With 97% (low estimate for some) of environmental scientists
and climate specialists committed to the field of climate change and how to
reduce the impact...why are we sitting back and not addressing the crisis?
Ask yourself when you first heard about global warming... climate
change...and the impact that 8-Billion humans are having on our natural planet
systems. Me, I can recall hearing about
it more than 45 years ago, and I have seen research that predates that time as
well. Our demand for fossil fuels, and
our unwillingness to fully engage renewables promises to be our downfall.
Why are we staying linked to these fuels and who in our
society is pushing us to use more, and harvest more oil and coal for our use? Why? Simple, it’s about profits for corporate
giants. Who? The extremely wealthy who view wealth as
power...so far beyond the point of need that they can’t grasp the failure that
they are promoting. They have anchors in
the approximately $3-Trillion a year market that keep them enamored, and with
global reserves (economically recoverable resources) in-excess-of $30-Trillion
in today’s dollars (source: EIA) they don’t see a reason to change their focus,
even if it means that future generations will live in a doomed world.
Two drivers that should be considered here are time and
sustainability. Time is what is driving
the corporate exploration because they recognize that if they don’t harvest the
resources now, their opportunities will lessen over time because of reduced
demand. Sustainability, on the other
hand, argues that by reducing our use of fossil fuels we will promote balanced
growth of renewables and extend the resource base for these truly usable fossil
resources by centuries into the future.
I am reminded of the words of Tom Corbett, the Governor of Pennsylvania when, in
2014, he said that Fracking for natural gas and oil would provide Pennsylvania
with revenue for the next hundred years.
One Hundred Years... and then what?
In that pronouncement Corbett defined the short-sighted nature of the
American culture. The damage that coal,
oil, and natural gas all produce with their release of complex Green House Gas emissions
will last a millennium from the point at which we stop polluting our
atmosphere.
For the Koch brothers, the owners of the largest privately held petro-chemical conglomerate, it's about profits and growth. So much so that they invest hundreds of millions in campaigns and donations intended to attack the "radical environmentalists" who are fighting against the pollution that their industry yields. Pollution, we should note, that the US taxpayers pay to clean up because our government has allowed corporations to side step the responsibility of their pollution.
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| Unprotected fracking pit in California |
How are we taxed to cover these expenses, here are a few examples. Oil and natural gas exploration and recovery operations draw millions of gallons of water a day for each fracking site, but they pay nothing for the water they use. They then dump that water into retention ponds on site that damage and poison the groundwater, but they are not held accountable for cleaning this toxic waste, nor are their standard for their pit designs. They aren't even required to divulge what chemicals they put into their fracking mixtures. Then, when heavy storms run through their regions these ponds overflow, and again nothing is charged back to the corporate citizens that yielded the chemical flow poured into our streams and rivers. The same can be noted about the atmosphere and how we are poisoning it, as well, with GHGs that take several decades to clear.
If we return to ‘Time and Sustainability’ we can find some
answers, but it will take Governmental constraint and regulations to make a
global difference. If we don’t act soon
the future will be much worse for our delay.
CO2 absorption into our lakes, rivers, and oceans is replacing oxygen
and increasing acidity. As a result, sea
life is failing, and considering that the seas are the source of more than
fifteen percent of animal protein intake for 4.5 Billion or more of
mankind. That is more than half of the
population of the world depending on a failing food source, destroyed by our
pollution (source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization).
Profits can come from many directions for the world’s corporations
and governments. Consider that if we
recovered the floating plastics in our ocean gyres it could be recycled to
produce new products, while protecting ocean creatures and returning the seas
to a healthier environment. Or if we
reduce the use of fossil fuels, instead redirecting our focus to renewables, we
could regain the leadership of this economy and profit for our effort.
Time and Sustainability... plan globally to reduce pollution in
all forms while expanding our use of nonpolluting energy to move us forward and
solve the problems we will face due to the past centuries of neglect.
