Green Leaf Report

I’ve seen several articles recently about solar panels made from plastics.  While I agree a lighter weight solar panel option can open greater possibilities for the technology, I’m uncomfortable with the idea of solar panels made through any association with the petroleum industry.  Doesn’t this seem like a contradiction of basic principals: reduce our dependency on fossil fuels by creating energy equipment from fossil fuels?  I suppose even the silicon commonly used in solar panels would eventually run out, but the day we run out of sand, we’ve been on this planet too long, anyway.If the plastics used in the solar panels were from bio-plastics or post-consumer waste plastics, however, these solar panels would be a much more palatable idea.  I’ve always liked the idea of mining landfills for raw materials.  If we started mining landfills for wood and paper pulp instead of cutting down more trees, mined for plastics for solar panels, mined for heavy metals for electronics uses, mined organic materials for garden compost. Well, maybe we would eventually empty the landfills!  What would we do with all of these big empty holes in the ground then?  Maybe we’d start building large underground, domed cities, like in an Isaac Asimov novel.  That’s still science fiction; but if we don’t stop climate change, it could be the next frontier.  I usually try to avoid veering off into science fiction on my blog posts. But I keep thinking we’re approaching the Asimov domed earth concept, where all of earth lives in large domed cities that are climate controlled to 70 degrees.  Certainly here in the south all buildings are air-conditioned, air-conditioned cars shuttle between buildings, enormous air-conditioned malls contain all of our heart’s desire for shopping, we have indoor water parks, indoor soccer stadiums. Are we really so far away from doming the whole darn city?