In physics, one joule, the standard measure of energy, is roughly what you need to lift an apple up one meter against the force of gravity.

Power is how fast energy is produced or consumed. One watt, the standard measure of power, represents the use of one joule in a second. A megawatt is a million watts.

Canada could try to be an energy superpower, producing and consuming as much energy as possible, as quickly as possible. But why? This is like picking up the apple, putting it down, then picking it up again, over and over.

You only need to lift up the apple once to eat it. Far better is to practice energy sobriety. Use just enough energy to satisfy essential needs. Minimize waste.

Nature does this using energy from the Sun, our true energy superpower.

The power of the Sun, generated by nuclear fusion, is constant, at 386 billion billion megawatts. Not quite half a billionth of this falls on the Earth, about 173 billion megawatts.

Since Earth is a living planet, with an active water cycle, about 41 billion megawatts of solar power is used continuously to lift water into the atmosphere. Water is either evaporated from oceans and lakes (~ 90 per cent), or transpired through plant leaves (the other 10 per cent).........

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