CLIMATE CHANGE

from  Jerry Buechler

Why should economic and environmental insecurity be the price we pay for our addiction to fossil fuels?  The EPA is taking actions supported by former EPA heads for Nixon, Reagan, and the Bushes!  Even the conservative World Bank states we need to keep 70% of known fossil fuel reserves in the ground to avoid runaway climate change. 

  The U.S. consumes 20% of the 93 million barrels of oil burned everyday.   This combustion of fuel creates heat equal to 4-5 Hiroshima bombs going off every second or the lighting of an Olympic pool full of fuel every 15 seconds.  Over 94% of this heat is being absorbed by the ocean.  The result is warmer ocean waters and acidification as the ocean absorbs our carbon emissions.

   There is a better choice we can make.  The cost of wind energy fell tenfold between 1980 and 2000, and solar panel prices have dropped more than 80% in five years.  In 1998 U.S. Crude, after adjusting for inflation, was $17.10 a barrel and last week it hit $107.

  As for coal, El Paso Energy in Texas signed a purchase agreement to buy solar power form Macho Springs in NM for 5.79 cents a kilowatt-hour---- less than half the 12.8 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity from new coal plants.  East Coast offshore wind turbines can generate the same amount of electricity as 3,000 coal-fired power plants.  Do we want to invest in renewables which are getting cheaper each year or in foolish fossil fuels that are getting more expensive and damaging to our climate, air, water, and oceans?