Dr. Seuss said, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." People who care learn as much as they can, and act. If we change our behavior, there are many ways to protect all life on Earth, but wars and global warming are looming over our future.
Peace is essential to deal with severe weather events. We have wasted our legacy on never-ending oil wars. We have too many weapons and few peacemakers.
Have you seen Joel Pett's cartoon with a climate scientist explaining the benefits of reducing carbon emissions: clean air, clean water, safe food, mass transportation, etc.? Someone yells, "What if it's a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?" Truth be told, we don't have a choice. If we wait 10 more months, it may be too late to avoid irreversible changes.
Climate emergency
Around 60 million years ago an asteroid killed the dinosaurs. They were taken by surprise and there was nothing they could do. This climate emergency is man-made, foretold 40 years ago by NASA's top expert Jim Hansen. Global warming is due to burning fossil fuels for energy, ignoring the environmental cost of harmful emissions.
Eliminating energy waste
In the U.S. 68 percent of the total energy generated is wasted. Most of the waste is avoidable once you see it. Eliminating that waste reduces carbon emissions.
Here are some examples of energy waste:
• While the poor go hungry, 40 percent of the food produced is wasted in the food chain. Food waste is energy waste. It takes energy to produce, transport, distribute, and dispose of every pound of food.
• Dark-colored vehicles absorb more heat. If your trunk is full of stuff you don't need, you are wasting energy transporting dead weight.
• Rather than drive a heavy-duty Chevy Silverado 3500 pickup by your lonesome, you could instead be driving a cool Chevy Spark for less than half the amount of gasoline. Unless you have a full crew, a heavy load on the bed of the truck, or are pulling a heavy trailer, you are using the wrong vehicle and wasting energy.
The Chevy Bolt looks very similar to the Chevy Spark, but is a completely different animal. Electric vehicles (EVs) have electric motors and run on rechargeable batteries with up to a 230-mile range. Imagine having a clean, cool garage without oil stains or smelly fumes!
Conventional vehicles have not changed much in 100 years. They waste a great deal of energy as heat. The brakes, exhaust, tires, and engine get hot. When you slam on the brakes, the wheels get hot as kinetic energy is lost as heat.
When you slow down or apply the brakes, EVs convert kinetic energy to chemical energy in the batteries, giving you additional miles.
With no carbon emissions or oil changes, why not get one and help save life on Earth? Charging your EV is easy, with home solar panels and fast-charging points at hotels, shopping centers, and other locations. Electric charging stations have a small footprint without rusting fuel tanks underground.
Natural climate solutions
All energy comes from the sun. Solar and wind power are low-cost, emission-free, clean energy solutions. Protecting and restoring the soil, forests, wetlands, peatlands, mangroves, marshes, seagrass beds, and peat bogs are the best ways of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon and restoring life.
Let's stop wars, use clean energy, and protect, restore, and invest to salvage the forests, rivers, and oceans we have left.
What can you do in the next 10 days? Ask your representatives to seek peace.
Find the hidden waste in your life and eliminate what you can. Replace old light bulbs with LEDs. Electric utilities provide free energy audits to find energy leaks.
Keep your tires inflated, empty your trunk, test drive an EV. Plan your route, share a ride. Use Facetime or Zoom as an alternative to visit your family.
Open your heart, make new friends, and rescue two dogs. Dogs are compassionate, wise souls, they will be happy to teach you how to enjoy and care for the natural world. Dogs understand what you say and learn what you like. If the tail is wagging, you have a friend for life.
The climate emergency is an imminent threat. There is no life on a dead planet. Life is in our hands if we care enough to act now.
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Dr. Luis Contreras lives in Eureka Springs.
Editorial on 01/27/2020