup. Backup is available from either the fossil-fueled electric grid OR from batteries. Manufacturing batteries is a toxic, Earth-ravaging enterprise, dependent on fossil fuels, mining, chemicals and water. Operating batteries can be toxic and explosive. For details about battery storage, read Calvin Luther Martin's 2019 article, "BESS Bombs." (BESS stands for battery energy storage system.) Even though Vimeo took down all of Martin's videos, the piece is still Very worthwhile.
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