Last night I went to see Avengers Assemble 3D. I’ve been looking forward to it all week and it’s been one of the most eagerly anticipated films of 2012.
With Ironman, Captain America, Thor and The Hulk blended together with more special effects than seem necessary, I was looking forward to two-and-a-half hours of pure action. What I wasn’t expecting was to start thinking about Technology Justice.
If you haven’t seen the film yet, I don’t want to ruin it for you so I’m avoiding any spoilers – please read on. In summary, the storyline is the battle for ‘The Tesseract’ – a sustainable energy source with unknown potential. This battle would have torn the world apart if it weren’t for the band of super-humans and a demigod who stood in the way.
I’m not saying our world is at war over energy, but there certainly is an unbalance. Whilst I was sitting in a dark room with silly glasses on with 200 others, there were 1.3 billion people with no access to electricity. And yes, it’s a shame that they won’t be able to see the theatrical delight that is Avengers Assemble, but there are far more basic needs that these 1.3 billion people don’t have access to. What if someone needs seek medical attention after dark? Once they get to the medical centre, there may be no power for lighting or refrigeration to keep the medication cool, or to adequately light a surgery room.
That certainly seems like an injustice to me.
Now these 1.3 billion people don’t have a Hulk to fight for their technology justice. They have Practical Action, and we want to see a world where everyone has access to clean sustainable energy (not necessarily The Tesseract) by 2030. If you want to see a world of technology justice and want to be a superhero then check out http://practicalaction.org/energyforall.
May 29th, 2012 at 10:29 am
Using the wind to produce elctirceity in large quantities is a fairly new concept. Using the wind for power has been around as long as boats first used a sail to move it through the water.Going Green is right that it will not become dominant because it is unpredictable. The problem with some of the others becoming major sources of power is the same. I live in the northern latitudes, where we get a lot of cloudy weather. We could not depend on solar as our main source of energy. There are a lot of days the wind is not blowing at all, especially in the summer. There are some places trying geothermal, but they have to go down so far to find the necessary heat, that the cost is too high to be practical.There are no quick and easy solutions to the problem of alternatives to fossil fuels, and there won’t be any time soon.