Take Your Medicine
The floods in Iowa and Illinois are beating records set 2 or 3 centuries ago and even then I think that’s because before then we weren’t tracking these things. As I watch the video of water up to the gutters and street signs I can’t help but wonder when we’ll be next. Oh it won’t be a flooding river for me personally, more likely a rising water level care of melting ice caps but nevertheless it makes you think about buying a boat.
Record gas prices, records natural disasters. Is this nature’s new balance? If we run out of gas we have to find alternatives and while we’re at it we hope those alternatives will be better for the environment. Plus there’s the population control argument with regard to these natural disasters which is too morbid to even discuss.
So I read today that scientists have genetically modified a certain bug to consume agricultural waste and excrete petrol.
On the surface this sounds fantastic but the more you think about it the more sinister it becomes.
First, that agricultural “waste” is things like wood chips and wheat straw – this isn’t exactly headed for the landfill as its biodegradable so I think labeling it waste, while accurate for the farmer, is somewhat misleading to the general public.
Second, it excretes petrol so that could solve the gas crisis right? Maybe, but even if it did I suggest that the current gas crisis shouldn’t be solved. The high prices are providing serious economic incentive both on the consumer and producer side of the equation to be more environmentally responsible. So what if we found a limitless supply of gas? We’d still be pumping insane (and by insane I mean clearly suicidal by way of cognitive dissonance) volumes of harmful chemicals into the air, heating up the planet.
(Also the article headline states scientist “found” these bugs but that’s not true, they MADE them. It’s not like they were spelunking in the Amazon and happened upon our salvation.)
The solution isn’t new sources of gas; the solution is a fundamental paradigm shift away from gas. In the short term this means hybrids and public transit, in the midrange to long term it means electric or hydrogen fuel cell cars.
Sadly while the scientist in me is excited about the breakthrough, the spiritualist in me is slightly uncomfortable with us modifying another species genome to solve problems we created, and most importantly I think they’ve got it all wrong. Show me a bug the will eat the waste from nuclear reactors and poop topsoil and I’ll take my inner spiritualist out back and shoot him in the head but in the meantime let’s think back to Jurassic Park, “they were so quick to see if they could they never stopped to think if they should” or Star Trek VI if you prefer “let us redefine progress; just because we can do a thing it does not follow that we must do that thing”.
Don’t get me wrong, if we can genetically modify some bug to save us all I’m all for it so long as it’s safe but this bug doesn’t save us, it just dooms us in the long run. We may have cheaper gas for a decade but then its Waterworld time – no thank you. I’d rather take the harder but safer road of not looking for easy solutions to continue ignoring problems. There’s no free lunch and to environmental problems there’s no easy answer. It’s going to take work and a shift in our thinking and it won’t be pleasant but we have to take our medicine if we’re to survive.
I know it’s unpopular to be in favor of higher gas prices but this is just the market FINALLY beginning to reflect the true cost of using gas. Granted how we got here isn’t the best but the point is, and I may have to go into hiding after saying this, gas can’t cost too much when the ultimate cost is our extinction. Or if you prefer look at it this way, how much is your and your children’s future worth? Personally I think its worth a little much needed hardship to force us to transition to a sustainable existence.
Now go recycle something.
You know, before you hunt me down.
Oh, and vote Obama. He gets it. He knows that new supply and tax breaks are not solutions and we can’t wait for a science miracle; they’re excuses for society to continue ignorant behaviour. Look to responsible alternatives, not bugs that poop gas.
