MSNBC Special Coverage

Are you prepared for the worst?
Experts: What you need at home in a crisis

The darkness of terror keeps spreading. As it does, authorities continue to admonish that citizens prepare their families for trouble. Though this special report by MSNBC does not mention solar energy products, the advice is still pivotal. I link to this reminder, because I really do not believe that most of us are properly prepared for emergencies.

I say this because I walked the neighborhood around my store a few days before we were to host a preparedness seminar given by The American Red Cross. Out of about 60 people I talked with only one person knew what I was talking about when I said "emergency preparedness". This one person had done nothing except prepare a small first aid kit, but at least he knew what I was talking about. I invited those sixty families to the free seminar but no one showed up. This caused me alarm so I started a radio program to help families prepare better for emergencies in Las Vegas. The point is, no one knew what I was talking about and had not taken one step in preparedness. Is it the same today? I hope all of the talk about terrorism and 9-11 has struck a spark in more people, but I fear not many.

I can't tell you how many times I have spoken to people who DO know what to do and don't do it. I am even guilty here a little. Even though I am a proponent of taking concrete steps in emergency preparedness, I find that I am lacking in a few areas. It takes a mindset and time to do these things. Even my employees, who hear me preach almost weekly, have taken little, if any, preparedness steps. It is my hope that within the posts and archives of this site, you can glean important tasks that you need to do to prepare your family for many types of disasters and emergencies. Thanks for your time.

Good luck in your preparations.

Renewable Energy Systems as Emergency Power Sources

A few weeks ago I promised to publish a link to an article by solar for emergencies guru, Bill Young. I have since contacted Mr. Young and I hope to enlist his help in the final version of my new ebook. I did not find a current article by Mr. Young that addressed the topic, but I did find one prepared by USDOE that you may be interested in:

Natures Power on Demand: Renewable Energy Systems as Emergency Power Sources

This article was written in 1995 but I found many aspects timely. Mr. Young, and many other sources, were consultants for this article. My views on using solar for emergencies address many other topics, but this is good reading. Have a great day! Mike

Lower Gasoline Prices Are Not the Answer

An important article appeared in this week's newsletter of SolarAccess.com. Below are three quotes from the article.

"Rather than firing bullets in the Middle East, we should be biting the bullet here at home to do what is necessary to make an earnest and rapid transition to a sustainable energy economy."

"Events in the world support the need for a new national energy policy. A policy that is clear about its objective of freeing the United States from a fossil fuel standard that risks the nation's health, economy and security."

"The current national energy policy is harmful to the Nation's health, welfare and security and must be changed. The next President of the United States, as well as the members of the 108th Congress, should rightfully be expected to propose and enact policies that will quickly lower the cost of continuing dependence upon fossil and nuclear fuels -- not the cost of a gallon of gasoline. November's elections assure voters the opportunity to speak and to listen -- and like any national resource the opportunity should not be wasted."

You can read the entire article by Joel B. Stronberg here: Not the Answer