DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON FOOD AND POLLUTION.
I couldn’t sleep last night because I felt the urge to reflect on things I’ve been seriously pondering for a long time. I don’t know about for you all, but for me there is so much information and perspective I would like to share, but sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of time I’d need to spend structuring my thoughts so that they all make sense.
Topics I’ve been diligently studying for years are: sustainability, wellness, health, longevity, human potential, equality and how we make choices as a collective.
Last year, after attending a press launch at the #SocialGoodSummit I realized that trying to get people to change their habits without changing anything in the rest of their ‘eco-system’ shows deep ignorance of human psychology.
And now we have COVID-19.
The impact of COVID-19 on the global eco-system has been mostly unease and confusion.
However, now more than ever we are discovering more ways in which we can create new life for us all and the next generation.
I know there are still many battles to be won; unless we carry out a plan of global food, farming, land-use, energy, equality etc., we will experience more emerging out-of-control planetary events.
The good news is the people and the technology are already here.
I had a very interesting conversation about the future of energy the other day.
As you probably know, back in the 1900s Henry Ford and Thomas Edison made a bet as to which form of energy could fuel the future.
Henry Ford bet on oil replacing coal; Thomas Edison bet on the electric cars. It was an eventful bet, and the result has had a profound effect on world history.
As you may remember, in the beginning it appeared that Edison would win the bet, since oil was extremely hard to get. But then the fast discovery of cheap oil deposits in the Middle East and abroad soon had Ford emerging victorious. But now the tide is slowly turning.
The question being asked now is: What will replace oil?
We are slowly seeing the clear answer.
The fact that we are now beginning to get power directly from the sun, with no need to pollute the world with by-products of our devices, is becoming reality all over the world. Maybe there is no immediate replacement for fossil fuels, but there will be (and we are seeing this now more than ever); there will be energy mix.
The most promising successor is solar/hydrogen power (based on renewable tech like solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power, and hydrogen).
Food and pollution maybe are not primary problems: maybe they are energy problems.
Given sufficient energy we can produce as much food as we like — if need be by high-intensity means such as greenhouses and hydroponic farming.
Early this year I visited a hydroponic rooftop farm in Brooklyn, New York. It was fascinating to watch how this model delivers nutrients to plants directly through the water without soil; no soil means no land use and no heavy, gas-guzzling equipment.
Pollution is similar; given enough energy, pollutants can be transformed into manageable products, or, if need be, disassembled in to their constituent products.
Distributed solar power for single property use considerably decreases dependency of centralized electricity production and eventually in the long term lowers the costs of electricity.
The first thing to know is that solar is becoming the cheapest form of energy in the world. In forty-two of the fifty largest cities in the United States, a fully financed solar PV system costs less than the energy purchased from a residential customer’s local utility.
We have the power, we have the knowledge, to live in harmony with nature.
Nothing motivates me better than a real need for a change on a planetary scale. So I’m going to raise some questions:
What seeds are you planting today?
In what unique way do you deliver transformation to the collective?
Do you unleash people’s dreams to create a happy, healthy and fulfilling life?
Does your brand, product or service empower people to make better decisions every day?
If not you, who? If not now, when?
Resources:
- Electricity map: https://www.electricitymap.org/?page=map
- Biogas: Converting Waste to Energy: https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-biogasconverting-waste-to-energy
- “Biomass accounts for 4.3% of electricity generation, but it also has other benefits | Biomass includes water company sludge and other organic waste (food, beer, glycerol) | Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plants turn the organic waste into methane => (1) electricity or (2) gas-to-grid + (3) the spin-off product is valuable fertilizer | An emerging market to keep an eye on with emerging technologies (AAD)”
Agnieszka Wielgosz serves as a vocal sustainability wellness advocate. She is the woman behind CEI Collective, serving the creative needs of wellness professionals, natural clean beauty & green living brands to grow and make a bigger impact.
Through documentaries, visual storytelling and media content creation she searches for those big ideas, and the individuals behind them, that create a lasting change — ideas that address a gap or an opportunity that changes the way things are done, the way society views sustainability and wellness.
You might be curious what the CEI acronym stands for; it stands for CONNECT EDUCATE INSPIRE. These are her three driving pillars to achieve societal wellbeing.
She connects and holds dialogue with some of the most amazing, inspiring wellness professionals through her brand new CEI Collective Podcast, conversations series transforming the way our society views sustainability and wellness by equipping them with education, tools and inspiration to lead their own change.
Beyond her work with clients, she is well-known as an ardent mixed media artist who cultivates a mindful living approach. Agnes is passionate about creating a ripple effect and is excited to bring her skills and enthusiasm to your world.
Connect with her on IG: @ceicollective FB: @ceicollective 📧agnes@ceicollective.com
