Rain

The rain is pelting down here in Boston today. Torrential rain. This is a new type of rain for New England. We are suddenly subject to downpours more typical of climates south of us. Flooding and emergent home repairs result.

Ignoring the deterioration of the atmosphere, due to fossil fuel usage by too many human beings in this enclosed ecosystem of Earth, this bubble of air, water and life in a dry, cold universe, is doing nothing to reverse this trend. The damage that is already done will plague the inhabitants of Earth of decades ahead, even if we begin drastic measures today to halt the environmental changes.

The apparent flaw in human evolution is the frontal lobe's ability to work against the best interests of the human organism. The destractibility and abstraction of the human brain diverts the focus of existence from the essential to the idealized, the imagined. So, the organ in the human body responsible for the advancement of human age and quality of life in the short term may undermine human prosperity in the long run.

This makes me appreciate the tidal nature of existence. There is balance in a closed system. One positive balanced by one negative. Yin and yang. Light and dark. Every gain brings its corresponding loss.

Taxes

It has been clearly demonstrated that a substantial state and national fuel taxes could turn our economy around and basically save the planet by waking gas-dependent Americans up in the same way that tobacco taxes weaned the majority of U.S. citizens off smoking. The actual impact on individuals would be negligible. Drivers would be able to compensate by prioritizing their use of vehicles. Those with incomes large enough to travel could afford the increases. Income taxes could be stabilized and perhaps reduced eventually.

There is no free ride back to a viable planet. Supporting politicians who rail against these measures is self-defeating. Those who refuse to pay their share now will pay more dearly later.

Wind

The conflict between the better mind of human beings and the weight of human possessiveness and greed is quite apparent in the Cape Wind conflict, which moves closer to resolution today at the Massachusetts State House.

The best scientific minds have guided the public to an awareness of the effects of depending heavily on fossil fuels to maintain the easy lifestyle of machine-dependent nations. Fossil fuel usage poisons the atmosphere and disrupts the balance of gases in the planet's atmosphere, causing devastating sea level rise. None but those on the fringe dispute global warming.

Wind power, currently being exploited with urgency from Europe to Saudi Arabia to China, is a low-carbon, renewable (perhaps endless) supply of electrical power. Now, if I can imagine myself on an alien space ship looking at the situation, I think I'd be saying, "Wow, those humans finally realized the power source they used to grind grain to feed themselves centuries ago can easily produce electricity and maybe save their planet."

This hasn't been the opinion on Old Cape Cod. The wealthy on Cape Cod and the islands have caught the NIMBY bug with considerable financial booster shots from the fossil fuel industry, who have contributed to at least one opposition group loudly protesting the construction of a wind farm in Nantucket Sound on the grounds that it will spoil their views, scare the tourists and knock some misguided birds senseless. The NIMBY-ites have also pulled in the American Indian community who claim that the wind farm obscures views of the sun, essential to their rituals. Apparently they plan to position the casinos they would like to develop away from holy horizons.

So far, Cape Wind has generated more hot air than energy. Nearly ten years of contention have brought us to the announcement today from the Secretary of the Interior, which will either bless or nix the project from the Federal government's perspective. This will not be the end. Further court battles will most likely ensue.

The better judgment of the human mind would vote to restore the planet's viability for human life, no matter what it takes. No planet to live on means no views, no Indian rituals, no worrying about concussed birds, no law suits at all. But, as amply illustrated by the opponents to Cape Wind, clinging to what we already have can be the enemy of getting what we need.

Coal

The recent mining disasters in China and the U.S. reveal the underbelly of the petro-chemical economy, which drives the prosperity of the few at the expense of the many. Coal itself has no conscience. Nor is it necessarily a toxic material. It is a precious natural resource.

Coal mining, still carried on by poor, undereducated men and women from the underclasses at great personal health and safety risk, is currently an industry of profiteering and raping of the planet for financial gain by the owners of the industry. Mine disasters are caused primarily by faulty techniques and poor safety measures, even by the current low-technology standards of the industry. Mine operators try to ignore anything that interrupts profitable production. The miners pay the price with their bodies and their lives.

Coal could be extracted and burned for energy with minimal risk to human life and ecological damage. However, the vast number of consumers, who are just getting by in the uneven economy of most countries, would not bear the price without political protest. And, this political protest may just bring about more justice in elections, justice in the work place and justice in the tax codes. Profits for the exploiters would evaporate. Politicians would no longer get their cut.

West Virginia was one of the locales of the most ardent protests against health care reform. One might say the population deserves what it gets by bowing to the interests and propaganda of the mine owners. However, that population has been deprived of proper education and financial resources for nearly two centuries under the bully rule of the coal industry, aided and abetted by Washington, D.C..

Coal is indeed a fossil fuel, as its production is a fossil of a harsh and unequal age of human exploitation of mankind and the planet.