Former New Mexico Gov. Bruce King once opposed a bill because, he said, he feared it would “open a whole box of Pandoras.” An odd rhetorical twist, but it would be helpful if today’s ego-bloated, high-tech billionaires and corporate profiteers had a bit of self-restraint, rather than thinking their money equals genius. For example, such doofuses are presently pushing convoluted schemes to “solve” our globe’s technology-caused climate crisis with – what else? – technology.
Thank you for your insights into the complexities of maintaining functional natural processes which have determined life on this planet. Globally few understand our solar system and the unique condition of planet Earth to have a complex set of constantly changing physical and chemical conditions that allowed life as we know it to evolve to the rich biodiversity we currently enjoy. But most are reluctant to focus on sustainability because money and comfort are far more important to them. Technology has reasons to be embraced but fundamental principles must be the basis of making valid decisions to maintain a functional earth where the complexities of life are understood and then maintained. All energy comes from the sun and plants through photosynthesis capture and store that energy. We can only get a tan or a burn from direct exposure to the sun which dies not sustain life. All animals depend on stored energy. The food we eat is in short term storage of a few hours, days, weeks, months, or years. Heat from
Wood is stored for years and decades. Fossil fuels have been stored for millions or even billions of years. The storage of carbon was critical to create an atmosphere to allow life to evolve. The earth has unique characteristics compared to other planets and the abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere earlier in the evolution of earth allowed a temperature on earth to have water in a liquid state but conditions were too erratic for life of complexity to emerge. Over billions of years enough carbon has been stored in organic matter from photosynthesis to create a live able planet but releasing too much from
storage will take us back to intolerable conditions for a quality of life. These natural processes are global in nature whereas technology is limited to a small spatial scale and a limited temporal
scale. My education about these complexities on this planet was a joke. Unfortunately I am a slow learner and it has taken over 8 decades to reshape my thinking on a vast array of topics that are buried in many disciplines. I have a positive outlook because of what I have experienced with some of the younger generation but basic thinking as well as personal responsibility must change if future generations are to have a quality of life where sustainability is valued well beyond greed and power.
A couple of idealistic young guys in Switzerland have actually developed a system to clean our air that does not involve drilling for more oil. And when Russia invaded Ukraine and Russian oil was cut off for the European Union, its members adjusted and survived. Are they smarter than we are? Maybe we need to take a hard look at the enablers of the fossil fuel barons. Big, gas-guzzling cars are being pushed in commercials showing sleek, sexy, smiley people going "Woo-hoo" while tearing up a beautiful landscape, driving high-powered vehicles at high speed. Big sale! Easy terms! Low interest rates! Buy now and experience the joy! If we could address America's obsession with cars, that would be a first step. Any and all suggestions are welcome. And thanks again, Jim, for always digging deeper.
Pay for sequestering carbon? Well, sure. Just put a tax on each barrel of oil pumped. It's called a carbon tax. And it will make competing non-polluting energy sources cheaper by comparison. So long, oil barons. Adios. R.I.P. (Rest in paying)
Maybe T Boone Pickens would have seen through this scheme, as he was a geologist. But the starry-eyed , money hungry, greedy bureaucrats running the organization now just see $$$.
Hay Jim, l think 'our globe' was weak. How about our life supporting planet, our home, the water planet, uniquely positioned in the universe with temperatures that allow water to be liquid. All the corporation care about is more more electrical consumption to power the arms race industry. Life is just in it's way. Maybe exacerbating the climate changes of the Anthropocene Age of Planet Earth is the total evil ( spell it backwards) Lord . Rarely is water pollution and poisoning of our water table by the dumping of the toxic wastes of industry and fossil fuel harvesting methods. Water For Life! Ban Fracking Now! Seems like all these Government Officials do anymore is fight with lawyers and haven't headspace to consider real world, here and now issues.
I recently read in the Catholic Worker that an enormous amount of carbon is sequestered in the oceans by whales, but that thousands of whales are being killed every year by naval military
exercises, as well as by use of sonar, which is going to be used even more in the future.
Yes, yes, yes! I want to invest all those trillions of dollars on renewable energy. But as one O&G executive says, that won't happen because more money can be made investing in O&G projects.
Let's not forget that fossil fuel industries are contaminating our physical lives with plastic products too. Our food, breast milk, our blood, wild animals have all been impacted by plastic pollution. Even our sexual performance is being impacted due to our dependence on plastic. Avoiding plastic is something we humans can pay attention to as we make future decisions.
