Fossil fuels. They cause pollution; need I say more?
Issues:
- Global climate change
- Mercury contamination of fish (burning coal)
- Health issues from ground water contamination (fracking, coal mining)
- Health issues from air pollution.
- Oil spills
- Pollution from refineries
- Jet, car, truck, tractors, and train engine air pollution
- Accidental loss of life and property from industrial accidents
- Strip mining
- Monopolistic industry that benefits small groups of people from control of a global resource.
- Causes disposal issues of cheap non-biodegradable plastic waste in oceans and other places.
A potential for a huge economic issue could happen as oil resources appear to have passed peak global oil production. World farming, trade, manufacturing and transportation are dependent on this single resource which has a finite limitation (won’t last forever).
A major rise in oil price would have ripples all over the economy making food more difficult to produce and transport. This coupled with the changes in weather patterns could cause further food production issues. Because of the nature of supply and demand this seem like it will have to happen at some point and it would be much better to lessen our dependency on this resource.
I feel that there are many issues but switching to green power production is a big step towards improving the peace and well being of the humans, animals, plants and minerals on the planet.
This is understandably difficult as I have personally worked in the oil industry and found it to be one my best paying and most fun jobs.
Government subsidies
The cost of fossil fuel is kept artificially low by government spending. This has to stop asap, imho.
Believe it or not at some level I would like to see a $200.00 bill when I fill up my car. Even that doesn’t seem to reflect properly the true environmental cost of the fuel. Plus if it went to that level I would very quickly find other ways of doing things, like taking the bus or purchasing an electric vehicle or riding my bike more.
I realize that many people do not have good options to move close to work and public transportation does not always work well as a solution. Subsidies need to go towards these things instead. Like self driving taxi fleets providing low cost rides and better low income housing close to jobs and stores.
If prices really spiked up I think there would be a major movement away from fossil fuel and towards solutions that could be much lower in cost and employ more people in their production. Decentralizing energy production and getting it back into the hands of local communities and people could revolutionize things.
Greener Environment
Cleaner air, water and a more stable climate would be nice. Not only for improvements in human health but fish and animals are sure to benefit as well. Plus less health care costs.
Parasol Mushroom in the Grass
If we see our environment being taken care of well I think this makes a big impact on the way we think about things too. At some level most people must have some feelings about what the impact of the way we are living as a society is doing. If the environmental cost to produce things and use transportation was minimal I think we would all be a lot happier.
Controversy and Interesting Facts
The concentration of CO2 in the air has exceeded 400 parts per million for the first time in recorded history and it continues to go up at a fast rate even though emissions have been stabilized. This is concerning because it indicates that the ability for the environment to absorb the carbon is reaching some limit. Loss of forests and vegetation from fires and industry could be part of the problem. Saturation of carbon in the ocean and acidification of the waters from fossil fuel burning could be reducing the oceans ability to absorb atmospheric CO2 and produce oxygen.
It is possible too that countries are reporting their emissions incorrectly. These issues really need to have good agreed upon answers.
Rising the C02 level this fast is an experiment of unknown outcome but many scientists think we need to fix this right away. Doing nothing about it risks a catastrophic end of civilization and potential loss of many lives and biodiversity. Whereas switching to a cleaner renewable energy source would have many benefits.
To me quiting fossil fuel is kind of like quiting cigarettes. You know there are many benefits to doing it yet it feels so good and it is easy to continue and difficult to change. There is even a lot of data out there to this day that clouds the issue of the dangers of smoking. (I used to smoke but quit years ago)
As Chris Hedges pointed out in one of his talks - any civilization in danger of a major change to its way of life can fall into a pattern of very irrational thinking. His example was the ‘ghost dance’ that the indigenous people did to stop the imperialist ’s bullets when their way of life was threatened. To me much of the current controversy over changing to clean renewable energy seems to fall into this pattern.
Doing Something Differently
My friend and I were driving back from the hospital the other day (sometimes over a two hour drive depending on traffic) and talking about what might happen when we run out of fossil fuel. He tapped on the dashboard of the car and exclaimed, “How will we ever make anything like this without plastic?”
I think it is hard for us to imagine ever doing anything differently when we are so used to doing things in so many easy labor saving ways. Yet there are so many new materials and technologies that could be further developed that could let us create products that are biodegradable and up-cyclable into new and better products when discarded. Many products and services could become locally available so resources would not be needed in transportation so much.
With any luck these products could be even more easily produced and work better than what we presently have. More cars and bigger roads are not a good solution, I thought as traffic ground to halt as it so often does around here. Future generations and perhaps even those presently living will need to solve this issue at some point in any case because there is a limited supply of fossil fuel.
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