The Real Villian of our Cimate

 

 

"If the Yellowstone Caldera ever blows, it will make most of our country look like something out of Dante's Inferno..."

I don't know about the rest of you, but I wake up every morning feeling guilty. I feel guilty because I am a human who (as I am told) am the biggest culprit of global warming, global cooling, climate change, super storms and so on. I don't know what else to do - we have upgraded our furnace and air conditioner with the most energy efficient on the market, we drive newer vehicles which have state of the air emission systems, we recycle - and yet I am still the villain of our shaky climate.

In 1980, Mt. Saint Helen's blew up in the Pacific Northwest. It was expected, so cameras were at the ready to capture the event. It was bad - even with the warnings some people died. Miles and miles of pristine forest were ruined. However, that eruption was nothing compared to Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991. That was a horrific event, and was the second biggest blast of the 20th Century. Of course, many of us read or saw the movie Krakatoa, East of Java. This volcanic explosion is sometimes referred to as the sound heard round the world. Some scientist believe it could be the loudest sound ever recorded in modern times on Earth.

However, all these volcanos will seem like firecrackers if the Yellowstone Caldera ever blows. Scientists say it has before, and it will again. The last time was about 640,000 years ago, although it has "burped" about 70,000 years ago. If it should erupt with the force it did 640,000 years ago, all the coal burning plants that mankind has ever erected will seem like small potatoes compared to what will happen to our climate. Basically, it will destroy a good portion of our country and plunge the world into a period of "nuclear winter".

What does all this mean? Should we not be good stewards of our environment? Absolutely we should. It is right and many believe it to be biblical. However, we do need to keep things in perspective. First off, more and more natural gas is being used over coal. Gas is cleaner. Most people (myself included) feel we are at the end of the age of fossil fuels. There are energy sources we will be using which are more abundant, cheaper and cleaner. Trust me - they are out there. They are just not ready for "prime time" as yet (windmills are NOT one of them).

Just as the Earth has cleansed itself after every volcanic event (yes, even after Yellowstone blew over 600,000 years ago), the Earth will cleanse itself from all the fossil fuels we have used over the years. The Earth will go on. We just need perspective. We are on the right track - we are doing the right things. We need to stop feeling guilty every morning like we have done something wrong - we have not. We need to just get up, feel blessed, and enjoy the day.