HOPE – An Update:

 By Sasha Abelson, Consultant

Last year I wrote about the tragic execution of a family of mountain gorillas in the Virunga national park in Africa.  This horrific act occurred due to a battle over fuel.  I chose to write a blog about this because I was struck by the profound sadness of these killings and because I realized that this was also a story which violently illustrated an energy crisis in the Congo and beyond. 

I have been following the plight of these gorillas on http://gorilla.cd/blog/.  Over the past year the brave forest rangers of Virunga were forced to flee the park due to an escalation in fighting.  They recently returned to the park and were filled with joy to discover in their absence, the gorilla population had grown by 13% with the birth of 10 gorilla babies. 

In addition, the rangers have been working to set up fuel briquette stations which will provide the villagers with an alternative source of energy.  Fuel briquettes can be created with biomass and other agricultural waste.  The rangers are hopeful that once the villagers have the ability to create their own fuel, they will no longer resort to burning old growth forests and gorilla habitat. 

The story of the Virunga gorillas demonstrates a cycle that has been echoed throughout the rest of the world.  Since the industrial revolution we have pillaged the earth in order to ‘fuel' our growing economy.  We have drilled miles into the earth for oil, mined the tops off of mountains for coal and chopped down ancient forests to satiate our growing energy demands.  A century later, the dramatic rise in CO2 emissions have led scientists to conclude that oil and coal are two of the dirtiest fuels and are largely responsible for climate change. 

In February, 2009, President Obama pledged to make renewable, green energy alternatives a major priority for his administration.  He pledged to reduce our CO2 emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.  These are not just numbers and words - they represent a new way of thinking.  We must find clean, renewable sources of energy, using wind, sun, hydrogen, and biomass to grow our economy, while at the same time conserving and respecting the one earth that we have.