Spirituality and Ecological Hope

Fostering Ecological Hope

Today from Margaret Swedish:

While scientists and environmentalists stress with ever-increasing volume the dangers of rising coal production, still the rate of production increases, inexorably.  More irrepleaceable mountains blown to bits, more western land shaved off creating immense open pits, more carbon dioxide (CO2) spewed into our atmosphere. 

Coal remains the easiest, cheapest - and dirtiest  - way to meet our rising demands for electricity.

A great education in today’s NY Times’ Business section, two accompanying articles — one about the rising demand in China, the other about a company in Texas, TXU, that is determined to defy all the science about global warming, all the demands for the US to reduce carbon emissions, in order to create enormous new electricity capacity in the state of Texas — and beyond.

Committed to Coal, and in a Hurry, Too, tells the Texas story.  The other, China to Pass US In 2009 In Emissions, is a warning to the world if ever there was one. 

 This latter article notes that China will reach this milestone far faster than previously thought, and most of those emissions will come from coal.

Neither the US nor China are part of the Kyoto Protocol.  And China continues to insist that it is not fair for them to be mandated to reduce carbon emissions while the US refuses to do so.

There you have it.  On that basis, the world will surely descend into the climate chaos scientists fear.  Beyond that, the colossal ecological destruction caused by modern-day coal-mining practices are beyond the imagination if you have never seen what these companies are actually doing to get to the coal.

We have noted previously the unconscionable destruction of mountains in Appalachia, the notorious mountaintopping whereby mountains are literally blown to bits so the company can get more easily to the coal seams beneath them.  Look at these photos again, or the video at the ilovemountains.org website.  Then look at the photo in the NY Times article.  Look closely.  See those bulldozers down in the pit, the little yellow ones off in the distance?  Well, you know how big those things really are and it will give you an idea of the scale of this open pit in the earth.

While the earth is blown open and whole ecosystems are being destroyed, the coal industry is now running commercials recently to convince us that coal is the new form of clean energy.  They are saying this because of new technologies that will make it burn more cleanly, emitting less carbon into the atmosphere. 

You’ve probably seen the TV commercials, the pretty little girl who tells us, thank goodness, there is clean goal to guarantee her future well-being.   Man, this is a stretch, and if you want the real scoop on just how clean coal really is, read this article from one of our more important national resources on the coal industry, Jeff Goodell.  His new book, Big Coal, was published earlier this year, and it is high on my list of next reads.

So as I read this article about Texas, and how the population there keeps growing, and then I thought about the population explosions in hot desert climates of Nevada and Arizona, I was more and more depressed, wondering if there is any way to stop this.  It is a deeply rooted cultural problem, this belief that we should be able to live anywhere, and always at a comfortable room temperature, no matter what the climate of the region.  This is not human ingenuity and progress anymore; this is human stupidity, arrogance before the natural world of which we are a part, and denial on a massive scale.

If you have a note of hope in this, let me know.  I mean that.  Point to it.  Let my visitors know.  All of us who love this Earth can use a boost after we read this stuff.