preamble

The disintegrating polar ice caps. The threat of rising oceans. The skyrocketing price of gas. The persistent war in Iraq. The effects of global warming we are already beginning to feel in our lifetimes. An impending energy crisis, a dependence on foreign sources of oil that fuels international terrorism. So many of our problems derive from our deep-rooted, but relatively recent addiction to fossil fuels. Beyond any doubt, the single most important decision we can make in the human community is to break this addition and convert to renewable energy.

Thomas Hartmann, in his book The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, writes about the energy that was emitted by the sun and absorbed into the biosphere of the planet millions of years ago. Eventually it subducted biomass into reservoirs under the surface, and where pressure and time charged an ancient battery of stored energy in the form of oil, coal, and natural gas - Ancient Sun. Since we have discovered how to access and utilize this battery, our civilization has made enormous leaps in quality of life, technology, and population. It fueled the Industrial Revolution, made it possible to travel from New York to San Francisco in a matter of hours, refrigerate a beer, and flip a switch to turn on a light. I am not a Luddite - I don't believe technology and energy consumption on their own is not a bad thing - living systems consume a such a massive amount of energy! - but the manner in which our civilization currently obtains it is. We have treated that battery as infinite, inexhaustible, and consequence-free, and now we are learning otherwise. Should we cling too tightly to that which is doomed, we shall follow.

I do not plan to focus on the root of the problem, but on realizing possible solutions.

Aside from human civilization, the rest of the Earth's diverse and massive biosphere thrives on Current Sunlight. Plants absorb the sun's rays and turn it into stored chemical energy, and this energy trickles down to all of the other creatures. It unevenly heats the atmosphere, and that causes the disturbances we know as wind. It evaporates water, which precipitates at high elevations, causing rivers. There is more than enough energy on the verdant earth to go around.

We take inspiration from nature in many of our inventions - and why not? Nature is the ultimate engineer. It develops solutions to problems in ways we are still struggling to comprehend. From the birds we have taken the wing and created airplanes. From the vines and flowers of the rainforest and the sponges in coral reefs we extract and refine exotic medicines to combat cancer, infection, and genetic disease. And operating throughout all of this, because all living processes require energy, is an elegant and efficient solution for the collection and transfer of energy from the sun to all living creatures. Seeing as we are part of this, why don't we mimic nature and drink the sun?

The tools for this mimicry already exist. Consider this: the earth receives enough light energy in one hour to power all creations of Man for a year. That means that to power all mankind for a year, we have to capture only one-tenth of one percent (0.1%, or 0.001, of the total) of all incoming sunlight. This energy can be captured directly in electrical or thermal aspects with solar panels, and indirectly from the kinetic energy of wind and the potential energy of plants. Major advances in battery technology leads to safe and environmentally friendly storage solutions, which increases the availability and reliability of renewable systems.

Despite these advantages and more, the obstacle of transitioning from ancient to current sunlight often appears too large to tackle on an individual basis. However, it is through the efforts of the individual that the greatest rewards will be reaped and the need to educate and inspire is high. A rooftop solar array or kilowatt windmill system could provide most or all of the electricity needs of that household. Nearly a third of energy consumption in the United States is from the personal vehicles and the household, and each house removed from the grid and car that remains parked in the driveway drastically reduces the carbon footprint of the individual and brings us more in line with the desired natural mimicry.

Of the total energy used in transportation, sixty-three percent goes towards personal vehicles. Ninety percent of car trips occur within a distance of twenty miles from home. This is well within biking distance, so instead of driving two miles to the store, why not bike? For shopping, taking the kids to school, or going to a friends house, a cargo bike instead of car is a feasible and healthy alternative to driving. Human power is current sunlight. We need to realize our own power.

That's what this is about. Energy independence and responsible living. Personal power fueling an environmental revolution. To inspire and empower the individual overcoming the significant barrier to making change. With this as its goal, I proudly present to you FULL CHARGE! - a catalytic bicycle tour dedicated to promoting alternative energy and transportation, to informing and inspiring the public to make the personal transition to more sustainable living, and to recharging the global battery with Current Sun.