
Will the Threat to Life Cause Vested Interests to Support Energy Breakthroughs?
Date: Saturday, November 05, 2005 @ 18:00:52 UTC Topic: General
Rapid melting of the arctic permafrost is an
unrecognized time bomb. Huge deposits of methane, a greenhouse gas twenty
times more destructive than carbon dioxide, are locked in the permafrost.
Within the last five years the surface permafrost in an area in Siberia, the
size of France and Germany combined, has started to melt for the first time
since the last ice age, 11,000 years ago. Methane, released as "burps", could
snuff all mammalian life in the arctic, according to one informed estimate, in
as little as 15-25 years.
These clouds would also drift south, threatening all
life on earth. Twice before in the history of the planet, roughly 55 million
and 251 million years ago, methane threatened to extinguish life on earth.
Present and planned efforts to slow Global Warming fall tragically short of what
is needed. Every one of us may be facing a little publicized planetary
emergency.
Not merely high prices and shortages, but the very hope for
the survival of life on planet earth, requires an extremely rapid transition
beyond dependence on oil, gas and coal. Vested interests need to recognize their
most important interest is life itself, for themselves, their children and
grandchildren. During WWII, our nation proved capable of producing aircraft and
armament in quantities that would have been considered unbelievable a short time
earlier. A similar all out effort, to develop and produce little-known
breakthrough systems, such as those based on the conversion of Zero Point
Energy; as well as rapid expansion of all carbon free energy technologies that
can slow global warming, must become an urgent near-term priority.
Mark Goldes is Chairman & CEO of Magnetic Power Inc. in
Sebastopol, California
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