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Health & Fitness

Tipping Point of Toxicity

It has been said that with every bit of medicine there is a little bit of poison.  And sometimes the benefit of the medicine is outweighed by the harm of the poison. 

The same can be said of fossil fuels.  We are now at the point in time when fossil fuels are causing more harm than good.  The harm is primarily to the future, to our children.   

Fossil fuels emissions, including carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, are the number one cause of this era’s climate change.  Our children will most certainly be impacted more by climate change than we are today.   A destabilized climate means abnormal seasons and abnormal weather.  See wunderground.com for great explanations of our climate changed weather.   Under the dome of CO2, it means warmer oceans and warmer day time and nighttime temperatures. It means more extreme storms and more record high temperatures.  Our warmer atmosphere holds more moisture and it increases the evaporation demands above oceans and lands.  As more water vapor concentrates it forms larger storms and results in more flooding events.  We’ve had milder winter and spring temperatures in Missouri.  At first I welcomed these warmer winters, but not anymore.  See the websites skepticalscience.com and globalchange.gov to find trends and outlooks on temperature and water.

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All this means more unpredictability and chaos.  It means more roofs blown off and higher insurance rates.  It means food and crop failure and unpredictable water levels.   It means wildfires and changing ecosystems.  I am frightened of the freakiness of the weather I’ve seen in the last 10 years.  And there is expected to more warming and changing for every succeeding year in the future.  What will it be like then?

The Arctic ice had melted by 80 percent by volume in 2012 since 1979. The Arctic has been leaking dangerous methane and carbon from melting ice and permafrost.  This alone is causing more warming.  Methane levels are increasing each year.  Scientists call it positive feedback loops.  These feedback loops can result in a tipping point of runaway climate change.   Please don’t take my word for this.  Look at Climate.gov, skepticalscience.com, globalchange.gov or subscribe to Arctic-News blog newsletter.  

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Even the International Energy Agency states that much of the fossil fuel reserves must be kept underground to possibly keep the planet at safe temperatures.   

I’ve been at the offices of our state and national politicians.  I show them the temperature prediction graph from the National Climate Assessment Report as found on globalchange.gov.  I am essentially begging for my children’s lives.  I get a waffled answer back it would hurt the economy to address this environmental issue.  Who’s the economy?  I would give of all of my money, time and energy to make it safe for my children.  Meanwhile, Congressmen Blaine Luetkemeyer and Ann Wagner continue to deny that climate change exists.  How much do thing have to heat up before they speak up?  

A revenue neutral carbon tax and rebate would be the trick that flips the switch on carbon emissions.  Investors would immediately invest a millions of dollars in renewable energy, energy efficiency, smart grids and smart transportation knowing the demand will increase as people transition out of the carbon energy to the numerous and safer non-carbon forms of energy.  The rebate would put money back into the pockets of consumers.  Those who make the transition will end up paying less in the carbon tax. The carbon tax would extend to imports making the transition beyond the U.S. borders.  Citizens Climate Lobby advocates for this solution and so do I.

State legislation could facilitate competitive clean energy production and efficient use of energy.  But the status quo of protecting the domination of monopoly utility companies seems to have a definite edge with the Missouri legislature Votesmart.org shows that our Missouri utility companies have donated to the winning politicians.

Fossil fuels, including fracked gas,  pollute cumulatively.  Carbons, mercury, arsenic and benzene, and other pollutants do not cycle out.   

People are waking up to other environmental threats.  The threat of the Fukushima disaster is ongoing and radioactive materials are leaking into the Pacific Ocean.   We really don’t want to give coal ash to our kids for breakfast every morning as suggested was safe by Ameren’s expert witness on the recent coal ash storage proposal.  We have lost one half of the top soil in Missouri since Americans first broke sod.  The bread basket of today will be the empty basket of tomorrow.  American landfills are a disgrace.  A trip into Wal-Mart shows acres of packaging with dubious destinies.   Genetically altered foods, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers have downsides on our bodies and on the Earth.  

But surely such sentinels as the free market, the media and politicians would warn us of any catastrophe or harm!  And these are the same sentinels that gave us a one day warning that the economy and housing were in free fall in 2008!

Conservatives need to be rebranded as high rollers willing to change the chemistry of the planet- or to idly sit by doing nothing and watching it change.  Nervous Nellies such as me are true conservatives, not liberals.  I am joined by millions across the U.S and the world.  We are all sensing the danger of this altered world.

The “hustle” of these corporate players has crossed the danger line.  Our very lives are threatened, And now is the time to take action.  Let’s Roll!

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