No, I’m not going to suggest saving a cheerleader. You can do that, and collect valuable prizes, but that’s not the point of this entry.
According to the Los Angeles Times, scientists are saying that even with the best efforts, we can’t reverse global warming. Even if we all go back to the dark ages, abandon cars, give up electrical devices… all it will do is slow things down, not reverse it.
The report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that there is so much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that even if concentrations held at current levels, the effects of global warming would continue for centuries. Experts believe that to stabilize atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide — the primary contributor to global warming — CO2 emissions would have to drop 70% to 80%. That can’t be done. All truck, all trains, all airplanes, cars, motorcycles and boats in the United States only account for 7.3% of global emissions. Closing all fossil-fuel-powered electricity plants worldwide and replacing them with windmills, solar panels and nuclear power plants only is a 39% reduction globally. We can’t plant enough trees to recover.
So what’s the solution. Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, urged people to use compact fluorescent light bulbs, which provide the same light as a standard bulb on two-thirds of the energy. Of course, every little bit helps. Moving to a clothsline (eliminating a family’s dryer) could save electricity equivalent to 1,016 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
So what is the answer. I believe it is innovation. We need to invent a machine to suck up the carbon dioxide in the area and reverse the change: produce oxygen and coal in exchange. Get a bunch of these cleansers going, and we can reverse things. So who’s going to issue the challenge to do it?
