156
antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and other problems. Higher water temperatures in the
oceans result in more powerful hurricanes and damage to coral reefs.
Human history has been a relentless exploitation of the Earth, to “tame nature,”
extract mineral resources, harvest timber, and turn just about everywhere into farmland. Resources seemed infinite. Almost no one worried about running out of bison
to hunt on the American Great Plains, elephants to kill in Africa for their ivory, or
whales to harpoon for oil and meat until these animals became scarce. Immense
forests of old-growth timber were cut for ships, houses, and firewood, with only
small, isolated stands remaining today. A few people like John Muir began raising
alarms in the early twentieth century, pointing out that these resources were not
limitless and should be conserved. Despite those who claim that human activities
have no measurable effect on the climate, there is plenty of evidence to show that
humans are more than capable of altering many Earth systems, including climate,
often in a detrimental way.
The first widespread realization that humanity could adversely affect the climate
on a global scale came about during the development of the first atomic weapons in
1945. Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer’s famous quote from the Bhagavad-Gita after the
successful Trinity test in New Mexico: “Now I am become death, the destroyer of
worlds” is a legend of the nuclear age and sums up the civilization-ending potential
of nuclear war. Military personnel, scientists, and most political leaders are under
no illusions about the risks to the entire Earth that would come from the use of
nuclear weapons. Indeed, this reality has been an important factor in pulling nucleararmed nations back from the brink more than once.
The widespread realization among average citizens that nuclear weapons could
inflict devastation on unimaginable scales is traced by historians to a NATO war
game in 1955 known as “Carte Blanche” (Richardson 1966). This exercise imagined a European conflict lasting 6 days that was fought largely by rival air forces.
Simulated NATO aircraft employed tactical nuclear weapons to counter slightly
superior simulated Soviet forces. Of the 335 simulated nuclear missiles deployed
against the Soviets, 268 of these landed on West Germany, killing 1.7 million simulated people. When the results of Carte Blanche were leaked to the press, the actual
non-simulated people of West Germany were understandably alarmed, and protest
movements began soon afterward to demand the removal of all nuclear weapons
from Europe.
Dr. Carl Sagan at Cornell University and his colleagues took it a step further, and
based upon their studies of planetary atmospheres, modeled the severe cooling of
the Earth that would result from the massive quantities of soot injected high into the
atmosphere from cities burning under nuclear fires (Turco et al. 1983). Sagan popularized the notion of a “nuclear winter” in the 1980s and called for reducing the
number of nuclear weapons to levels below this threshold in an effort that he labeled
as “planetary hygiene.” The idea of humans being able to actually change the fundamental properties of the Earth began to grow in public consciousness.
Along with the impacts that humanity has had on the environment, it is also
important to recognize that the environment impacts humanity. Global warming and
other manifestations of climate change are causing increasingly larger human
9 Fossil Fuels and Climate Change
antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and other problems. Higher water temperatures in the
oceans result in more powerful hurricanes and damage to coral reefs.
Human history has been a relentless exploitation of the Earth, to “tame nature,”
extract mineral resources, harvest timber, and turn just about everywhere into farmland. Resources seemed infinite. Almost no one worried about running out of bison
to hunt on the American Great Plains, elephants to kill in Africa for their ivory, or
whales to harpoon for oil and meat until these animals became scarce. Immense
forests of old-growth timber were cut for ships, houses, and firewood, with only
small, isolated stands remaining today. A few people like John Muir began raising
alarms in the early twentieth century, pointing out that these resources were not
limitless and should be conserved. Despite those who claim that human activities
have no measurable effect on the climate, there is plenty of evidence to show that
humans are more than capable of altering many Earth systems, including climate,
often in a detrimental way.
The first widespread realization that humanity could adversely affect the climate
on a global scale came about during the development of the first atomic weapons in
1945. Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer’s famous quote from the Bhagavad-Gita after the
successful Trinity test in New Mexico: “Now I am become death, the destroyer of
worlds” is a legend of the nuclear age and sums up the civilization-ending potential
of nuclear war. Military personnel, scientists, and most political leaders are under
no illusions about the risks to the entire Earth that would come from the use of
nuclear weapons. Indeed, this reality has been an important factor in pulling nucleararmed nations back from the brink more than once.
The widespread realization among average citizens that nuclear weapons could
inflict devastation on unimaginable scales is traced by historians to a NATO war
game in 1955 known as “Carte Blanche” (Richardson 1966). This exercise imagined a European conflict lasting 6 days that was fought largely by rival air forces.
Simulated NATO aircraft employed tactical nuclear weapons to counter slightly
superior simulated Soviet forces. Of the 335 simulated nuclear missiles deployed
against the Soviets, 268 of these landed on West Germany, killing 1.7 million simulated people. When the results of Carte Blanche were leaked to the press, the actual
non-simulated people of West Germany were understandably alarmed, and protest
movements began soon afterward to demand the removal of all nuclear weapons
from Europe.
Dr. Carl Sagan at Cornell University and his colleagues took it a step further, and
based upon their studies of planetary atmospheres, modeled the severe cooling of
the Earth that would result from the massive quantities of soot injected high into the
atmosphere from cities burning under nuclear fires (Turco et al. 1983). Sagan popularized the notion of a “nuclear winter” in the 1980s and called for reducing the
number of nuclear weapons to levels below this threshold in an effort that he labeled
as “planetary hygiene.” The idea of humans being able to actually change the fundamental properties of the Earth began to grow in public consciousness.
Along with the impacts that humanity has had on the environment, it is also
important to recognize that the environment impacts humanity. Global warming and
other manifestations of climate change are causing increasingly larger human
9 Fossil Fuels and Climate Change