“The most tangible of all visible mysteries – fire.” Leigh Hunt.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

From Mexico’s Mixtec ritual of Fuego Nuevo, to Africa’s creation story of Kaang whose dictum regarding fire might be heard as one of the earliest energy environmental policy statements, human use (and misuse) of the volatile is one of civilization’s most significant developments — energy.  Atomic power, originally destructive in purpose,  became harnessed by common realization that opportunity and danger must be balanced. Richard Feynman, scientist on the Manhattan Project, later reflected on the responsibility of those who play with fire (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4_40hAA0+feature=endscreen). In the Atomic Energy Act, control of the new energy source included guidelines for patent. As global demand for cleaner, safer, renewable energy increases, innovations for “fire in a jar” will be part of the debate. Might new forms of energy be patented? What controls and public monitoring should be considered in the use of volatile power?

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License