Until It’s No More
Let’s throw climate reality out the window for a few minutes and pretend fossil fuel never generated greenhouse gas in our atmosphere, and never will because it does not contain CO2 and methane. Instead it burns on other chemicals that are clean. Imagine it as our Utopian energy source to power up our planet. Impossible I know, but please bear with me for a few minutes longer. Global warming wouldn’t be in our vocabulary, nor climate change, and the natural carbon cycle would be balancing just the right amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, ocean, soils and vegetation as it did prior to the pre-industrial era. And the perfect nature made environment simply exists all around us!
For this exercise, think of fossil fuel as a clean energy and all of a sudden. . . it’s gone. The world has run out of its power source. In this dream world scenario, energy alternatives would be a necessity seemingly for a reason totally unrelated to our real world’s global warming motivation, right?
Or is this make-believe scenario actually directly related to our present day?
Yes it is, because in the above perfect best case scenario, energy options would be critical for survival. In our present day worst case global warming scenario - ditto. In that best of environmental times example, there certainly was one eternal reason for alternative power sources. Now, in the toughest of environmental times there are TWO.
IN OTHER WORDS, EVEN IF THERE WERE NO SUCH HUMAN CAUSED EVENT AS CLIMATE CHANGE, ONE FAR AWAY YEAR FROM NOW, FOSSIL FUEL WILL SELF-PHASE OUT, AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY WILL BE STANDING BY TO TAKE POWER CHARGE.
And you can be sure in that Utopian illustration, big clean oil and clean gas would be researching, then implementing wind, solar, etc. energy measures many decades prior to the depletion of such clean fossil fuel. And all during that time, BOG would disfigure Earth with no end of last ditch drilling and mining efforts. Why? Most likely there are additional oil and gas reserves embedded further down into Earth’s crust, thus forcing those fuel prices up and into the outer stratosphere.
This all makes sense because many experts on this subject forecast that worldwide fossil fuel reserves will be exhausted sometime during the later half of this century. Others are more specific and say the oil supply can last another 45-50 years and natural gas maybe up to an additional 50 years. Coal availability may remain intact longer, or another 80 - 90 years. No one knows for sure.
And of all nations, the U.S. has the largest untapped oil reserves in the world. I predict they will never be fully “uncorked.”
Clearly, Earth has a limited supply of the coal, oil and gas that have been so good and bad for us, and one day these underground reservoirs will dry up. The hundreds of millions of year old vegetation and animal decay entombed in our planet’s crust is simply not an endless routine. Therefore, we have a second powerful purpose for transitioning from dirty to clean energy. Picture this: In our hands there is a pivotal climate pitchfork with two prongs: one to cool down our home for livability; and the other prong is to insure everlasting alternative renewable energy options are well established on an affordable scale way before fossil fuel is no more.
I’m adding one more prong to the climate pitchfork: sustainability education. Due to an unprecedented worldwide student demand for sustainability education, there are hundreds, if not thousands of professors teaching Earth studies right now. In the U.S., degrees in sustainability are available in whatever state you wish to learn in. Go online where you can review the list of the top 100 global campuses offering climate action courses. In America, there are at least 35 upper education schools where one can enroll strictly in global warming classes.
A great example is Arizona State University. There, a BA in Sustainability, or a Masters of Sustainability, or a Masters of Sustainability Leadership awaits whoever is interested.
Also, the surprising number of high schools across the USA that offer sustainability curriculums, and even green jobs, is rapidly growing. This is so good because students are receiving class credits for participating in climate matters. The cause surrounds them and that is all that’s needed for an invitation.
Check out the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools. You won’t believe what’s happening there!
I assure you that the time is right around the corner where the vast majority of global adults will be on the same climate action page. What’s more, not too far off from now, 99% of our planet’s youth population will be anxiously waiting in line to determine how best they can participate.