In the area of Texas where I live, great turbines harvest the incessant wind. Standing nearly 400 feet tall, with blades more than 150’ across, these giants whirl day and night. Within the nacelle, a truck sized hub of machinery where the blades attach, is the generator that converts the turning gears to electricity. Within miles of my Bright Star Farm are wind farms that produce more than 2000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power two million homes!
The growth of renewable energy in Texas continues. Last year about 35% of all electricity was produced by renewable energy sources. Nationwide about 25% of power came from renewable sources, a huge leap in just five years. This percentage will grow dramatically in the next five years from many projects under construction and coal plants being closed.[1]
The Bright Star Farm is a small piece of this green planet drive. The solar panels on my house produced enough power to run the house in 10 months of 2023. Every sunrise renews the power with no pollution at all!
The Biden Administration has promoted far-reaching projects for a green planet in the past several months. Billions of dollars will push innovative programs and technologies forward in the drive for ecological sustainability. In the past few months Biden’s green initiatives have permitted a huge offshore wind farm for Long Island, New York, contracted six billion dollars for 33 projects to lower carbon emissions in manufacturing, released standards for reducing auto emissions by building more electric or hybrid vehicles, and marked 14 billion dollars to support non-profit banks who will fund thousands of green projects in disadvantaged communities. These and other initiatives make the Biden Administration the world leader in building a green future.
Theology brings a powerful imperative for living a green lifestyle. Indigenous beliefs are centered on the connection with the land as a sacred interaction. Christian theology brings a powerful imperative for living a green lifestyle. Christian theologian and historian Diana Butler Bass writes, “If we understand we are dirt, that God is the ground of all that is… we might think twice about how we treat soil. If water is the river of physical and spiritual life, we will care about watersheds… God id not leave humankind in a garden and say, ‘Don’t touch it.’ Instead, God asked us to watch over and care for the garden, to ‘till and keep’ the soil.”[2]
I hope you will find a green project for your efforts in 2024!
[1] Solar and wind to lead growth of U.S. power generation for the next two years. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61242
[2] Diana Butler Bass, Grounded: Finding God in the World. HarperOne Books, 2015.
(Photo by Ed White on pixabay.com)