The Drunk Diplomat

Well the G-8 meeting in Italy is wrapping up today. These big powerhouse meetings never seem to produce anything substantive… only pledges for this, money for that, help for Africa, etc. Understandably, most of the leaders come from democracies so they cannot just promise to do anything because they have to deal with domestic public opinion and their legislative branch. However, some of the most important players are not democracies. Are these states counter productive to the grander goals of the original G-7 group of industrialized democracies? Now it’s like the G-20 – a smorgasbord of aging democracies, quasi-capitalist autocratic one party states, and random states from underrepresented regions to give the group a more “global feel.” For instance, does South Africa and Egypt really represent Africa? Will South Africa’s presence in any way improve the conditions for citizens of Mozambique, Ghana, or Congo? I highly doubt it, South Africa is at the G-20 because it is currently the largest economy in Africa, a former British colony, and a young democracy that will fight for issues that will improve it’s national interests – not Sub-Saharan African interests.

Furthermore, how can the United States and the other European democracies be champions of human rights if they are constantly brokering deals with China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. Constantly, like China already is, promoting economic growth over environmental sustainability, human rights, and freedom of speech. Three traditional pillars of the Democratic West’s critique of the various autocratic governments found in the East; including Russia, China, most of the Middle East, parts of Southeast Asia, etc. This “G-8″ (really a G-40) meeting was a prime example. Hu Jin Tao had to leave early to oversee the crackdown on Uighur Muslims in Xinjang province. The Uighur are denied religious freedom, freedom of speech, and I’m sure they are now being tortured and held against their will by the Chinese state for expressing they inalienable right of freedom of assembly.

There was not a peep to be heard from the supposed Free, Democratic, Liberal West. “We don’t want to embarrass China or critique China during a recession!” It may hurt our precious economy! Well I say that’s Bull Shit. Everyone knows exactly whats going on in Xinjang, government repression – old school style – cops in the streets bashing heads, the erroneous taking of prisoners, torturing the leaders, repression, violence, and media silence.

The G-20 has its place, but the G-7 (minus Russia) should not be dissolved. Even as the West is supposedly in decline (not really decline, bu the rise of the rest) it cannot stop putting pressure on other governments or lower its standards for fleeting economic gain. The Chinese go to Africa with no demands for human rights reforms or environmental reforms. 10 years later the Chinese have destroyed the local environment and impoverished the people by welcoming corruption. The US goes to Africa demanding human rights reforms and environmental protections – 20 years later the country is a functioning democracy ready to work on its own.

An important article this Sunday caught my eye in the NY Times. Europe is beginning to grapple with the carbon limits it imposed upon itself by building a massive solar power plant in Morocco. The plant will transmit clean, renewable, solar energy through an advanced electric grid to Europe. It will be the largest solar plant of its kind in a region that receives vast amounts of sun light. Building a solar plant of this scale would not be practical in Europe because the strength of sunlight hitting Europe is weaker, therefore, the solar plant would be less efficient than one located in the Moroccan desert. Furthermore, land is cheaper and the population is vastly less dense in Morocco. There is a bevy of international organizations working together including: TREC, the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation; Eumena, or European Union, the Mediterranean and North Africa; the Union of the Mediterranean; and the Club of Rome.

This experiment will hopefully become a model for international cooperation on the use of solar power in the most efficient areas (areas that receive the most sunlight) and then transmitted to the more densely populated areas. By 2050 Europe can be completely powered by solar energy from North Africa and the Middle East. However, the catch to this would be an almost complete dependence on North Africa for energy. Replacing one source of power: oil and gas – supplied from the Middle East and Russia with another source: Solar energy supplied from North Africa. Actually increasing Europe’s reliance on Islamic and autocratic governments for its energy, rather than decreasing it. However, there are two relatively radical ideas that I would suggest to solve this problem.

1) The Possible Addition of North African Countries to the EU.
2) A Euro-North African-West Asian Power grid
3) In addition to large thermal energy power plants, millions of small photovoltaic solar panels on houses, businesses, etc.

Obviously the first two ideas are extremely far fetched in 2009, the third idea is already happening to some extent in Germany, but not nearly fast enough or extensive enough across Europe. Europe and North Africa already have a framework of cooperation in the EuroMediterranean Partnership, but the partnership was created to promote peace, stability, and economic opportunity – not the development of a common energy relationship. Don’t get me wrong – there are ways to create a power system that could exist outside of the EU, but to calm European fears about North Africa hypothetically producing the vast majority of its energy a very close partnership would have to exist, and I believe that “EU” membership would enhance not only energy cooperation between Europe and N. Africa, but social development, economic development, and create perpetual peace in the Mediterranean region. EU membership would also allay fears in North Africa that the Europeans are colonizing vast tracks of their land again for solar power plants, considering the vast majority of investment would be European. Geographically this relationship just makes sense. Europe has vast population centers demanding energy, N. Africa has vast deserts teeming with the possibility of unlimited solar energy. The only foreseeable impediment’s are transmission, cultural fears, and initial investment costs. These are large, possibly politically impossible impediments, but I’m an optimist.

What I would love to see is the United States lead the way by creating numerous thermal solar plants in the Southwest U.S. and Northwest Mexico. Similar problems exist for the U.S.; transmission, and initial investment are the biggest, but I would like to see a power sharing grid that spans the North American continent to reduce redundancy.

Nuclear energy, wind energy, and geothermal energy (and frankly coal and natural gas plants if they’re clean) could be used to supplement the mainly solar power charged grid to compensate for night, and clouds, as well as, smaller solar photovoltaic panels on cars, buildings, etc. around the country. A grid like this would almost completely reduce European and North American reliance on fossil fuels and the unstable regimes that peddle them like drugs. A massive alternative energy power grid would put the liberal democratic states on much more solid footing at home and abroad.

Source:
Europe Looks to Africa for Solar Power
TOM ZELLER Jr.
NY Times June 21, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/business/energy-environment/22iht-green22.html?ref=world