A Road Not Taken
Science & Reason on Facebook: tinyurl.com In 1979, Jimmy Carter, in a visionary move, installed solar panels on the roof of the White House. This symbolic installation was taken down in 1986 during the Reagan presidency. In 1991, Unity College, an environmentally-minded centre of learning in Maine acquired the panels and later installed them on their cafeteria roof. In “A Road not Taken”, Swiss artists Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller travel back in time and, following the route the solar panels took, interview those involved in the decisions regarding these panels as well as those involved in the oil crisis of the time. They also look closely at the way this initial installation presaged our own era. — Please subscribe to Science & Reason: • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com — You may not remember this but in 1979, President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House West Wing. The panels, which were used to heat water for the staff eating area, were a symbol of a new solar strategy that Carter had said was going to “move our Nation toward true energy security and abundant, readily available, energy supplies.” But in 1986, President Ronald Reagan removed the solar panels while the White House roof was being repaired. They were never reinstalled. In 1991, the panels were retrieved from government storage and brought to the environmentally-minded Unity College about an hour southeast of Bangor, Maine. There …
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Face it, We haven’t a good string of administrative positives, better policies or leadership for years. I, for one, am sick of the bureaucratic BS. We Americans and naturalized citizens need to stand up for ourselves. This is our country as well as theirs. F**k Washington… PEACE
This simian primate (President of Iran ) will soon meet the Israeli defense Force… You cannot measure the problems and terrorism caused by this nation…I would like to thank Jimmy Carter for making this all possible. All the people murdered by Iran have the name Jimmy Carter on it.
@thackythac After reagan and Bush father came Clinton (democrat), why did not he restore the panel?
Carter was an asshole, like Republicans but worse. Obama of his day
So, by referencing one of Frost’s most famous poems, are you saying that it makes little to no difference that we did not take the solar route?
I don’t argue with Republicans anymore. You can’t reason with somebody who loves taking it in the mouth all the time.
Then greed took over and man became a slave to the big oil corps. They creat artificial shortages. They also arent loyal to Americans. They try to blame OPEC. It is their greed that keeps man made shortages and regulates prices. They polute and do not make ammends. The Alaskan oil pipeline oil goes to Japan. They control the polititions. They are evil.
@M0US3P0T4TO
It’s you communist Environmental Wackos that are stupid!!!!!!!!!! Here Ithough peanut boy said it would all be gone in a decade. Fuel is sill here Solar is Dead!
Reagan=the biggest disaster America has ever elected. He is one of the truly worst Presidents in our history. Most of our problems today were caused by him or by the people he paved the way for(Bush).
Crazy how many people still revere Regan when it’s his policies that are responsible for most of the economic and foreign policy problems we suffer through today.
Carter was a visionary. We’d be energy independent and free of entanglements in the middle east today if we had followed the course he had set.
The reason solar energy is not given much importance is because it’s very efficent. The reason this technology is not developed is because once this technology has reached it’s highest potential, many major corporations will shut down.
There are many renewable sources of energy but they’re not developed because once they are, the oil companies will shut down and God forbid we will have clean air, no war and the world would be a peaceful place… Who wants that?
@v19d
You can’t make money off of free energy.
Why did Reagan took down the Solar Panels
Power is a sad substitute for self esteem. Especially for us who bear the effects of their actions.
Reagan was the problem
@MatthewPalumbo
You seem to have forgotten the crash of the USA’s Savings and Loans Institutions that was caused by Reagan’s deregulation of the banking industry for the benefit of illegal drug money laundering to prop up the Contras and provide Iran with weapons. Reagan left wreckage in his wake across the USA. If Clinton hadn’t been an AWESOME president, this current recession would have occurred back then, not now, because it’s based on the same weakness in the $US.
if Solar Energy development was supported at full speed,, the biggest beneficiary would be the Southern states,, but those rednecks fiercely opposed it and still voting GOP who is against Solar Energy development…
blessed are Jimmy Carter,, one Southern man with vision to future
@MatthewPalumbo Well 16 million while having 10.8% unemployment at one point (9.7% for 1982). His Neoliberal economics of not protecting new industries is why we have the job problems of today. It’s one thing to let crappy manufacturing jobs leave the country, it’s another to allow the tech industry to die i.e. Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers owning the world market. Oh & he’s on the list of a long line of Republican presidents that preach fiscal “conservatism” but end up with deficits.
Please tell me the song!
It would be really useful for youtube to create a search bar on comments imo.