flem-ath

Fossil fuel binge:
day of reckoning lies ahead
by Rand Flem-Ath
published 6 February 1987
in The Times-Colonist (Victoria, B.C., Canada)
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Since the Industrial Revolution, roughly 200 billion tons of carbon dioxide have been vented into the Earth’s atmosphere. One of the least known effects of these waste products is the fact that in the past one hundred years the level of the world’s ocean has risen an entire foot. By 2030, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it could rise another three feet.
A large portion of this waste has been generated by coal-powered electrical and industrial plants. It is little wonder that one of the world’s most respected scientists, Andrei Sakahrov, has said that coal-powered plants are a greater danger to the planet’s environment than nuclear accidents such as the one that took place at Chernobyl.
Maintaining an industrial society forces us to make an unhappy choice between fossil and nuclear fuel. Solar energy, although desirable, is not sufficient to meet the demands of an industrial society. It can heat homes and offices and even supply some electricity, but, more critically, its capacity to run large industrail plants or power ships, tractors and airplanes is severly limited.
Increasing numbers of scientists are beginning to argue that the consequences of our current dependency upon fossil fuels will be far worse than even the possibilities of criminal possession of plutonium or the nuclear waste disposal problems which accompany the adoption of nuclear powered plants. If we continue to burn fossil fuels at our present rate, then as sure as what goes up must come down, there is going to be a reckoning. That reckoning, although slow at first, will build with a momentum that will push mankind’s ingenuity to its limits.
Already, the vast quantities of carbon dioxide which we have spewed into the air have had their effect. The so-called “greenhouse effect” results when the extra carbon dioxide in the world’s atmosphere creates a global heat trap which causes the Earth’s temperture to rise. As it rises, polar ice caps begin to melt, causing the ocean to rise.
A rising world ocean is the most serious spin-off of fossil fuel consumption. In this way it can be compared to nuclear waste. However, nuclear waste disposal is a technical problem requiring research, planning and security. A rising ocean is a problem for the world’s environment requiring either prevention or forced response.
If the EPA’s estimates are correct and the ocean rises three feet in the next 50 years, dramatic events will occur. At first, low countries such as The Netherlands will feel the pinch, requiring them to construct continually higher dams. Low-level cities (Miami and New Orleans to mention only two) will be inundated. Indeed, when one considers that all of the world’s harbors have been constructed around the present ocean level, one appreciates the problems for world trade if the day comes that these harbors have to be rebuilt, fortified or abandoned.
In addition to a rising ocean, other global climatic events may well result from our carbon dioxide binge. Farmlands could become too hot to raise food. Deserts might expand. Whole forests (along with their wildlife) could perish. Wind patterns might change. The magnitude of these problems should make one stop and consider whether or not in comparison nuclear waste disposal is as formidable a problem as it appears to be today.
Grappling with the serious technical and security problems which accompany the choice of nuclear fuel is a terrible burden, but the crisis management which will be forced upon us by a rising world ocean will put far greater strain upon our scientific and political resources.