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The time has come when we can no longer put renewable thinking on the back burner, or do as legislators do, amend the Clean Air Act of 1970 to push deadlines further into the future. That has already been done to excess. We must begin to conserve now. Renewable energy is energy that renews itself after use such as sunshine, hydrology, and the burning of wood. It leaves no harmful after effects - or at least fewer - than do energy from fossil fuels. The sun shines everywhere and rainfall replenishes the dammed up water used for water pressure turbines.

Trees grow back after a length of time. Although wood is not a fossil fuel source in that it is not millions of years old and is not stored in the ground, its use as an energy source is not adequate. It burns up rapidly and depletes forests. To keep the environment well and able to cope with day by day onslaughts such as flooding and carbon dioxide utilization, trees serve best when living and sending out miles and miles of tangled roots holding back soil from erosion.

Finding less expensive sources of energy other than fossil fuels from underground sources such as petroleum, gas and coal is now the concern of the world. Experiments with wind power, solar panels, and hydrology are being tested and evaluated as this is being written. All these work well in some areas, and not so well in others. Naturally for these to become reliable energy sources there must be wind, sunshine and water.

The problem is in harnessing these natural elements in plentiful areas and then dispensing it through some type of conveyor system to other areas. How to do this is what the world is working on now. One of the most reliable sources of fossil fuel coal is rapidly depleting itself. It will take many millions of years for it to reform in the earth's deep interior. Needless to say, it has contributed to the pollution problem by acidifying the air and water and soil. Along side renewable energy sources, cleaner methods of using coal to power plants that synthesize fuel into electricity are in the works.

When energy from the sun is affordable, when windmills make a comeback and when efficient means of creating hydroelectric plants without damming up and diverting rivers becomes real, this will be a dream come true. Canaries will sing a new song, the fish in the oceans will not be riddled with mercury and other toxins, and the good earth will be writhing with life.

Earthworms will be plump and happy and back at their job of recycling soils

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