When the Past Does Not Pass
Or, Living the Prequel to Soylent Green
MPH POLAR BEARS PROTEST AGANIST Climate Change by YouTube
About two years ago, Mr. Scaife's Pittsburgh Tribune Review kindly
printed my op-ed titled Pittsburgh Should
Exploit Climate Change where I argued that Pittsburgh should take advantage
of the business opportunity that Climate Change presents. (Their title, not mine.) I argued Pittsburgh's geographic position could
provide a haven for the masses seeking to escape extreme drought, heat and sea
level rise.
That was naive. Instead,
the Pittsburgh region has become a haven for the fossil fuel interests as
evidenced by the thick layer of smog in the hills of western Pennsylvania along
with the criss-crossing forest cuts for transmission lines and degraded water supplies.
Climate change used to be a boring problem with its effects
always judged in future decades. But, those
decades have past. Climate change is a
blah, blah, blah BANG! problem and we are now in the Bang! phase. This aggravated climate state is clearly
expressing itself in the unusual and extreme weather events many Americans are
experiencing and scientists are now able to link these events to global warming. We are now living the prequel to Soylent Green, or worse yet, On the Beach, or One Million Years BC. A
once boring esoteric problem has become most interesting, and until we cease
fossil fuel use, the future bangs will be bang , Bang,
BANG!
Countless national and international scientific
organizations have warned us of the dangers of high greenhouse gas
concentrations in our planet's thin atmospheric veneer. When? Not in the future, but now. (Source:
NASA, NOAA, NAS, Max Plank Institute, AGU, SWS, etc.). How?
Because of carbon dioxide, a powerful heat trapping gas that's emitted
from cars, utilities and industry.
Why? Because it's cheap and
pretty much free to do so. Of course
it's going to get hotter -- it's simple physics (Source: Pierrehumbert, Raymond.
PHYSICS TODAY. January 2011). Any assertions to the contrary are
inconsistent with objective, peer-reviewed science and represent the total abnegation
of human interests. Additionally, this
science is now mature, based in observation, and statistically robust.
Mother Nature is suffering from a death by a thousand
cuts. And, our government who is charged
with protecting her is failing her, and us, is failing her citizens. Where is Richard Clark when you need him?
As a former employee of an international consulting firm
that increasingly served the Marcellus shale industry, I initially thought that
fracked natural gas could be substituted for coal as a transitional cleaner
energy source. However, recent peer
reviewed papers used industry estimates to show that Marcellus greenhouse gas
contributions are greater than coal. Indeed,
Australian scientists found dangerously high background atmospheric methane
concentrations in natural gas production regions. These conclusions agreed with field
observations: things are leaking and the environmental damage during
construction and drilling of well pads and gas transport lines is
tremendous. Even with abatement of
fugitive emissions, the end product of methane combustion is CO2. Moreover, the industry is not seeking to provide
a transitional energy source towards renewable energy, but rather one that will
stay and grow. After all, that's how
corporations work.
To be associated with fossil fuels is a march of folly and
any business involvement with the fossil fuel industry represents a deeply flawed
business plan.
Post WWII offers an excellent history lesson. When France was occupied by the Nazis in
1940, the Vichy government was formed and worked hand in hand with the
Nazis. After the War, members of that
government were tried and convicted at Nuremberg. They either directly assisted the Nazi
government or they knew and did nothing. They and their sympathizers later became the
scourge of French society, behind bars, or dead. Many were killed outright and violent
retribution was common. These trials and
grievances went on for decades and allowed the birth of the Socialist Party in
France. This behavior is known as the
Vichy Syndrome. (Source: Henry Rousso,
1960).
The Vichy Syndrome is "A Past That Does Not Pass" and this
syndrome will come to define not only world politics but also our living
conditions under rapid continuous climate change. Our emissions from the 1970's are just now
catching up with us. Drought, heat waves,
fish kills, extinctions, floods, wildfire, energy disruptions are now common
and inadequately designed infrastructure is failing. Today's emissions will catch up with us in
2040 resulting in mega-landslides, mega-sea level rise, mega-earthquakes, mega-floods,
mega-heat, mega --war, and mass migrations of millions if not billions. Trade and transportation will become most
difficult or absent for some areas and unusual tropical diseases like West Nile
Virus will hit the higher latitudes. The
oceans will become even more acidic. I
foresee a day in my lifetime when it makes more sense to conduct my field work
in the winter rather than the summer; summer will simply be too hot. Even now, living life is becoming
increasingly dangerous and it seems everyone has their eye to the sky. BANG!
These devastating events are increasingly affecting our
lives and business. More of our money goes
to property insurance premiums, food, and taxes to cover the cost of climate
change damage. And unfortunately with
climate change, as long as we emit greenhouse gases, the worst is always yet to come. This is a Past That Does Not Pass and climate
feedbacks are now accelerating the process.
There is no going back nogoing back now. Furthermore, there are simple biological and ecological boundaries that
limit our adaptation to higher temperatures and climate engineering schemes
will make things worse through unintended consequences.
Make no mistake, our
government has failed us.
This piece is dedicated to my children, and to the memory of
Kimberly Griffith, Brenna Giffith, Mikaela Giffith and Mary Saflin. Google it.
1
1
1