I couldn’t agree with you more, Jim! One thing human beings can be capable of, especially when they don’t want to face reality is, quite simply, denial. Anyone primarily pushing continued use of oil and gas is fundamentally in denial. And what kind of a human being are you if you insist on behavior that continues to move closer to destruction of the Earth for human habitation? We’ve got so many problems to solve, why would we want to continue with more of the stupid stuff than necessary to make a transition to truly clean energy?
I feel so inspired when I hear a various technical problems being solved to allow for a purely battery, driven cars, and solar, electricity, or wind, driven electricity.
Those of us still in denial have absolutely got to wake up and die right!
Like with Mountain Top Removal Strip Mining for coal, the fossil fuel corporations contracted to restore the mountains to their original contours and then the government could implement the WV Department of Environmental Protection 's Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan to allow volunteers and youth groups to go out and plant trees and grass on the bare rock and loose piles of dirt and mud. After stripping away billions of years of Earth's evolution their techno-arrogance and big numbers of money is the death toll for the miracle of life on Earth. I watch the loaded coal trains go on to market every day and US Senator Manchin whines that the agency passed action to clean up the Guyandote River before he had a chance to review and derange it.
Read //Merchants of Doubt (How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming)// by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. The "handful" basically the same five guys--all Cold War physicists; none biologists, MDs, climatologists, or environmentalists. Paid by libertarian think tanks funded by very wealthy extreme right wingers.
The point of selling doubt is to serve the econ powers like petro corporations. Adjunct is what has been called "the technological quick fix." Now don't worry yer pretty li'l heads. We got this; no prob.
Oh sure. Like "better living through chemistry" as the late '50s ads told us. Then came //Silent Spring// (1962) by Rachel Carson. Who is currently under attack because if she was right (she was and is) then there are obvious failures in how the econ system works. The neoliberal market fetishists can never admit this since The Market is omniscient. But as the sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson says: "The problem with the invisible hand is it never picks up the check."
Neolib/corporate economists claim that it will be too disruptive to the econ system and way, way too expensive to do much of anything. Besides, the uber wealthy 1/10th of 1% actually believes they can ride it out. By moving to places like New Zealand or Malta as well as by owning mega-yachts. The human deaths and species extinctions unimportant... to them.
Thank you for your insights into the complexities of maintaining functional natural processes which have determined life on this planet. Globally few understand our solar system and the unique condition of planet Earth to have a complex set of constantly changing physical and chemical conditions that allowed life as we know it to evolve to the rich biodiversity we currently enjoy. But most are reluctant to focus on sustainability because money and comfort are far more important to them. Technology has reasons to be embraced but fundamental principles must be the basis of making valid decisions to maintain a functional earth where the complexities of life are understood and then maintained. All energy comes from the sun and plants through photosynthesis capture and store that energy. We can only get a tan or a burn from direct exposure to the sun which dies not sustain life. All animals depend on stored energy. The food we eat is in short term storage of a few hours, days, weeks, months, or years. Heat from
Wood is stored for years and decades. Fossil fuels have been stored for millions or even billions of years. The storage of carbon was critical to create an atmosphere to allow life to evolve. The earth has unique characteristics compared to other planets and the abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere earlier in the evolution of earth allowed a temperature on earth to have water in a liquid state but conditions were too erratic for life of complexity to emerge. Over billions of years enough carbon has been stored in organic matter from photosynthesis to create a live able planet but releasing too much from
storage will take us back to intolerable conditions for a quality of life. These natural processes are global in nature whereas technology is limited to a small spatial scale and a limited temporal
scale. My education about these complexities on this planet was a joke. Unfortunately I am a slow learner and it has taken over 8 decades to reshape my thinking on a vast array of topics that are buried in many disciplines. I have a positive outlook because of what I have experienced with some of the younger generation but basic thinking as well as personal responsibility must change if future generations are to have a quality of life where sustainability is valued well beyond greed and power.
Leigh
We know from past experience not to trust what these guys say they will do to reduce carbon pollution. They do not deserve our trust.
A couple of idealistic young guys in Switzerland have actually developed a system to clean our air that does not involve drilling for more oil. And when Russia invaded Ukraine and Russian oil was cut off for the European Union, its members adjusted and survived. Are they smarter than we are? Maybe we need to take a hard look at the enablers of the fossil fuel barons. Big, gas-guzzling cars are being pushed in commercials showing sleek, sexy, smiley people going "Woo-hoo" while tearing up a beautiful landscape, driving high-powered vehicles at high speed. Big sale! Easy terms! Low interest rates! Buy now and experience the joy! If we could address America's obsession with cars, that would be a first step. Any and all suggestions are welcome. And thanks again, Jim, for always digging deeper.
