The Electric Carbon Blanket Part 1

Last week, approximately 73 million Americans, or 22% of our nation’s population, voted for a climate denier to be our 47th President. No, environmental degradation was not anywhere near a priority in the electorate’s vision and direction; and yes, there were many other valuable topics considered when the final presidential vote tally by 143 million Americans differed by about 4 million votes.

I would give almost anything to have the opportunity to sit down with the President-Elect and educate him on why climate change is real. When granted such a privilege, I would talk about the electric Carbon Blanket in the sky using the following approach:

“Sir, when our children and grandchildren were very young, my wife and I were most  concerned if either one of them became seriously “under the weather” for an extended period of time. Fast forward to the present day, and someone almost as dear to us has been increasingly ill for well over ten years now. We are most concerned and I want you to understand why…

 “A very special lady, Mother Nature, is “under the weather” and resides in Earth’s biosphere where, as a matter of fact, all living species hang out. She caught her fever from a disease she calls global warming and unfortunately it will take decades for this invasive bug to go away. That is why I do what I do - to help get a cure for her very contagious fever.

Now that we generally know what the climate attitude will be stemming from the oval office, it is time to summarize a common sense fundamental understanding of why our planet is plagued with a fever that won’t go away any time soon. And just maybe you will give some more thought before acting as you have in the past towards global climate change.

Mr. President-Elect, I have prepared a three-part post series that will describe the ABC’s of the climate crisis. Let’s review today’s article which explains the origin of this climate menace.

There were several simultaneous contributing developments that led to what I describe as the electric Carbon Blanket in the atmosphere that bakes everything below. A blanket that is immovable at least for a few decades longer until clean energy sources reign and the science of atmospheric carbon removal is perfected. 

Overpopulation, triggered by the never-ending production output made possible by the Industrial Revolution unknowingly laid the groundwork for the climate status humanity must now adjust to.

4.5 billion years ago, Earth was born and it took nearly that long for modern man’s ancestors to first appear 160,000 years ago - a blip in Earth’s timeline. And in 1 AD, or 2,024 years ago and counting, human evolution progressed dramatically enough to reach about 300 million people. Then, in another 1,850 years or so another 900 million people were added in the mix to arrive at a grand total of about 1.2 billion humans gracing Earth’s surface. 100 years later in 1950, the population grew to about 2.5 billion. It’s not too unreasonable to expect our species to enlarge from 300 million to 2.5 billion over a span of 1,950 years, is it? However,

IN THE LAST QUICK 75 YEARS, HUMANITY SWELLED UP TO 8 BILLION PEOPLE.

And Earth wasn’t ready for that.

Why is that figure so staggering, you ask? Because that many people must survive on about 5% of what Earth has to offer. 5%? Is that really true?

Here are the numbers:

Water makes up 71% of the planet, leaving 29% land. Once the 43% of uninhabitable deserts, mountain ranges, swamps, jungles, etc. are omitted from that 29%, only 12 ½% is livable for the vast majority of people. In addition to water and shelter, each human requires food to exist, and therefore about 44% of the habitable 12 ½% must be set aside for agriculture (crops and livestock). Sidenote: It’s insane how the livestock population is slaughtered at the rate of 80 billion per year in order to supply the human food system. 5% of this planet is tolerable for us to co-exist in a civilized fashion. About 50/50 with respect to urban and rural locales, both exceeding the planet’s boundaries in many respects.

While the number of people recently grew out of control over a very short time to slingshot us onto a warming planet, the advent of the Industrial Revolution got it all started. 

Beginning in the mid 1700s, a global transition from the Agricultural Revolution began when production by hand slowly converted to machines. Inventions ruled for the next 150 years as water power, steam power, iron/steel production, the textile industry, technology and architectural developments, among many others, were born. All of this production had a reasonable effect on the rate of population growth because life was so much easier, affordable and joyful compared to all previous time going back to the stone age. 

Also during the 1700s, coal was discovered in the UK, as was natural gas, yet both were not consumed right away on a commercial basis. The machinery simply wasn’t there at that time. In 1850, kerosene oil replaced whale oil in terms of lighting lamps. Then, on 8-27-1859, when crude oil was discovered oozing up through the soil in Titusville, PN, it didn’t take long for the first oil well to be built and the oil industry officially debuted under the watchful eye of John D. Rockefeller. It was 1901 when Texas went on the oil map, followed by Saudi Arabia’s first oil well around 35 years later. All during this time, the coal industry flourished in various locations around the world. Now labeled ‘fossil fuel’, oil/gas/coal powered up households and economies and propelled mankind to the recent 73 year human population explosion, and Mother Nature’s natural environment took its first crippling hit since the dinosaurs were eliminated by another kind of explosion 60 million years ago.

So many people, Mr. President-Elect, so fast, requiring unprecedented levels of dirty fossil fuel energy to survive on, ushered in a silent and invisible emissions menace that resulted in an out-of-control atmospheric heat dominance for which science had no conclusive research until about seven decades ago. 

Earth scientists eventually proved beyond a doubt that a human caused Earth warming epidemic called greenhouse gas is a fact of life. The climate crisis originating formula: Industrial Revolution + fossil fuel + medical advancements = the 75 Year Human Population Explosion and the electric Carbon Blanket in the sky.

The surprised look on your face is a good thing. I look forward to meeting you again on November 26, 2024, for us to review Part II of this III Part explanation of why you must flip on climate change.