The Harm Civilization has done to the Earth
March 31, 2010Global climate change will undoubtedly be the hallmark of this century. Not only does its effects cover the environment but the economy, politics and the nature of civilization itself. If you were to get some price computing scales and contrast the price of coal and oil to ten or fifteen years ago, you could note a drastic difference in price. The digital scales would lead you to two conclusions: One is that the world is running out of oil, the other is that the number of customers for oil is drastically rising.
There has been a fair amount of talk about “peak oil” among environmentalist groups. This refers to when the level of oil in the world has been depleted to such an extent that it becomes unaffordable to purchase it. Environmentalists believe that at a certain point, it will take more energy to take oil from the ground than can actually be created from the oil itself, making the search for more oil to be impractical. This will cause oil to become impossible for anyone to purchase, and lead to a global meltdown of massive proportions.
While no one knows exactly when this will occur, chances are good it will be in this century, and those under the thirty years of age will see it in their lifetimes. Consider for a minute just how often oil is used in everyday situations: Fuel of course, but plastic is also created from oil, and the food we eat is fertilized with oil products like petroleum, then the food needs to be transported into cities and that takes more fuel.
These changes don’t take into consideration the effects of global warming. While it’s often considered that there is debate among the scientific world about the legitimacy of global warming, the fact is that only 0.24 percent of scientists have any doubts about its reality.
The recent conference at Copenhagen ended without any binding treaty only a non-specific agreement that is largely agreed among environmentalists to be a rather useless document. While the American president Barack Obama is being largely blamed for the results, a recent article in the Guardian claims that it was China’s actions that caused no binding targets to be met. China did say that they were unwilling to announce their carbon emissions to publicly, and negotiations between the UN, other countries and China were extremely frustrating. While it could be the case that China is at fault, the level of involvement Western politicians have with big oil companies puts some doubt on the notion that they are the only country at fault.
While 2012 prophecies are pretty silly, it’s likely there will be great changes to our way of life within the next couple of decades as a result of the way society has been treating the planet. There are still changes that can be made, however. By arranging to grow your own food, you can prepare to live in a world where food cannot be delivered to our door, and traveling more than a couple of miles a day becomes a rare happening. Who can tell where civilization will be a hundred years from now?
