Original subtitles

The sun rose upon a young, barren earth.

Slowly, vast and profound changes occurred.

Water vapor, heated by the sun, formed clouds,

condensed, and fell to Earth, creating the oceans.

The heat of the sun produced the winds and currents,

and life began its evolutionary journey.

Plant life, using the sun to create oxygen,

made possible animal life, and eventually, man.

How was primitive man to deal with the power

that controlled his life?

Power that could provide or deny.

Fear turned into worship.

Some created rituals to ensure the sun's return.

Some sacrificed to the sun.

Others used the sun to plan their planting and harvests

and used its changing orbit to warm their dwellings

in the winter and cool them in the summer.

And the more he learned, the less he feared.

And knowledge only increased his awe.

Meanwhile, underground lay a vast store

of the sun's energy, trapped, waiting.

Oh, hmm, hey, this stuff really burns good.

Hey Todd, I told ya.

It burns.

Hmm, wonder if this stuffs worth anything?

There's money in oil!

- I'm rich! - I'm richer.

Always topping me, Harry.

Let's call it black gold!

That's a good phrase, it might catch on.

That's some worm!

Boy, everything is great!

Yeah, terrific.

Yeah, good.

Right, right.

Nice.

Hey, remember the good old days

when we could just go drivin'?

Yeah, that was terrific.

It's over.

Oil, more oil!

It's coming. more oil!

I told ya. nothing to worry about.

Importing more oil only made matters worse!

The value of the dollar dropped again today

on world money markets with news

of the latest OPEC price increases.

Financial observers predicted.

And people began to worry!

I'm worried.

I'm very worried.

Somebody do somethin'.

Don't look at me, man.

Find more oil!

Tell me where, I'll make a hole!

- It's your fault. - It's yours.

It's the weirdos.

Who you calling weirdo, I'm a democrat.

Yeah, I'm the weirdo.

Then it's the democrats.

Maybe it's the republicans.

It's the two party system!

No man, it's the oil companies.

It's the environmentalists.

It's them Russkis.

You mean the Russians.

Why doesn't the government do anything?

What government, the people are the government.

Then why don't the people do nothing?

You're the people.

Yeah I never thought of that.

What the heck?

That's a good point.

Excuse me, have you seen my dog?

He's a little white dog with a black spot.

The sun feels good on your skin.

You know, when you're wet and cold

and it dries you and warms you up.

When mama did the wash,

we'd hang the clothes on the line

and when we took them down,

I remember how warm they felt and the fresh smell.

It was wonderful.

And with an early spring we had plenty

of sun that year and everything grew.

We're still eating the preserves Alice put up.

In those days we built our houses of adobe.

First the adobe, a little straw, and the sun did the rest.

Of course you have to be careful of the straw, otherwise...

We have a solid north wall and with the south end

of the house open to the sun,

you really won't need a backup system

because the orientation of the house...

Have your power sources, son,

watering trays colored black to absorb heat,

glass goes on top, traps heat,

and that's called a solar collector

and then you pump the hot water to any part of the house.

That more than a quarter of our energy

is used for heating space and water.

So solving those requirements gets us a good part

of the way.

One thing about solar energy I like,

it sure is clean and that's important when you read about...

You're doing something about it,

you're not at the mercy of those foreign oil producers.

Well not as much, anyway.

I've often thought that one

of the good things about solar energy

is it's pollution free, which is significant.

If you stop and think about it,

you realize that the sun doesn't send you a bill each month.

Over the years, that's...

The fact that solar is accident free

goes a long way toward reassuring us

that we won't be faced...

With solar you worry less about terrorists

and other people who use violence to achieve their aims.

And my astronomy professor says the sun

will always be there, at least

for another several billion years or so.

Actually, one of the most important solar energy

developments involves photovoltaic cells.

That's getting direct electricity from the sun.

In five years, it'll be competitive to the stuff you buy

when you turn on your lights.