State of Georgia Relies on Solar and Inspires Next Generation

TED Talk to Follow

Yes, sir. Or should I say SIRS--the Solar Ice Removal System, which is having its "moment in the sun" where I live on our shared FoodShed Planet. The State of Georgia fully recognizes the power of the sun this week, and is, in fact, using the sun as the predominate method to clear our roads.

Here are photos (above and to the left) taken yesterday afternoon (more than 50 hours after the first flakes fell) in front of an elementary school and high school (where I walked to pick up my car, which I had abandoned and which I couldn't bring back into my neighborhood until then due to ice). I watched several cars get stuck trying to go up the hill. I saw a woman fall while walking a dog on the sidewalk. But hope sprung eternal that “warming temperatures throughout the day will clear the streets,” or so we’d been told.

Nope, the SIRS didn't melt the ice fast enough by the end of the day. And yep, 100,000 kids in my county and thousands of others in other counties are home yet again today because the roads are still icy and dangerous. Let's hope one of those children is spending this time thinking and tinkering, and may even one day be the person who proposes a solution that keeps a metropolitan area from closing down due to two inches of snow, a sheet of ice, and a transportation system that can’t take the heat (so to speak). Maybe one day this person will stand up at a TED event and say:

"I was 15 years old when I was stuck in my car with my baby sister and mother for 18 hours before we ran out of gas and food and warmth. Then I helped get an elderly man out of a ditch. And then I was home from school for three days, during which I got to thinking that there has to be a better way. And so I created this."

I am reminded of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (one of my favorite books ever). Here is the six-minute TED talk given by the boy (William Kamkwamba).

Ya' never know. Good comes. Good always comes.

Or at least there’s this.