Every time I read another of these great stories about technology solving another problem, I’m reminded of the pastoral ideal paradigm noted in our annual research report www.arpps.org , which is:
The Pastoral Ideal
“The pastoral ideal has been used to define the meaning of America ever since the age of discovery, and it has not yet lost its hold upon the native imagination.
“Since 1964, the rise of environmentalist ideology has pushed the pastoral ideal increasingly toward nature, striving to redefine the meaning of America in fully primitivist terms of the wild.
“Public policy debate over the environment and the meaning of America has been clamorous these thirty years. Its terms were succinctly put by Edith Stein:
“The environmental movement challenges the dominant Western worldview and its three assumptions:
· Unlimited economic growth is possible and beneficial.
· Most serious problems can be solved by technology.
· Environmental and social problems can be mitigated by a market economy with some state intervention.
“Since the 1970s we've heard increasingly about the competing paradigm, wherein:
· Growth must be limited.
· Science and technology must be restrained.
· Nature has finite resources and a delicate balance that humans must observe.”
(R. Arnold, 1996 www.cdfe.org/wiseuse.htm)
An excerpt.
Tidal energy companies staking claims
By JEANNETTE J. LEE, Associated Press WriterPublished 7:49 pm PST Saturday, November 4, 2006
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - In the quest for oil-free power, a handful of small companies are staking claims on the boundless energy of the rising and ebbing sea.
The technology that would draw energy from ocean tides to keep light bulbs and laptops aglow is largely untested, but several newly minted companies are reserving tracts of water from Alaska's Cook Inlet to Manhattan's East River in the belief that such sites could become profitable sources of electricity.
The trickle of interest began two years ago, said Celeste Miller, spokeswoman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The agency issues permits that give companies exclusive rights to study the tidal sites. Permit holders usually have first dibs on development licenses.
Tidal power proponents liken the technology to little wind turbines on steroids, turning like windmills in the current. Water's greater density means fewer and smaller turbines are needed to produce the same amount of electricity as wind turbines.
After more than two decades of experimenting, the technology has advanced enough to make business sense, said Carolyn Elefant, co-founder of the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition, a marine energy lobbying group formed in May 2005.
In the last four years, the federal commission has approved nearly a dozen permits to study tidal sites. Applications for about 40 others, all filed in 2006, are under review. No one has applied for a development license, Miller said.
