ARKANSAS — These are the times that try men’s souls,” said Thomas Paine during the early part of the American Revolution.
What he was witnessing as this nation struggled to stand on its own feet, while unsure about throwing off the security yoke of England, was, of course, totally diff erent from our current trying times, except that then, as now, his countrymen were split in their opinions on which direction to take their nation.
In the last decade, our national political division has redefined the word “gridlock” to something more akin to “set in stone.”
In most gridlock tangles, there really are paths to working things out; one must just persist. Nowadays it seems nothing will unite us in untangled mutual cooperation, not even a crisis tipping point, whichshould make clear to us that “United we stand, divided we fall.”
On the environmental front, the refusal by major carbon-generating countries like ours to lead in lowering carbon emissions by all means possible has caused gridlock toward climate action globally.
If we had the commitment of our citizenry for corrective changes to energy production - be it carbon caps, fees or even the shutting down of coalburning plants - then perhaps we would stand a chance of aff ecting the human infl uences on climate. But because we are not committed as citizens, our leaders have not led us, even kicking and screaming, toward what must be done.
Some people continue totry for an awakening in the hearts and minds of their fellow citizens. As I write this, activists in Texas have been chaining themselves to some of the heavy equipment set to plow across their state for the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, which will carry oily tar (bituminous) sands from Canada to Texas refineries for processing.
They see, as do those fighting fracking for natural gas from shale deposits in Arkansas and around the world, that the risks, costs and consequences from both the production and burning of these fossil fuels far outweigh the short-term gains of these resources.
As has been pointed out countless times in the media, the low-hanging fruit of easy oil production seems to have passed. Now the harder stuff to develop is being gouged out of the earth.
A perfect example ofextreme excavation is the strip mining of this heavy syrupy mix of clay, water, sand and viscous petroleum from approximately 54,000 square miles of tar sand reserves in Alberta, Canada. The processing of this resource unleashes greenhouse gases, heavy metals and toxic chemicals into the air and water and destroys the land. Also, enormous amounts of natural gas and water are consumed during extraction as well as in the preparation of the slurry for pipeline travel.
Environmental activists have long protested the pipeline’s proposed paths across this country’s midsection over fragile and vital watersheds and aquifers.
Their efforts managed to get a presidential delay while routing was examined more closely, but not a permanent halt to this gigantic project.
Pipelines have been known to leak, break,explode and wreak all manner of havoc across farms, forests and rivers.
The people trying to stop this Goliath want no part of those risks. None of us should condone this venture, just as we should not have risked the deep-sea drilling that resulted in 87 days of poisoning the Gulf of Mexico with almost 5 million barrels of oil. To make matters worse, thousands if not millions of gallons of toxic chemical dispersants were dumped on the oil to sink this human travesty, another example of panicked stupidity.
Still, those warning of similar consequences from projects like Keystone and deep-sea drilling off of Alaska (also recently given a green light) are ignored.
Leaders who have the power to stop this headlong plunge into irretrievable loss of resources and irreversible environmental damage haven’t stopped it, nor havethey shown any signifi cant moves toward altering the course of climate-changing influences. I don’t know who’s in more denial - those who claim global warming is a hoax or those who subsidize business-asusual. Both are promoting global warming.
The Democratic platform gives lip service to climate change, even admitting it is “an economic, environmental, and national security catastrophe in the making.” Honest Republicans don’t even pretend to care and toss out “Drill baby drill” as their answer to all things environmental. Neither party seems to think the environment is worth much debate.
Trying times, indeed.
FRAN ALEXANDER IS A FAYETTEVILLE RESIDENT WITH A LONGSTANDING INTEREST IN THE ENVIRONMENT AND AN OPINION ON ALMOST ANYTHING ELSE.
Opinion, Pages 11 on 09/09/2012