The global ecological crisis demands radical changes in the way in which we use energy. Traditional renewable approaches such as solar, wind and biomass are attractive but can be capital and materials intensive, diffuse and intermittent. My own research and travel reveals an increasingly large number of experiments suggesting that we might be able to obtain clean and abundant energy from the vacuum or from low energy nuclear reactions (cold fusion).
But these results fly in the face of conventional physics. "The resistance to a new idea", Bertrand Russell said, "increases as the square of its importance." Through the ages, perhaps no idea is more important or more maligned than that of perpetual motion or free energy. Inventors rarely lead easy lives, but those dedicated to the quest for free energy have met with especially great resistance. We look at the sagas of Nikola Tesia, T. Henry Moray, Bruce de Palma and Stefan Marinov as examples spanning this past century.
This quest began far earlier, as revealed in this fascinating biography by John Collins. The time is the second decade of the eighteenth century and the place is Germany. Here Johannes Bessler, alias Orffyreus, built and demonstrated large wheels which he claimed could turn indefinitely. In one dramatic demonstration, a Bessler wheel was documented to have run continuously for four weeks.
Collins correctly points out that the concept of perpetual motion has its semantic difficulties that can cause a premature dismissal from some critics. The relevant question to ask is, can we obtain energy from a mechanical free running device by the ingenious placement of weights with respect to the centre of gravity of the wheel to make it turn continuously? Collins believes this was Bessler's secret, analogous to a windmill turning continuously in a constant wind. Regrettably he offers no definitive or quantitative analysis of how that mechanism might have worked successfully.
Most modern free energy research goes well beyond the mechanical paradigm of Bessler's time. Some are electromagnetic devices following Michael Faraday's discovery in the 1830s that magnets placed on a wheel, when spun up to a threshold speed, can produce anomalous electricity that might lead to a continuous energy source, like a paddle wheel in running water.
During
the 1990s, I visited the laboratories of over a dozen
inventors worldwide of electromagnetic devices that appeared
to produce more energy than went into them, as measured
by traditional means. What we are seeing is energy coming
from the vacuum of space, sometimes called zero-point
energy, because it still exists at temperatures of absolute
zero. Ive seen many of these proof-of-concept demonstrations
for myself. I wrote up the results of this journey in
my 1996 book Miracle
in the Void. Since then, many more books, scientific
papers, articles, organizations and websites describe
the prospects of new energy technologies that could reverse
a permanent state of war and the gloomy spectre of irreversible
climate change, the drastic pollution
of our air, water and land, and the seizure of dwindling
nonrenewable resources such as oil, coal, natural gas,
uranium, forests, water, food, soil, minerals, wetlands,
coral reefs, pristine diverse natural habitats and indigenous
cultures.
Many of us with a scientific background have also investigated revolutionary concepts such as cold fusion with palladium cathodes (nonradioactive, room temperature nuclear reactions), sonoluminescence (acoustic cavitation, a cold fusion method), and special hydrogen and water chemistries, all of which are almost certainly producing significant clean excess thermal energy in the presence of catalysts. We have come to the conclusion, based on sound experimental science, that we could soon have a breakthrough energy economy, if we only allow these courageous researchers to move the technologies beyond their own laboratories. Unfortunately, that has not happened yet. The global controllers suppression of making available any practical device has been 100% airtight, in spite of numerous attempts to break through. Covert assassinations, threats, thefts, draconian laws prohibiting the patenting of such devices and lack of funding have all thwarted development.
This
war perpetrated by elite corporations and the U.S. and
other rich oligarchies against humanity and nature has
only escalated over the past few years. The unfolding
of these crimes provides a stark contrast to how things
could be in a better world. We need nothing less than
profound systemic change in our political, economic and
social systems in order to have clean energy, and that
must happen sooner than is comfortable for most of us.
But our discomfort and disease coming from an imperiled
biosphere would be far worse. We need a revolution, a
peaceful transformation. Its centerpiece should be a clean
energy solution revolution that could restore sustainability
and sensibility to the world.
The Energy
Solution Revolution is an urgent call for an energy
revolution that would give us a quantum leap in environmental
friendliness. Some parts are an updated compilation of
essays written over the past several years that explore
the prospects and implications of a future world of radically
clean, cheap and decentralized energy. Does this possibility
really exist or is it a scientific mirage? If it does
exist, why has it been so suppressed for over a century
since Nikola Tesla and others were inventing these things?
Why do mainstream scientists, progressives and environmentalists
totally ignore this possibility, even though it might
save us all? What can we do to avoid the abuse or overuse
of these technologies? Most importantly, how can we implement
free energy when so very few of us are listening? We explore
these questions in this book. It is a wake-up-call to
transform planetary culture from one dominated by capitalistic
self-interest, pointless wars, ecocide and dirty energy,
into one where the bulk of humanity can at last come together
with compassion for all creation--before it's too late.
