43a Promote a future-oriented perspective and culture based on durability, permanence, and sustainability. 43b Revitalize community economies by working with key population groups such as women, rural workers, potential migrants to urban area whose actions can have specific, beneficial impacts on the local economy and environment. 101 Motivate and support voluntary migration, including reverse migration from urban areas, to decrease ecological pressures in crisis areas. It was recommended that the above action items be undertaken by governments in cooperation with appropriate international and non-governmental organizations. Consequently, a major needed initiative is for capacity building in developing countries in a manner which strengthens the roles of local groups and helps ensure the full participation of all who are affected. All of the initiatives and recommendations have an unspoken need for high quality, clean and dependable sources of baseload energy. (“Baseload energy” is the bulk of our energy needs, to be differentiated from “peak load” which is the peak of the need at a given time.) Energy and capital (financial, technology, resources including intangibles such as frequency and orbital slot allocations and human labor and intellect) are key components of any program of economic development and environmental protection or enhancement. Using the concept of market based multi-national networked enterprises as a basis for ensuring full participation in the quest to bring energy from space to earth provides part of the solution of how to implement many of the points listed above. Energy, the Environment, and Civilization It is well known that energy is a basic commodity for life and a vital requirement for development. Sources of energy have defined both the level of civilization and the impact that civilization has had on its surrounding environment. The industrialized nations have moved from wood and coal to oil and gas. Electricity has replaced the direct burning of fuels and has become a measure of development. However, in the arid Sahel of Africa, fuelwood gathering has become a full time job requiring in some places 360 person days of work per household per year. When demand is concentrated in cities, surrounding areas have already become barren for considerable distances. This same scenario was played out several hundred years ago in Europe before coal displaced wood. Perhaps one of the greatest environmental benefits would be the availability of a high quality substitute for fuelwood. Rural electrification could prove to be both the substitute and the enabler of economic development (Figure 1) by freeing time spent on the gathering of fuelwood for use in more productive endeavors. In India women often spend up to 7 hours a day on the round trip to and from fuel vendors. This is time that could be spent on more productive or beneficial tasks if electricity were available. How to pay for the electricity is part of the solution presented at the end. of this paper.
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