Modern humans have relied on fossil fuels for advancement. Without coal, petroleum, oil and natural gas who knows where we would be? But what we do know is that our world and the way we live within it would both be radically different.
What are fossil fuels and when were they formed? I guess most users of fossil fuels never stop to ponder those questions. Fossil fuels were formed over millions of years when our planet was much younger, long before humans came along and long before the dinosaurs too. There were vast forests, fertile tropical seas and bubbling swamps. The organic materials spawned in that long, long period of our planet's history became the basis of all fossil fuels. It is admittedly hard to get your head around such an idea.
See the twenty four hour clock at the top of this blogpost. It represents our planet's history from its very beginnings to the present day. For the first twelve hours Earth was just cooking. Any life forming was primitive and unpromising and this carried on for the next six hours.
As we approached midnight, the world that we know now was beginning to emerge. The organic growth that is the basis of all fossil fuels formed between 9pm and 10.30pm. Dinosaurs began to appear at 10.56 pm and familiar mammals evolved around 11.39pm.
Humans have only been around since 11.58pm. Just two minutes of the twenty four hour clock. Those two minutes represent 300,000 years though the earliest ancestors of modern humans evolved around five million years ago. By the way, going back to the very beginning, experts tell us that Earth is 4.5 billion years old.
Doesn't it seem kind of weird that we have put so much reliance on what remains of forests and swamps that existed long before dinosaurs stalked the earth? From that rotting soup has come light and power, plastics and fuel for aircraft, cars, trains, ships and industry. Arguably, it is a gift that humankind should have cherished better or left hidden beneath the planet's surface.
The exploitation of fossil fuels has only been happening for the last second on that twenty four hour clock.
What difference that last second has made to our planet and home.
ReplyDeleteIt was all going nicely until we came along.
DeleteAnd then some millionaires with full body tattoos fly 120 kilometres from Manchester to Leicester to run after a ball in short panties.
ReplyDeleteOnly yesterday I learned that the brilliant multi-millionaire Messi had himself flown 52 times from A to B in a private plane within a quarter of a year, and thus in these three months had emitted more than 1,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air, which is more than an average Frenchman might do in 150 years.
Just trying to imagine what three months are on this very clock.
Three months would be a moment or perhaps half a moment or maybe a nano second. Just because you are stinking rich should not give you the licence to squander the Earth's finite resources. (I am talking about Messi - not you Sean!)
DeleteYet we humans think this is all for us.
ReplyDeleteAs the old protest song went, "When will they ever learn?"
DeleteAs I recall, way back in the 1960s when North Sea oil and gas first came on the scene someone, I don't remember who, said that this was far too valuable a resource to just burn it. But this was still in the days when Calder Hall was showing the way for nuclear power and plans for new reactors, including the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor, would make electricity too cheap to meter....! Sic transit Gloria mundi.
ReplyDeleteFor the benefit of readers who did not enjoy a classical education, the Latin phrase means "Thus passes the glory of the world".
DeleteI have seen this clock (or a version of it) before; if I remember correctly, it was in one of my school books and we talked about either in biology or geology class. Back then, the emphasis was not on our impact but on our very young age as a species, compared to everything else on the planet.
ReplyDeleteAnd when you think about all the problems we have caused to it (the planet), it all boils down to overpopulation. Less people would have used a lot less fossil fuels, and - to go with Sean Jeating's example - emit a lot less CO2.
There is a direct correlation between the exploitation of fossil fuels and population explosion.
DeleteKnowing this and yet we still allow those in office to take us towards ruin makes one weep. In the end the systems have to change, and nature is already initiating it. Weirdly I have just pulled out Naomi Klein - This Changes Everything (Capitalism vs the Climate).
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like the sort of book that would engross me.
DeleteWe have been here the least amount of time, yet have created the most mess. Shame on us.
ReplyDeleteNever stopping to think - "What the hell are we doing?"
DeleteI think my clock needs winding up.
ReplyDeleteLike a royal footman, I would be happy to do that for you ma'am.
DeleteThere are plenty of fossil fuels left underground in England like 200 years of coal but we would rather import fuel from abroad or build nuclear power stations that can never be safely decommissioned.
ReplyDeleteWe have created such a conundrum - like walking into the middle of a maze and not being able to find our way out.
DeleteNorthsider is right about the coal, but it's not just an issue of getting the coal out it all revolves around that demon money doesn't it? Who ever is going to make the most money in government will decide for us, we have no choice. I read that we have plenty of oil from our own oil fields and we import quite a bit of fuel from Norway, so why the hike in prices. From what I can tell it's not all the man in Russia's fault. The EU will not pay him in roubles as he wants and so he is denying them the oil. How many people know that I wonder.
ReplyDeleteI get sick of mans greed in this world.
Briony
x
You are right to point out the connection Briony. Profit is King. Environmental concerns have only ever been seen as bothersome obstacles to profit-makers.
DeleteIt always amazes me what a little bit of time the human race has had in relation to the universe as a whole. There's a museum in Lyme Regis where you can climb a staircase of about 15 steps and it is only on the last step that dinosaurs die out and man starts to evolve.
ReplyDeleteWe have really only been here for a smidgen of time but we still managed to **** everything up if you will excuse my French.
DeleteWell, it didn't take us long to mess things up, did it? Good job that we haven't been around longer - there would be nothing left now. In the past no-one seemed to bother about fossil fuels or the oil running out - we just assumed it would be there for ever.
ReplyDeleteYes, I knew that the original reason for Russia turning off the gas was financial, and they demanded payment in roubles. When I went to Russia a few years ago, everyone wanted payment in euros. They didn't want roubles or dollars!
Only now are we beginning to see the true errors of our ways. If only there was a God to guide us.
DeleteAh, humans. We always like to say that there is no past nor future, just this very moment and yet, we spend our lives robbing the past which is going to lead to ending the future for our planet.
ReplyDeleteIt is as if we belong to a cult that is blind to our collective wrongdoing.
DeleteI've long given up hope that we will do anything about fossil fuels or global warming until it is too late. I'm just hoping that we can survive the aftermath and learn from the mistake.
ReplyDeleteI worry for our grandchildren and their children. The disaster is impending.
DeleteOne of the first episodes of Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Cosmos series dealt this this "clock" in a very interesting way. That whole series is astounding--I wonder if you've ever watched any of it? If not, you ought to check it out. Fascinating stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up Jennifer. Never heard of it before.
DeleteNeil Degrasse Tyson is one of my personal heroes. Seriously. Cosmos is a wonderful introduction to him, and I'm sure it's available on Youtube by now. Check it out and let me know what you think! :)
DeleteWe didn't take long to muck it up, did we?! There will be a reckoning when it runs out, or when burning it becomes untenable. (It pretty much already is.)
ReplyDelete