I Sell Sunlight

You what?! You heard me, I sell sunlight. It’s taken me 83 years to discover what I have in abundance that I can turn into Solar Dollars to spend. But I need some “how to” guidelines when I use photosynthesis to pay the bills. It’s imperative for my survival and come to think of it, yours also. We’ve got to stop biting the hand that feeds us by constantly pillaging our environment. This “you and me" army that constantly increases in numbers and I shall add a multiplying effect for all our planes, trains and automobiles that let’s us be like Humming Birds flitting here and there all the while leaving very big footprints on the environment. Then having the audacity to believe that life is an inalienable right, well its not. Just ask the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex of Jurassic times if he thought he would ever become extinct. His reply “are you crazy, not in a million”. So let’s see what happens when we arm ourselves with a wide variety of ways and means to harvest sunlight that will satisfy our cravings for stuff for the short term, but certainly not wise for our long term health. I think we need to question the direction that our research and development in America is going? Are we trying to harness the powers of photosynthesis for our betterment or is it outweighed by the lure of creature comforts and convenience. I want to get off on the right foot with most people by changing this 14 letter tongue twister by the name of photosynthesis that leaves my tongue worn to a frazzle every time I try to say it. Sooooo I’m giving our tongue twister word a nick name that everybody can agree on “Goodness”. My goodness that’s it. I believe it perfectly describes what happens when we discover it’s powers. So let the magic show begin. A truly awe inspiring Woodstock type happening will now take center stage. The curtain rises to a crowd that stretches as far as the eye can see. All are standing, the air is permeated with wonder that something of great importance was about to happen. Go ahead Goodness “CHANGE SUNLIGHT INTO LIFE” Having spent most of my years in the 20th century I feel more comfortable getting out my Encyclopedia Britannica for a definition of “Goodness”This very weighty book says “It’s the process by which green plants harness the energy of sunlight absorbed by chlorophyll to build carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water” this process also gives off Oxygen so we get to breathe. Well, I’d think we would all want heaping portions of Goodness. But I’m sad to say what’s good for we mortals is most likely not good for Monsanto, John Deere Caterpillar and their stockholders. The problem is that goodness operates best when sunlight has plenty of green growing things chock full of chlorophyll to work with And when does “Goodness” not work so good? It’s when we till the soil leaving it bear. It’s when through chemistry we change the soil and all the critters that live there, so we can grow monocultures, it’s when we cover the land with cement and ash-fault. I don’t know when we will be forced to change our ways that insist that we must satisfy our every whim that tickles our fancy and expect no consequences. That other forms of life when they gain nuisance status by getting in our way to many times we consider them expendable. Misery and war it is said, can accelerate invention and I hold that to be true but my problem when the battle is over we never go back to repair the damage. I think our brain power has to spend more time preventing messes so we don’t have to spend so much time cleaning them up. Like our Pacific Ocean So what am I supposed to do about it? For starters Jack quite assuming that traditional decision making on your ranch is okay because it’s not. Goals, goals, goals I know they are more important than New Years Resolutions I just hope I’m up to the task of keeping them. Let’s see, I guess I will start with real big brush strokes to start with. Remember past blunders, question the present reality and plan for a future that is doable. Sounds reasonable. So I need to identify what requirements that are compatible with “Goodness”. Unequivocally the best way to“advance to higher ground ” will be to slow the rain that falls on the ranch. This is unarguably goal number one. It has been Nature’s way of making soil since life waded ashore a few billion years ago. Slow works wonders and fast will be a train wreck that can range from regrettable to catastrophic. As I work to slow the velocity of rainfall when it arrives. Then it’s my job to keep all those rain drops on the V6 for as long as possible knowing that the drops that do escape to the Pacific Ocean I might see them again. Next I want to copy Nature’s ways of putting obstacles in the path of water so that it has to stop for awhile or pause and then to meander so it has time to enter our Earths soil carbon sponge. The result will be a planet with a green growing coat of “ goodness” and dirt will transform itself back into soil. This reestablishing of green growing trees grass and plants of every conceivable kind is our only hope for getting our global health back. If we do this then a chain of positive events commences. Normal rainfall patterns return instead of the kind we are starting to witness today of deluge or drought. The three types of nuclei needed to make a rain drop are ice crystals, salt crystals and the most important one is a bacteria made in the stomata of a leaf in all green things. It is expelled up in to the troposphere where our rain clouds dwell and becomes the nuclei for water vapor to attach to, to form a rain drop. This Aerobacter governs more than half of the planets rainfall dynamics. Temperatures are lowered. What with more green growing things on the planet more Carbon sequestered our outlook on life becomes brighter. There are many more benefits but you get the picture. We need to stop what we’re doing before we tip Nature’s balance beam into a very scary descent to uncharted territory. As I see it this is a team event. Theirs the guys and gals who have dirt under their fingernails and then there’s the cheering section that spurs them on. Let’s all work to minimize the amount of bare ground by planting cover crops. We must become a recycling society not a throw away society. Grazing livestock are a proven tool to keep our grass lands healthy when used wisely. Technological and chemical solution need to explore new directions that “do no harm.” I think recreation in forms that help sustain open space can be good for the land owner and the guest. Hey “we’re all in this together” so any other good ideas that come from the land of “Common Sense" are welcome. Caring for Goodness will take a lot of effort to stay the course. I’m sorry that it’s like watching “paint dry”, progress will be slow and it will require flexibility and creativity. But the alternatives for not making the effort, I think are all down hill “there’s nothing that’s going to be easy about this is there?”. But what if we can’t change our ways? Then maybe the way of the Lemming, that furry little mouse that lives in the Arctic. When their population becomes unsustainable they migrate to a cliff over looking the Arctic Ocean and then with a quizzical look of (we’ve made some bad choices haven’t we) painted on their faces. Then all proceed to dive in and swim frantically, but in vain, to a promised land that’s just out of their reach. Will that be our destiny.? It need not be! Participate in your community to keep our institutions strong for the battles to come. Then practice the Golden Rule and believe that the times they will get better.

See Ya,

Jack