This column represents the thoughts and opinions of Doug Stauffer. This is NOT the opinion of the Taylor Press.
Heat waves, droughts, fires, devastating storms and floods, these disasters are happening all around the globe with ever increasing frequency and severity. Yet, in the same way that big tobacco fought for decades to deny the harm their product causes and to avoid responsibility, the fossil fuel industry is now fighting to obstruct and delay the transition to truly clean, sustainable energy. The risk is obvious, our planet cannot endure if present levels of fossil fuel emissions continue for decades longer. Or rather, it’s we humans who may not survive the consequences of our actions. The earth will still be here long after we’ve decimated or completely destroyed ourselves.
The big oil companies are spending millions of dollars on advertising to “greenwash” the public, telling us all they are doing to reduce carbon emissions, while in reality, their actions do not support their rhetoric. They actually devote only a small percentage of their massive profits to clean energy initiatives.
One particular area in which their lobbyists are working overtime is in the promotion of natural gas. At least two states — Ohio and Tennessee — have passed laws that require natural gas to be considered and listed as a “clean” alternative energy source, right alongside solar, wind and geothermal.
Now sure, natural gas is better than coal and fuel oil, but clean?
Natural gas is composed of mainly methane, which is many times more harmful to the atmosphere than CO2 is. Using the tobacco analogy again, burning natural gas is like smoking a light cigarette.
The transition to truly clean, renewable energy will be a long, costly and difficult enterprise even if everyone were working towards that goal together. What we have instead is division, political and judicial interference, the aforementioned heel-dragging of the fossil fuel industry, and a general lack of urgency.
I have young grandchildren, and I worry what their world will be like if we don’t take drastic action now. We cannot afford to kick this can down the road even one more foot. We need a rapid, concentrated, all hands on deck, all out effort similar to what occurred after we were attacked at Pearl Harbor. Make no mistake about it, the dangers we face from the effects of climate change are far more dire than any threat from the Japanese Empire ever was.
The question is, is it going take to an event, a calamity like Pearl Harbor, to shock and move us into action? What would it take? Thousands of people dying in a heat wave, or would it take millions?
That exact thing happens in a book by Kim Stanley Robinson titled, “The Ministry for the Future.”
The book is called a work of non-fiction fiction because it is so realistic and sobering in addressing the climate catastrophe that faces us and our earth. It is a fascinating book to read, and I think it should be required reading for every high school student in America. What the heck, make it mandatory that every U.S. congressman read it.
In reality, it would be great if every inhabitant of planet Earth perused it. I recommend it to anyone who has been thinking, “Wow, it sure is a lot hotter than it used to be,” or who is concerned about what their children’s and grandchildren’s world will be like. Because over-all, it is not a tale of doom, but one of how human ingenuity and inventiveness can achieve amazing results, and it is, above all, a story of hope and optimism, and those are two things that the world needs a lot more of these days.
