Avoiding a Face-off Between Gore and Bono

By Luke Maguire Armstrong
Contributing Writer

I don’t think we can claim that the world is racing towards sustainable energy solutions. But it does seem that a lot of people are at least turned in the right direction on the track. An example would be Obama’s $787 billion stimulus, marketed mostly as a job bill; it is really a green energy reformer’s wildest dream. It’s potentially a global game changer designed to paint the country and then the world green.

$90 billion of the stimulus is slated for clean energy. This includes smarter grids, electric cars, renewable power from the sun, wind and earth, clean coal, biofuel research and development and a 3,200% increase in battery charging stations—making widespread use of electric cars realistic. In only two years, the bill will cause wind, solar and geothermal energy output to double. How do you like those green apples?

I’m certainly not the only one excited about the potential of all this. But there’s a problem that could cause us to fall further backwards despite all this looming progress. The problem comes when Gore-esque energy reform collides with Bono-esque goals to eliminate poverty. About 1.7 billion people live in poverty worldwide.

I work for the NGO Nuestros Ahijados, which has the stated goal of working to “break the bitter chains of poverty through education and formation.” In my experience, people who are gung-ho for green reform are also all about eliminating poverty. That the poor should have access to education, clean water, access to electricity, etc., has nearly no opponents.

But, and this is a big but, if human rights activists achieve their wildest dreams of eliminating global poverty, the world’s depleting resources and their systems of distribution will suddenly have about two billion more people consuming them at unsustainable rates. Not to mention the level of pollution we’d be hurling into our skies if that were to happen.

Seemingly, human rights and green activities are mutually exclusive positions. However, there is a strategic position that allows for both. The two are incompatible only if the poor progress and make the same mistakes that the developed world is currently learning from. And there is no reason that it needs to be that way.

In fact, social development programs have an amazing opportunity to bypass the mistakes of the developed world and build from humanity’s rawest resource—humanity itself— to implement programs of social change that will ripple into a sustainable future.

How this can be achieved was answered for me a few weeks ago, when Mick Quinn, author of The Uncommon Path, introduced me to a company called Quetsol. Quetsol makes solar units that cost only $220. Each unit has a five-year guarantee and after two hours of charging gives fives hours of light via two bright LED powered bulbs, power to a universal cell phone charger, and a small radio.

Of the 12,000 families that Nuestros Ahijados works with, most spend about $20 a month for electricity that powers usually a single bulb. Those who don’t have electricity spend around $0.80 in candles every day. When they can’t afford candles, their nights are spent in darkness, which prevents children from doing their homework. $0.80 a day represents almost $290 annually. $15 a month represents $240 annually. With the Quetsol solar unit, power will not only become free, but a family can power a lot more than a single bulb or candle.

The effect of implanting this solar unit in families trying to break the cycle of poverty is enormous. In less than a year they can have their solar units paid off. This will give them more financial resources—the goal of development activists. They also will no longer be connected to the power grid—the goal of green activists.

Sitting in my office are four solar units that will soon be given to families on a micro-finance basis. Whatever they are currently paying monthly for electricity or candles will go to pay off their solar unit. After they have repaid, the money will be used to buy a unit for another family and the process of change will continue. 

Patrick Atkinson, founder and executive director of the international GOD’S CHILD Project (Nuestros Ahijados), sees the solar project as a game changer. “Families are going to be freed from the smothering weight of trying to provide light and safety for their children. The world is going to move towards sustainable energy. It’s win, win, win, for everyone… except, perhaps, for the oil and coal companies.”

Atkinson has often been quoted in saying that “there is a vast difference between having a charitable heart and running a good charity.” If social development organizations don’t have the vision to see the complete set of consequences, positive or negative, of their work, they run the risk of treating only symptoms.

Our world needs sustainable energy solutions. It also needs social justice for the marginalized poor. But it needs to find social justice without contributing to other problems. This is certainly possible with the right mindset. With the wrong mindset you can solve one problem and in so doing, create new ones.

For more information on Quetsol visit their website at Quetsol.com. For more information and updates on The GOD’S CHILD Project’s implantation of a sustainable micro-financed solar project, visit http://www.GodsChild.org or email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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Author Bio: After hitch-hiking around Latin America, Luke Maguire Armstrong landed in Antigua, Guatemala where he directs the educational development organization Nuestros Ahijados. He is the author of “iPoems for the Dolphins to Click Home About” and a contributing editor for the online travel magazine TheExpeditioner.com. His just-finished novel, “How One Guitar Will Save the World” is currently looking for a home.