I’m going to expound one more time on this subject, then move on to something else. Environmental and economic issues are enormous, extremely complicated matters. I don’t care who you are, you can not accurately predict the long term effects of any process, system, product, chemical, or anything else a human does. Just look at the ads for all the new drugs that you see on TV. Most of them boil down to “if you survive the taking the first dose, this drug may help your problem.” Twenty years from now, when your ears turn green and your left foot falls off, we’ll have come up with a therapy for that and a new drug that will cause other problems.
So what do we do? Should we find a transportation fuel that doesn’t involve oil? Absolutely. Everything on this planet that is not alive and growing is finite. This is a closed system folks. We will run out of oil at some point. Today, next week or a century from now, no one knows, but it will happen. Is our global climate changing? Of course it is. It always has. Are our cars causing it? Who knows? Archeology and paleontology have proven that the climate has changed many times in the life of this rock we live on. In relative terms, humans have been on earth a very short period of time. For many thousands of years, the science and technology of humans was centered on either hunting, gathering, farming, or war with other humans. Early man had no way to record temperatures even after written language came along. If he was uncomfortably cold, he put on more clothing and built a bigger fire. If he was hot, he removed some clothing and that was about it. Galileo came up with the first instrument resembling a thermometer in 1593 and it wasn’t until 1714 that man had a reliable mercury thermometer, thanks to Gabriel Fahrenheit. Real science as we know it today has only been in existence for a century or so. A century, by comparison, is a blink of an eye. From what is regarded as the modern age, the first division in the past is known as the Pleistocene period, and starts roughly 12,000 years ago, and stretches back two and half million years. Now, if the divisions on the scientist’s calendar cover such enormous spans of time, how can anybody cite a few decades of records as a trend? The next division on this chart, starts at the 2 ½ million year ago mark, and extends some 18 million years farther into the past. If you look at this chart, which covers some two billion years of earth’s history, you will see that the normal condition of the earth is much hotter than it is now. In fact, there are only 3 rather brief periods in the entire charted time that the earth has been as cool as it is now. If you’d like to see the chart I’m talking about, it’s located here: http://www.scotese.com/climate.htm Seems to me that if this chart is correct, we are not on the verge of a man-made crisis, but a return to “status quo” by mother earth. That is not to say that it won’t be problem. This chart shows the current age at an average temperature of 11 or 12°C, or roughly 51 to 52°F. There are millions and millions of years represented on this chart where the average temperature is above 17°C (62.6°F) ranging up to 25°C (77°F). If that happens, the doom and gloom predictions of coastal flooding will become a reality. During the Eocene period, some 38 million years ago, palm trees grew in Alaska and alligators lived in swamps near the North Pole. If it gets that warm again, there’ll be no need to worry about the Panama Canal, the land bridge from North to South America will be under water. Needless to say, all that valuable coastal property that everyone loves today won’t have much resale value. All the apocalyptic television writers and followers of Al Gore would have you believe that we are going to wake up some morning just to learn that the top of the Empire State Building is now 10 feet below the surface and that the end of the world has come. That may happen, but you and I won’t live to see it. And it won’t be sudden. Sea levels will rise, useable land masses will get smaller and there will have to be a fundamental shift in how and where people live.
The question remains though as to whether man is causing the calamity. I don’t think so, but I think we are contributing to it. A return to the “hot box” the dinosaurs knew is inevitable. Our use of fossil fuels and subsequent release of greenhouse gasses may serve to hasten it along, but I don’t believe it is the cause. It has all happened before, and it will all happen again.
In the mean time, we can find or create other energy sources. We can improve how we consume them. Let’s put these magnificent brains to work and find something. The guy from Dyson Vacuum cleaners says that they try to fix the obvious problems that others ignore or words to that effect. Come on folks, the automobile is more than a century old and it still uses a piston engine? Surely we can beat that. Everyone thinks that nuclear technology is so advanced, but when it comes right down to it, we split an atom to release all that energy, and the best we can do is use it to boil water to turn a steam turbine! We must be better than that.
America has led the way since her creation in industry, medicine, science…everything. Of late we’ve become obsessed with improving the conveniences of life instead of life itself. Look at how televisions and telephones have changed just in the last 20 years. We have surround sound and LED displays in our cars. We have different temperature zones in our cars. Satellite navigation because we can’t find our way to the office and back, heated seats, all that, and yet, the technology that moves it down the road is much the same as it was a century ago. Oh yes, it’s much improved…more horsepower, all sorts of emission controls, computer intervention in almost every facet of its operation. But its principle remains unchanged. Inject some mixture of gasoline and air, compress that mixture, ignite it with an electric spark, and allow the resultant explosion to push a piston down to turn a shaft, that makes the wheels go round. We’ve been happy with that for a good long time, but it’s past time to move on. Lets find a better way to get there folks. Lets look forward, not backward. Bicycles are great, but they won’t fix the problem anymore than using CF or LED lights instead of incandescent bulbs. Forward…kick that American spirit in gear and fix this.