Problems and solutions to our energy problems are not
technical. They are human. The evidence for new, breakthrough,
over-unity energy is overwhelming, but we
must realize that we are in the research phase of a research
and development cycle, that we are on the toe of the profit
curve that almost no venture capitalist yet wants to touch,
and that so far, the inventors have been divided and conquered
by the unmitigated greed of the existing energy lobby.
History teaches us that new energy research is both elusive
and heretical, yet intriguing enough to be taken seriously.
Our challenges are therefore social, economic and political.
We will see that, like thrashing dragons wanting to get
one more drop of blood, we crave hydrocarbon and nuclear
fuel in deference to those who wish to profit from our
continuing use of dirty energy and who are doing everything
they can to stop solution energy from seeing the light
of day. We shall see that the pervasive use of carbon
trading, biofuels, alternative hydrocarbons such as the
tar sands of Alberta and oil shale of Utah, carbon sequestration
at coal mines, the hydrogen economy, nuclear power, hybrid
cars, air carseven solar and wind--can only distract
us from what we really need to do in the long run. We
shall see that these solutions are just smoke
and mirrors in the well-publicized energy sideshow. As
journalist George Monbiot put it, the first way to keep
from environmental and climate disaster would be to keep
carbon (and uranium) in the ground. But then what?
Policymakers and an ignorant public are thwarting authentically clean energy at every turn, either by commission or by omission. As a sociological problem, the need for truly clean energy is perhaps the most urgent one our culture has ever faced. The Energy Solution Revolution looks into these dynamics of overcoming our denials and vested interests as we progress through this book. Given that both policymakers and the public commons have difficulty supporting solar and wind power, multiply that suppressive force by millions when it comes to the viability of new energy technologies to save the planet from almost sure disaster.
Almost
every expert who presents the renewable
alternatives limits his/her discussion to the known sources
such as solar and wind, which are not really all that
renewable. The public is deceived into thinking those
are all there are or ever will be. The free energy possibilities
are simply discarded at our risk and peril.
My journalist-colleague Keith Lampe has well expressed
a scenario for our future energy choices. He suggests
that existing renewable technologies such
as solar and wind be implemented as first-generation energy,
while we develop forthwith second-generation energy such
as zero-point, cold fusion and advanced hydrogen technologies.
Both options, he feels, need equal time, whether its
in Congressional hearings or in public discourse. Looked
at in this light, we can evolve an energy policy that
makes sense, and could give us a much better chance to
reverse climate change before its too late.
I agree with Lampes assessment, which was also the
principal conclusion of my own studies, as expressed in
my previous book Re-Inheriting the Earth (2003). It seems
that, even for those skeptical about whether or not these
advanced energy technologies are real, is it not wise
to adopt the precautionary principle that we leave no
stone unturned to uncover those energy sources which could
really solve our paralysis of paradigm and save humanity
and nature from almost certain destruction? We cannot
afford to do less.
But
we must also ensure that the technologies are regulated
by responsible government and are never put to weapons
use or overuse. Thats why social change must go
along with introducing any radical new technology such
as this one.
Each revolutionary new energy technology discussed in
the book represents a potential quantum leap in our ability
to have clean and cheap energy. In every case, using these
sources can give all of humanity an authentically lasting
new paradigm in our energy policies and practices, at
first involving disruptive and seemingly magical concepts.
They give us an opportunity to transcend humanitys
rampage on nature and give us a reasonable chance to have
a truly peaceful, just and sustainable future on Earthif
we can take action soon and wisely.
We
can research and vet all the energy options we want and
we can even try to do this job honestly, but none of this
will matter unless we can effect political action at many
levels. Were going to need to know the truth and
find ways of acting on it constructively. We must search
for a public context to introduce solution energy for
all.
In my opinion, the prospects of free energy depend entirely
on the success of an altruistic democracy that is longing
to be born.
Interview
with Brian O'Leary
Energy Solution Revolution - Part 1
Interview with Brian O'Leary
Energy Solution Revolution - Part
2
Dr. Brian O'Leary is an author, pioneering physicist and former NASA astronaut. He has published ten international books on the frontiers of science, space, energy and culture. With his artist-wife Meredith, they founded Montesueños, a retreat center and botanical garden in the Ecuadorian Andes dedicated to finding deep peaceful and sustainable solutions to humankind's war on nature and to implement these at local, regional and global levels of action. Please visit Dr. O'Leary's websites at www.montesuenos.org and www.brianoleary.info for more details.