Energy and our Environment

I think I can safely say we take energy for granted. Most of us think of energy only when we put gas in the tanks of our cars.

If you think of energy in the form essential for our survival, it is what we eat. In the natural world survival is the balance between calories eaten versus calories expended finding something to eat. This bare bone view of life was emphasized by my military survival instructors. Later, biologists refined my understanding.

Before I pass on what the biologists patiently explained to me, let’s take energy understanding back one page. For all practical purposes the sun provides all sustainable energy. Plants, via photosynthesis, compete for the sun’s energy and turn photons (light energy) into sugars, starches, proteins and fats, we call food. Their ability to do this is what makes the third rock from the sun a blue green vibrant sphere instead of just a hunk of stone. Each plant at germination, has a game-plan to compete with, and sometimes to partner with, other plants to get the sun it needs.

My revelation about energy and animal life came from one of my biologist passengers whose big game survey I was supporting. For me, this was another classroom in the sky session with me being the student. He explained how each animal must have a game plan to efficiently find plant synthesized energy, their food. We were surveying elk, so I was tuned in for a lesson on the real big-game energy acquisition plan.  His example was the mole.

The mole, for him, was a great energy example because it is the animal he studied in college and the mole keenly demonstrates the fine line an animal must walk, or in this case crawl, to survive.

“Think about the mole and what it has to do to find a tasty root or grub.”, he told his now less than captivated student. “Can you imagine what a life we would have if we had to find potatoes by digging a tunnel with a pick and axe?  They must move a lot of dirt to get from one root to another. They can’t make mistakes it is too energy intensive. They have to have a plan.”

He tracked moles in college and found they set up efficient search patterns. When the search pattern located a food source, the pattern changed to exploit the food source habitat. After the food source was exploited, they resumed the search pattern.

He said all animal life must have efficient search patterns to survive. This, my military training and my logistics work on Military Sealift Command ships has forever changed how I view the world. Each deer, elk, hawk, fish, soldier, or civilization must have an energy game plan to thrive.

Here is how the analogy applies to us. To survive we must develop a “New” energy game plan which utilizes clean energy sources efficiently. For us, in our modern industrial society, it gets complicated in our quest for energy. If our children’s future is important to us, we must find energy sources while protecting our air, water, soil, and climate. The term “habitat” and its protection apply to us as much as it does to elk or moles. Basic environmental elements sustain the habitat which sustains the plants and animals we need to thrive.

Our fathers, mothers and governmental leaders clearly saw   the need to protect our habitat. They created the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. Today, the EPA is under attack by the Trump White House. Attacking environmental science is foolish because environmental science is the science of survival.

In our quest to protect our children you and I need to supply the will and determination (and votes) to make sure our government supports non-partisan environmental science. 

If our children are going to thrive, maybe even simply survive, we need to create a “New Clean Energy Game Plan.” Our scientists and progressive entrepreneurs have already found many new sources of clean energy such as wind, solar, and modern nuclear. Every day they are working diligently on more.

Right now, we can play a role in the transition to new modern energy. HR763, The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, is working its way through the maze of political obstacles in Washington DC.  We need to demonstrate the will and determination to move this new energy game plan along. If you want to play a role go to www.citizensclimatelobby.org for the details.