Born a sensitive soul, my mission on planet earth became to save it. My vision has always been peace, captivated early-on by Christmas stories of angels bidding “Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All Men”, bringing tidings of glad joy.

It became clear to me from the age of 23 that this vision and mission was not achievable by religions, nations or corporations as their efforts always seemed to end in tears, having led to either war, destruction of the environment, people getting killed or dying in some way. It also seemed to me that using harmful chemicals in foods or nuclear energy to generate power or making and using nuclear weapons did not seem like a sensible or logical solution.

When I was in the Himalayas in 1983 the Indian village I was living in at the time ran out of kerosene - which we and the lower villagers all used for cooking. I ventured up the mountains to the forests to gather wood and our little traveller community cooked food together on an open fire. I came across this small but hardy older woman on side of the mountain with a huge bundle of wood upon her back. I came to realise that whilst this was a just a week-long daily task for me, for her this was key to her hill family’s survival on a daily basis. I further realised some years later that back home in the Northern Hemisphere we all went out to work to earn money so we could buy energy. To heat our homes, hot water, to buy power for cooling and storing food, powering lighting, run our businesses, transport ourselves around.

What if energy was free?

The lady on the mountain would have time to follow pursuits she might enjoy beyond pure survival. For us here in the West, rather than working to earn money to survive, the pay the mortgage, the rent, heat or cool and power our homes, we could do all that for free. And it goes down the line. Food would cost zero to farm and distribute. Health and educational services would cost nothing. The servers would be powered for free. Can you imagine what such a society could achieve?

We could stay at home and create the most wonderful things. We could travel the world at no cost and witness great curiosities. Poverty would be eradicated. War for resources would be unnecessary. We could have free access to space and reach for the stars. The greatest challenge would be mental health and therapy!!!

The key to this wonderful utopian world is renewable energy and when renewables make renewables, the ‘solar switch’ will occur and the cost of energy will tend towards zero over time. This ‘utopia’ is a pragmatic, logical end-game. It won’t be an immediate thing, but it is an achievable thing.  And its achievable if all nations, all peoples, all finance houses and all corporations work together and collaborate to achieve the goal of a renewable powered global economy and society, free of war and poverty.

Business is key to making this happen and creating sustainability businesses from energy to food and to clothing - all the critical life and survival shrouds humans need – is massively important. Business delivers the products and services to people to satisfy their needs, not government.

As the result of the recent fantastic technological growth we have achieved through the use of oil, gas, coal and nuclear energies we have created and largely ignored the by-products we have dumped in the seas, the air our rivers and our bodies. This pollution has permeated earth’s animals, organisms and plants in an insidious way and humanity faces a huge clean-up job - countering the greatest global health and safety threat mankind has ever faced.

Renewable energy will be critical in helping us achieve this further goal to overcome these legacy issues. We will need to generate far more energy than the earth’s humans currently need for day-to-day operations. As a world we need to become ‘energy positive’ and the eventual result will be a world that is highly advanced in its nature, not just from a technological perspective, but also from a societal perspective as new unthought-of ways of operating human society come into play.

I admit I have become wholly selfish and obsessional! I want to live in a better world. In year 2000 my partner and I coined a phrase, “Enlightened Self Interest”. This basically means we want to live in a world absent of war, absent of delusion and a planet where the air and the water is clean and humanity is climbing to a place of personal and planetary actualisation. This very selfish aim means I will do anything it takes to live in such a world and it fulfils my mission to save the planet and for my vision of peace on earth and goodwill to all. Join me in my quest please. Be selfish and become part of the thought-leading movement for global change that is the Renew Earth Organisation!