Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth Day

Growing up on a farm in rural Mississippi, I have always had a strong connection to nature. As I learned about science and engineering, I also become interested in protecting the environment. My science projects often involved building terrariums and other small eco systems.

I had a subscription to Mother Earth News long before that was cool. I loved reading stories about how to be self sufficient I the wilderness.

One story I remember clearly – I wish I could find the back issue – was about how just a small increase in CO2 in the atmosphere would greatly increase the productivity of agriculture. The article showed how at earlier periods of time on the earthy, higher CO2 levels had caused plant life to flourish on the earth. If we had just a little more free CO2 in the air, then the deserts would be green again and there would be plenty of food for everyone. I tried to design a terrarium to test the theory on a small scale but adding a bit of CO2 was beyond my capabilities as a middle school student.

After getting my Chemical Engineering degree and going to work as an environmental engineer, I was shocked that people were suddenly concerned about global warming. What had changed? At the time I knew nothing of environmental economics and world conspiracy theories.

I looked at the global warming data and saw that all the fuss seemed to be about 0.6 degree rise over thousands of years. I never did figure out how they knew the actual temperature to with a tenth of a degree before Mr. Fahrenheit was even born.

What I did find out when I looked into the data further was that the research into Global Warming was funded by people who were promoting nuclear energy. Having worked in Oak Ridge for a while, nuclear energy seemed like a good way to clean up the environment. The coal fired power plant down the river from us would set off our radon alarms when the wind was right.

As one researcher commented, “If I want to get funding for a study on the mating habits of squirrels, I can’t get it. But if I want to study the mating habits of squirrels as affected by global warming, there is money for that.” This statement gave me the insight I needed to understand what all the fuss over global warming was really all about. Funding.

As the push for nuclear energy died off, I expected to see the emphasis on global warming to fade away. And after seeing how poorly some of the nuclear waste was managed, I was not too keen on promoting nuclear energy myself.

As the years went by I was continually amazed by the persistence of the Global Warming hoopla. It seemed to have taken on a life of its own. Personally, I like warmer weather, so I became a big fan of Global Warming.

Looking at the history of the modern world it is clear that we have had periods of warmer and cooler weather. There were times when rivers froze over and people drove across them. There were also times when it was much warmer and people got out and invented new stuff instead of staying in and huddling by the fire.

In Mississippi, there are stories of people going to the Tombigbe river and cutting out chucks of ice to store in ice houses for the summer. It certainly never froze like that during my life time. There are also stories of years without a winter where people played outside and swam at Christmas time.

AS we celebrate earth day this year, I am trying to filter out the hype from the facts. It is clear that the temperature of the earth is affected by the activity of the sun. There are predictable sun spot cycles.

One volcano produces more emissions than all of industry in the history of mankind. However, that does not mean we can’t all do a part to make our environment better.

Instead of blaming others for the problems, I choose to look at the things I can do to improve things around my property. I can use more environmentally friendly cleaners. I can protect my trees and green spaces. I can also stop worrying about dire consequences that might occur sometime in the future. I can focus on enjoying the environment right now.

This morning I enjoyed going for a walk with my dog down by the creek. The wildflowers are beautiful. The dogwoods are in bloom and many other trees are budding. Happy earth day to all.

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