Solar Radiation - Exploitable
Point Venus, Tahiti
Topics of the day: beach, eco-dictatorship, suntan-lotion and coral reefs, Thede, public participation solar farm (Bürgersolarpark)
We spent pretty much all day on the beach with Thede, Tino, Tia and her son Maurice. We played boule/pétanque, Raphael took part in a volleyball-match and a pirogue-race (there was a day of free sports for youth to try out – linked to a campaign against drugs – sponsored by the bank of Polynesia and some other businesses in need of a better image) and I snorkeled a bit (just remembered that some ingredients which are in most suntan-lotions kill coral reefs and had a bad conscience when I saw the oil-film in the water around me… but I guess climate change will do the job (coral killing) more efficiently, so I probably shouldn’t worry about those few chemicals – I shouldn’t be so cynical: I am just a little depressed from reading Dirk’s eco-dictatorship – which is no reason not to read it (I can honestly recommend it!) – I am sure that I’ll be more optimistic when I’m done). Tia helped me correct the article about a public participation solar farm (in some (quite a few) regions (in the world) renewable energy projects are started on a grass roots/communal level – the population is encouraged to participate – invest and help to run the projects in order to be self sufficient and “invulnerable” (when the energy market prices rise again) in a small community in northern Germany which I had translated last night (conversations are fine now but my written French is still relatively poor). Thede hopes to start something similar here in French Polynesia – power to the people – that keeps me motivated. Now I can imagine a brighter future again.
We hitchhiked home, cooked dinner (uru-chips – quite tasty) and watched “Die Wolke” (the cloud), a film about a german nuclear power plant blowing up and its aftermath – what a nice end of the day…
Final thought of the day: Thede mentioned Tino and him had/would organize(d) a meeting with Henderson (the environment minister whom we already met) and Temaru (the president of French Polynesia) next week and that we could tag along!