Pay for sequestering carbon? Well, sure. Just put a tax on each barrel of oil pumped. It's called a carbon tax. And it will make competing non-polluting energy sources cheaper by comparison. So long, oil barons. Adios. R.I.P. (Rest in paying)
There should be a pollution tax on oil production and a clean energy bonus for companies helping us move to planet saving energy solutions.
Maybe T Boone Pickens would have seen through this scheme, as he was a geologist. But the starry-eyed , money hungry, greedy bureaucrats running the organization now just see $$$.
Hay Jim, l think 'our globe' was weak. How about our life supporting planet, our home, the water planet, uniquely positioned in the universe with temperatures that allow water to be liquid. All the corporation care about is more more electrical consumption to power the arms race industry. Life is just in it's way. Maybe exacerbating the climate changes of the Anthropocene Age of Planet Earth is the total evil ( spell it backwards) Lord . Rarely is water pollution and poisoning of our water table by the dumping of the toxic wastes of industry and fossil fuel harvesting methods. Water For Life! Ban Fracking Now! Seems like all these Government Officials do anymore is fight with lawyers and haven't headspace to consider real world, here and now issues.
I recently read in the Catholic Worker that an enormous amount of carbon is sequestered in the oceans by whales, but that thousands of whales are being killed every year by naval military
exercises, as well as by use of sonar, which is going to be used even more in the future.
What do you expect from an economy based on greed?
Yes, yes, yes! I want to invest all those trillions of dollars on renewable energy. But as one O&G executive says, that won't happen because more money can be made investing in O&G projects.
Let's not forget that fossil fuel industries are contaminating our physical lives with plastic products too. Our food, breast milk, our blood, wild animals have all been impacted by plastic pollution. Even our sexual performance is being impacted due to our dependence on plastic. Avoiding plastic is something we humans can pay attention to as we make future decisions.
(Please forgive iPhone grammatical errors!)
I couldn’t agree with you more, Jim! One thing human beings can be capable of, especially when they don’t want to face reality is, quite simply, denial. Anyone primarily pushing continued use of oil and gas is fundamentally in denial. And what kind of a human being are you if you insist on behavior that continues to move closer to destruction of the Earth for human habitation? We’ve got so many problems to solve, why would we want to continue with more of the stupid stuff than necessary to make a transition to truly clean energy?
I feel so inspired when I hear a various technical problems being solved to allow for a purely battery, driven cars, and solar, electricity, or wind, driven electricity.
Those of us still in denial have absolutely got to wake up and die right!
Moral of the story:Big oil does not want to go out of business regardless of the harm they do-Don't trust them or their poropaganda(lies)
Like with Mountain Top Removal Strip Mining for coal, the fossil fuel corporations contracted to restore the mountains to their original contours and then the government could implement the WV Department of Environmental Protection 's Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan to allow volunteers and youth groups to go out and plant trees and grass on the bare rock and loose piles of dirt and mud. After stripping away billions of years of Earth's evolution their techno-arrogance and big numbers of money is the death toll for the miracle of life on Earth. I watch the loaded coal trains go on to market every day and US Senator Manchin whines that the agency passed action to clean up the Guyandote River before he had a chance to review and derange it.
Read //Merchants of Doubt (How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming)// by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. The "handful" basically the same five guys--all Cold War physicists; none biologists, MDs, climatologists, or environmentalists. Paid by libertarian think tanks funded by very wealthy extreme right wingers.
The point of selling doubt is to serve the econ powers like petro corporations. Adjunct is what has been called "the technological quick fix." Now don't worry yer pretty li'l heads. We got this; no prob.
Oh sure. Like "better living through chemistry" as the late '50s ads told us. Then came //Silent Spring// (1962) by Rachel Carson. Who is currently under attack because if she was right (she was and is) then there are obvious failures in how the econ system works. The neoliberal market fetishists can never admit this since The Market is omniscient. But as the sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson says: "The problem with the invisible hand is it never picks up the check."
Neolib/corporate economists claim that it will be too disruptive to the econ system and way, way too expensive to do much of anything. Besides, the uber wealthy 1/10th of 1% actually believes they can ride it out. By moving to places like New Zealand or Malta as well as by owning mega-yachts. The human deaths and species extinctions unimportant... to them.