In the past few years scientists and companies alike have been investing millions of dollars into research for new ideas for “green power”, or environmentally friendly means of supplying power to the public. A few of these ideas include harvesting power from oceanic waves, large-scale wind power, solar panels disguised as trees, and even beaming down solar power from space. Each of these ideas I have mentioned have their own dangers to the environment, and therefore shouldn’t be called “Green”.

Lets start with the oceanic waves. The idea for this was to make floating “islands” with turbines underneath that would turn when waves flow through the area, producing power. First off, the “islands” would be an intrusion on the habitats for sea life, taking up space where their homes had once resided. Secondly, what if a confused seal decided to wander too close to the turbine? It would act as a gigantic blender would, but we need not get into the details of that scenario.

Now for good, clean, large-scale wind power. We are already using wind power this day, but the idea is to expand greatly on it. Wind turbines need plenty of space between each one, and that takes up land. Imagine if there were a thousand of these? Many square miles of land would need to be deforested and terraformed for the placement of the structures, and once again the well-being of wildlife is at stake.

Solar trees? Scientists want to make tiny solar panels shaped and colored as tree leaves and attach them to artificial trees. Once the trees have been manufactured, we “plant” them in cities where our real trees now sit in the sidewalks. The problems I see forecoming with this idea involve the expensive little solar “leaves” coming off or being picked off by children, curious adults, etc. The chemicals used to make a solar panel are not exactly friendly to our systems, being Cadmium, a toxic substance used in rechargeable batteries, is included in the ingredients. What would happen if a child put one in their mouth? Repair costs for both the child and the “tree” would be incurred.

Lastly, the idea behind space-power is to put a sattelite loaded up with attached solar panels into orbit, collecting power from the sun on an impressive scale. The collected  power would then be “beamed” down to a relay station to be collected and distibuted to where it is needed. The method of “beaming” the power would either be microwaves or a laser, which would have to be aimed at the relay station. Now you could only imagine the scale of problems associated with this idea. Either the relay station or another location would have control of the aiming of the device to ensure it is hitting its target at the relay station. Now what if a terrorist faction gained control of the device? Or what if the government decided they had other ideas for the station? The beam could be aimed at any location on earth from its position. A very unsettling thought indeed.

Each of the ideas I covered are still just ideas, and thankfully not in any stage of development. Maybe these problems have been dicovered already, but much thought needs to be put into these subjects.