Pain at the Pumps
By now you’ve probably experienced the extra sting at the gas station.
Gasoline supply shortfalls, decreasing domestic stockpiles, and spikes
in pump prices might lead to inflation and a souring economy. I am not
surprised and I couldn’t be happier.
There are only three types of energy on the earth: geothermal, atomic,
and solar. Solar is by far the most prevalent. Pretty much everything
that has energy got it from the sun. Cows get their energy from corn which
got it’s energy from the sun. Dams get there energy from falling
water that was carried up by winds and heat from the sun. And gasoline
got it’s energy from long ago buried and fossilized phytoplankton
that got their energy from the sun.
It takes about ninety tons of phytoplankton and several hundred thousand
years to make a gallon of gas the natural way. In one year, we burn fuels
created from about 5 x 1019 grams of carbon. Because a five with 19 zeros
after it is a little bit difficult to understand, just imagine all of
the plant growth on the earth from one year to the next year; all the
plankton, all the rainforests, all the corn, etc.. Roughly 400 years of
that growth would produce the amount of carbon needed to create the fossil
fuels we burn in one year.
Four hundred years of the history of our planet to produce enough energy
to power our high-tech, globally mobile civilization for a single year.
But we found that buried power, the compressed and fossilized remains
of phytoplankton and plants. We dug it up and shot it into our furnaces
and then our power plants, and then our automobiles, planes, and space
shuttles. The results of this are more wondrous than anyone could’ve
expected.
A world of more complexity and power than has ever been held. And all
of it in the hands of one species. We can see atoms and fly to the moon.
Webs of copper connect anyone to anywhere. Our constructions are faster
than any bird, larger than any whale, and hotter than any volcano. And
we could not have done it without the fossils of our ancient ancestors.
But that wonder has sharp edges. The very thing that has enabled us to
build so much so quickly also endangers our future. Fossil fuels, so much
carbon buried for so long, were once the carbon-dioxide of a much different,
much warmer world. As we dig up that ancient carbon and re-create that
carbon-dioxide, we invite that ancient climate to return. Our vastly complex
and somewhat unstable civilization very much depends on the stability
of its climate. If the amount of carbon released is too great, we could
see trillions of dollars of coastal infrastructure become useless, a great
flood of homelessness, and widespread failure of crops.
While we have no way of knowing whether our climate will shift dramatically,
we can be certain that the more we live with fossil fuels, the sooner
we will have to live without them. Our civilization is based on its need
for energy, and that energy is almost exclusively fossil fuel. I am not
comfortable being part of a culture that depends so heavily on something
that isn’t always going to be there.
But, I can’t deny that fossil fuels have brought us a long way.
I like road trips, and visiting family, and electronics. But I think we’re
approaching at time, probably within our lives, when we will not rely
so heavily on fossil fuels. The beginning of that process is weaning ourselves,
and seeing alternatives with benefits for the short-term and the long-term.
And, if I know anything about economics, I know that the higher prices
go, the less we’ll buy. So maybe you can join me in celebrating
$57 barrels of crude. Anything that means less consumption of that ancient
sunlight is probably in the best interest of myself and my world.
For a full year I wrote a weekly column for a daily paper in Boulder CO. I wrote about being young, poor and green, and the column was widely loved throughout the city. It remains one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.
If you've got some time on your hands...check 'em out.
Colder than the Hinges of Hell
Four More Ounces of Responsibility