The 20th century saw an amazing rise in technology and innovation. It had both the first airplane and the first moon landing. We went from short, silent movie sequences to 24-hour streaming information. The list goes on, and those innovations were powered by fossil fuels, which led to the trajectory of climate change we are dealing with now. How different would our world be if we had solar power during all that time?
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You might be surprised to learn that a Canadian inventor named George Cove started a business to install household solar panels in 1905. Really. His company garnered a lot of publicity about the possibilities of solar power. Then in 1909, Cove was kidnapped. The details of the incident are sketchy, but the kidnappers told Cove the price of his freedom would be for him to give up on solar power. Cove refused, and was freed anyway, but he lost all interest in promoting his business and it faded away. It would be another 40 years before anyone seriously began research into solar energy again, and even longer before it was available again to the public. What would our world be like if that kidnapping hadn’t happened? Read about George Cove and the history of solar power at the Conversation. -via Kottke
(Image credit: Popular Electricity magazine April 1910)
Source: neatorama