Alaska Chinook: Global WARMING 101

The “Global Warming” debate finds fundamentally “A Tale of Two Cities - For or Against” attitude. With such a split, don't expect anything to actually be accomplished in efforts to combat what many believe is nothing to worry about and on the other hand everything to worry about. And as far as political talking points, “I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll...sorry out of breath”! Here is the real take as too why there exists a lackadaisical opinion so split. Yes, lackadaisical on both sides of the isle, as regardless of how one perceives this threat or not, nothing is getting accomplished to combat the warming trend “warning”. Yet, polar bears continue to weaken to death because of “No Ice” and this is the beginning of the end for many species, except the birds of prey – those flying high on Wall Street, as it all boils down to “money” this “Global Warming” debate! And it will remain just that, a “Debate” and no action taken, said again for a reason. What is well known finds the first hand fact not fiction and accepted without friction that the man-made “Warming” - whether a concern or not - is caused by excess “carbon” entering the atmosphere and acting as a “heat trap”, a byproduct from the energy we use day-in day-out to fuel the lifestyle we have come accustomed with. It is estimated that over 440GigaTonnes(970,000,000,000,000-pounds) of greenhouse producing gas enters the atmosphere from natural earthly emissions, like from plant matter decaying then through “photosynthesis” and other processes, it is regurgitated and made harmless through a clever balancing act. Humans augment that by an additional 29GigaTonnes, which is not consumed or rendered harmless by the “natural sickle cycle”, so things heat up. Even though what we send aloft is small in comparison, without a mechanism to render it harmless, we find side effects that contribute to abuse upon the normalcy – like with the Arctic ice melting away. See, it has taken many moons for Mother Earth to adjust to her own comfort level, and then we come along and disrupt things – a human nature attribute as we cannot leave well enough alone. So hold that thought, that the earth is equipped with a mechanism to “offset” the naturally occurring greenhouse gases – so can we do the same? Not by limiting what we puke into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, but by reuse also – wow, what a concept! Several years ago there existed an overnight threat that crude oil exploitation had reached that plateau, and it would be all down hill from there on end and in a matter of 30 to 40-years, we would be broke energy wise. The world that is! Lights out, or don't start your engines! Yes, and our nation's dream of ever becoming “Energy Independent” would be but a dream still. But, as energy prices started to escalate so the speculators could prove that Wall Street can indeed get blood out of a turnip again and again, other recovery methods to exploit “stranded” oil and gas pockets saw a revolution and we made it to the “Independent” status and actually started to export oil, as we didn't give a rat's ass about one day running on empty. Remember, it is all for the “money” and many believe they can take it with them to bribe the gatekeeper! And all this “fracing” is only extending that energy plateau, maybe by 10-years – a little blip lift in the decay trend. So come 2050 or so, we will see “stranded” motorists, gas lines and a ruptured economy due the fact we are an energy based society and laughed at a “rainy day” piggy bank fund. Basically, if we cared about tomorrow and future generations, all this “fracing” would be for purposes of a reserve. We don't care! And said again, instead of driving straight ahead on a road of conservation, we have veered off course and it is drive-baby-drive, as if we care not if we start to run out of energy derived from crude oil and natural gas. It is not just the energy from underground we use for gasoline and heating our homes that will one day be quarantined for limited distribution, but it also makes plastics and other chemicals necessary today for our basic survival. We are addicted to this easy energy source! It's like one day by end of day we find our nation and the world energy broke and wake up the next day realizing we must start over in our fire making efforts! Look, we are a “Hydrocarbon” based baboon society, just scratching our ass as we run amuck. So why so comfortable this attitude of not caring about the future with respect to energy needs as good things don't last forever? And through our continued thirst - addiction - we keep on sending an over abundance of greenhouse producing gas aloft, without any concern and continue to piss off the “White Bear”! Well this is where the “Truth” about “Global Warming” takes a turn for the worse...OK, maybe a happy ending. Don't think for a single split second that energy giants like EXXON will ever be but an historical memory. As humans, we continue to survive on this earth because we have easily accessible sources of energy, as we still need fire to boil the water for that morning caffeine rush. Fire, we use it for almost everything. It heats our homes, cooks the pizza, it melts the steel to build skyscrapers and it causes combustion to accelerate our vehicles and it keeps planes in the sky. When you are flying in a plane and look out at the wing mounted engine that seems so innocent, there's a “Big Fire” going on inside to create “Thrust”! Fire, so convenient and that is what makes the “Hydrocarbon” so desirable, as we have based our existence on it and it is “Fire Ready” with respect to “Energy”. You don't get fire from a “Wind Turbine” or hydro-dam directly, those energy sources can produce electricity then the electric currents can produce heat. It's indirect and renewable but won't do much wherein “direct fire” is needed - so NO, we will never see “Electric Planes”. Whereas crude oil for instance finds all the constituents for direct fire, like with methane, propane, butane and considered non-renewable – so based on supply & demand theory, it makes money. And therein exists the bone of contention, that of the theory of “Renewable verses Non-renewable”. The latter scares the