Bringing Back Coal, At The Wrong Time

EACH YEAR the human species adds thirty billion tons of carbon dioxide to earth's atmosphere. The oxygen doesn't matter. The carbon does. The total has passed half a trillion tons, and rising, although the good news is that the annual added carbon amount has levelled off at thirty billion tons, due to a global tendency towards wind and solar energy. that we have flat lined is good news, but not good enough. the next stop is to decrease the annual added amount, then eliminate carbon additions altogether by the middle of this century. its doable, but difficult, and will require work and sacrifice, like anything else worthwhile. Atmospheric carbon content was about two hundred parts per million in 1800, three hundred parts per million in 1900, and is today four hundred and ten, and rising. if the level reaches 450, without reversing and declining, the game is over, the planet will no longer be suitable for human habitation, and most other species will vanish. the planet will have to cleanse itself, then start all over again, evolving what it chooses. One would think it would make a different choice next time. These are demonstrable facts, not alternative facts. now is not the time to eliminate environmental regulations, or to bring back cola and oil. The republican party is the greatest threat to the future existence of the human race in human history. this is not only because Noam Chomsky says it is, but because its member by and large do not see climate change, or global warming, whatever you want to call it, as an eminent threat, which it most certainly is. now is the time to push the panic button, to take drastic measure to save the world for our grandchildren, and our grandchildren's grandchildren. Anyone who was born after the year 2000 will live long enough to experience catastrophic changes in the planet, and in their personal lives because of it. These changes are already visible; crazy weather, thousand year storms every year, severe drought, severe wild fires year round, islands sinking beneath the rising oceans, coastal cities being flooded every high tide. Everyone living along the coastline of every nation on earth can plainly see rising sea level. When the tide comes in in Miami beach, Florida, the ocean floods the sewer system. The United States navy is already making plans to relocate the world's largest naval base, at Norfolk, Virginia. its going underwater, fast. the American military leadership considers climate change to be the nation's most sever threat to national security, and we are still early in the process. By electing people to public office, such as members of the republican party, who do not consider climate change to be a major problem, we are digging holes, and hiding heads. now is not the time to bring back coal. never again will there be such a time.