The Future is Now

I'm taking a break from talking about campaign politics but I will say quickly that Michelle Obama is to Ann Romney as the undefeated 1972 Dolphins are to the Little Giants.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about one of my favorite topics, clean and alternative energy: the ever elusive, but immensely important source of future economic growth and national security.

I have made numerous pitches for green energy in the past. I've cited the Pickens plan, mentioned the multitude of wind turbines I saw in France, and been awed by Iceland's ability to sustain itself on geothermal heat. I have lobbied for segue projects such as the Keystone Pipeline to help us bridge the gap between the old and dirty and the new and clean, and I have come out in favor of fracking because clean(er) American energy is still superior to dirty(er) foreign imports.

So I was elated to see a report about Oregon's attempt to harness waves to create enough power for 1,000 homes. That's a modest number, but it's a huge start. This is the kind of project that America needs to secure our energy and national security future, not to mention to wean us off of fossil fuels that will ultimately lead to catastrophic climate change.

Generating electricity for 1,000 homes doesn't sound like much because it isn't. Not in a country of 300 million people let alone a world of 7 billion human inhabitants. But if successful, this and other projects will show that we can and should be harnessing the natural energy of the Earth to supply us with power. The technology is still a work in progress, but the growing demand for energy coupled with the environmental cost of dirty and outdated power sources shows that the future is now.

I will end by contradicting my first paragraph and throwing electoral politics back into the mix; if the future is now, the party is the Democrats whose platform states that: "We know that global climate change is one of the biggest threats of this generation — an economic, environmental and national security catastrophe in the making."

Contrast that to the Republicans who dropped addressing climate change from their platform though it was included in 2008.

The future is now, and only one party is trying to get us there.