money making rackets, the reason today “Renewable” energy finds scrutiny, just like with “Global Warming”. Getting back to that thought held, about reusing the “carbon” we send aloft by using fossil fuels to get to work each day. Wow, nature's way our way also? Yes, if it can make a “buck”. So, way back when the “plateau” was looking like a reality and serenading the doom & gloom - that we were starting to run on empty - money was secretly funded to study what happens when all the oil and gas disappears. Then what? Fossil fuels are very simple in the way the atoms are arranged, which adds simplicity into transforming these chemical skeletons and other man-made uses – different liquid fuels to chemicals to plastics to pharmaceuticals. Basically made from a defined skeleton of hydrogen and carbon – chained together to form methane and up the ladder to say pentane – which is natural gasoline. There is a field in Alaska that may go into production next year, it is what geologists call a retrograde condensate formation - in layman's terms, it can run your engine as is without any refinement! So we have become accustomed to an energy source that is somewhat easy to extract along with the fact it can be easily manipulated for other purposes to make life comfortable on earth. If only it were “Renewable” comes the thought! So during this “Secret Research”, there existed a begging question. If we have loads of “hydrogen” - as it is the basis of “water” - and if we found a readily available source of “carbon” then with our knowledge of “cracking”, would it be possible to reconstruct and provide “synthetic” fossil fuels? Wow, what a concept. But there came a perplexing problem, as where does one find a source of “carbon”? How about the atmosphere, as every time we light a match, we send carbon into the ether. So that is where scientist started to concentrate their efforts to locate a “missing” link to the world's future energy needs – to find a direct replacement for fossil fuels as our infrastructure was already based on that energy source and changing it out for something else was not really an option. But at first glance, there came confusion, as when scientists sampled the atmosphere, there came a deviation from what one would expect with the amount of CO2 floating around. See, we know how much excess CO2 we send aloft through the burning of fossil fuels, we have a very accurate assessment through knowledge gained over time – world wide speaking. But when the samples were analyzed, it didn't compute – what the samples rendered fell short of what was expected. That perplexed the science community, especially those working on this “Secret” project. And that is where they focused their attention as this proved to be a scientific abnormally that needed an answer. Then, like a miracle, the problem was solved. Carbon that was sent aloft by man-made sources found it behaved differently then the naturally occurring CO2, as it went hidden due its construction. Some of the research has concluded that only 1/6^th of man-made greenhouse gases generated from tailpipes or power-plant stacks went detected through global sampling – which meant for every pound humans sent into the once clear blue sky, 5/6^ths went hidden away mysteriously – which helped fuel the debate over “Global Warming” as inaccurate, as it appeared our “carbon” was unaccountable through testing. Basically squeaking, our footprint on earth was different then the footprint in space! Then the research paid off as the so-called “Missing Carbon” theory had been solved. Yes, the research found that the carbon was sequestered, in what is called a “Bucky Ball” - named in honor of Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller. Yes, this brilliant architect that made famous the importance of the “Geodesic Dome” structure was now at the center of attention, as the so-called “Bucky Balls” acted as a cage based on the geometry of a dome, to capture carbon and render it somewhat incarcerated. Then it hit home. If man could capture these so-called “Bucky Balls”, that much needed source being the missing link in efforts to fabricate synthetic “fossil fuel”, then our future energy needs would be fulfilled. And that research to capture these “Balls” filled with carbon was supposedly successful and then over-night the entire project was shelved. Why so? Think about it. As “Global Warming” becomes a bigger and bigger problem, one day the world leaders will be faced with a dilemma, by making decisions unpopular by calling for new forms of energy, not like wind and water, but with sources that also place controls on greenhouse gases and when we start retrieving the “Bucky Balls” and re-chaining our vehicles...it means the money will continue to roll on it like it always did, as we will remain a “Hydrocarbon” based society - only difference in round-two a synthetic society. And even though that sequestered “carbon” is free-floating in those cages way up high, it may someday find legal ownership rights, by those that can prove this pollution was their's to begin with wherein the capture by “outlaws” is well, “Outlawed”! Wow, what an about face on accepting responsibility for pollution. Bottom-line, energy trading makes humongous profits. And in efforts for the giant energy conglomeration to continue its reign to raid that wallet, research must find a source of energy that is not truly by definition renewable but re-capture-able, and the only thing with some semblance of “renewable” will be the continuation of that monthly bill they send us. And it appears they are already set for the future and counting their “Bucky Balls” instead of loosing sleep counting sheep. In a nutshell, take 2-molecules of water along with a molecule of “Bucky Ball” CO2 recaptured from the atmosphere by a proprietary process patented under “Intellectual Property” rights then send it to a “crack pot” and the result is a synthetic methane with a few extra “oxygen” atoms to act as an accelerant for near perfect combustion – Ka ching, and the circle be unbroken!

Richard Buckminster Fuller famous quotes:

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.

Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.

Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment.