Most of us may never understand the importance of energy until we are without it, like in the recent Black-Out, or while camping or in an electrical storm. Civilizations before us did not have such wonderful light switches and instant power. Many still do not. We are quite privileged in that regard. Think of the daily things you do, that require energy and how important it is to your life.

The flow of energy has always been important to advanced civilization. The ancient Egyptians used people power. They used elephants to move things and even in battle. The water wheel was used as early as 4000 B.C. as power. Steam Engines are much newer. Animals, water and many other improvised methods allowed for the making of machines. Simplifying life, from farming to water pumps for mills, etc. By freeing up the time needed to sustain life, mankind is able to use that extra time to increase his flow of thought and thus coming up with other inventions and devises. Now, fast forward to modern times where we often take for granted our electricity, until of course; it is shut off by a black out. What we see as the ultimate hardship other third world countries do not have at all. And in places like Baghdad only for three hours a day and they are thankful for that.

We should not forget the gifts of Tesla and Entrepreneur Westinghouse for the Hydropower and for free enterprise, which funded the beginnings of what, we now take for granted every time we flick a switch. We all felt the affect of the recent Black out of the Northeast Regional Power Grid, now we realize that we need to upgrade the transmission lines through out all the grids. SCARDA the real time computer system saw the problem but nearly all the defensive options include mean shutting down parts of the gird, power to millions of people, which is a hard choice to make, although if not covered in a timely manner the cascading would occur. Here is a scary book to read on the subject;

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...5871440-6244020

We also saw the rolling blackouts in California and the vulnerability of getting the grids energy to the Los Angeles basin where Southern California inhabits over 16 million people. We should understand the flows of our civilization and that includes our energy needs. We should not take it for granted or waste it. It is not free and a little conservation from everyone can go along way to making sure it is there when we need it and need it we shall. Teach your kids to respect energy, understand its value to our society and to conserve. We all need energy. Think about it.