The world should not rely on fossil fuel
Date: Thursday, November 24, 2005 @ 19:54:26 UTC
Topic: General


Letter published November 22nd in the Christian Science Monitor

Regarding the Nov. 9 (Monitor) article "How soon will world's oil supply peak?": Huge deposits of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, are locked in permafrost, which is beginning to melt quickly all over the world. Within the past five years the surface permafrost in an area in Siberia the size of France and Germany combined is melting for the first time since the last ice age, 11,000 years ago.

Methane released from melting permafrost could quickly eliminate most life in the Arctic. As the methane drifted south, it could threaten all life on earth.

Present efforts to slow global warming fall tragically short of what is needed. We may be facing a little-publicized planetary emergency.

The very hope for the survival of human life requires an extremely rapid end to dependence on oil, gas, and coal, whether or not we have reached peak extraction of these resources. Those with vested interests in the oil industry must recognize their most important interest is life itself.

During World War II, the US produced armaments in quantities that would have been unbelievable a short time earlier. To slow global warming, a similar effort to develop breakthrough systems to produce energy, as well as rapid expansion of all current carbon-free energy technologies, must become an urgent priority.

Mark Goldes
Chairman and CEO Magnetic Power Inc.
Sebastopol, Calif.






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