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Today, carbon emissions, or the reduction of carbon emissions to be more precise,  is front and center in the media.  Turn on the TV and sure as there are little green apples, some politician or other is spouting on the evils of carbon emissions, the same goes for newspapers and magazines.  It’s a hot topic and has easily copped the green poster child award from the greenies and the wannabes.  Newly minted experts pound their chests and speak knowingly of the evils of carbon emissions and how this violation of the environment is the cause of the global warming phenomena we are experiencing today.  The dire warning is that if we do not mend our ways the Rocky Mountain peaks will be our new islands in the sun.

With apologies to Al Gore, members of the jury have yet to deliver a clear cut verdict as to whether carbon emissions are indeed the prime cause of global warming  --- but there is  consensus that it certainly is not a healthy situation, not for the planet and not for humanity, and it is up to us, to each one of us, to take responsibility for a healthier world.

What exactly are carbon emissions anyway?  Well according to the dictionary it is the releasing of carbon into the atmosphere.  Carbon emissions are not new.  We learned about them in grade school science and knew of them as carbon dioxide.  Carbon dioxide was spewed into the atmosphere on a daily basis and was neutralized at night by nature’s lungs: the green foliage of the plants and trees and forests and jungles of the world.  There was a good balance and life went on.

A funny thing happened on the way to progress.  The Industrial Revolution spawned plants of a different sort, in a word, factories.  What had hitherto been made in small quantities by artisans and craftsmen was now mass produced by sophisticated machines. As the scale of economies took hold, the cost of production came down and things became more affordable.  Harsh living conditions were softened, convenience and easy lifestyles were now available not only to the rich, but to anyone who was willing to roll up his sleeves and put shoulder to metal.   It was not long before muscle power was replaced by more efficient machinery powered by wood, coal, oil, hydro, and more recently, nuclear energy. All these sources of energy left a harmful by-product: carbon dioxide, or, as stated earlier, carbon emissions.

Plants and forests and jungles continued to work hard but were quickly outperformed by the toxic belching factories which were going up faster than you could cut down a forest. And cutting forests they were --- both in the northern and southern hemispheres putting even more pressure on nature’s own lungs.  To compound the problem, machinery was now being invented for use in the home, not just the factory, and conveniences such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners, central heating and air conditioning put even more pressure on our energy resources.  It wasn’t long before the air was filling with carbon dioxide faster than it was being filtered by the combined forests of the world.

The solution while self evident, is not a one stroke effort.  Eliminating the progress that mankind has made and return to the pre-industrial age is just not going to happen.  What we read and see in the media as solutions is mere tokenism.  Cycling to work, taking our own re-usable shopping bags to the store, even growing our own veggies are all good and should be encouraged, but this is just a nod to the real issues --- we need a new revolution, a technological revolution.  We need to find new technologies that are clean, do not spew out carbon emissions.  We need to look at things differently too, change our way of thinking, and rather than putting  up blockades at every new advancement, examine how that advancement may create a healthier environment.