Some brainiac decided that one solution to the threat of Climate Change is "carbon sequestration". The idea is that pumping excess CO2 underground in a liquid state will slow the warming process and save the planet. But what is CO2? Isn’t it mostly oxygen? Shouldn’t it more rightly be called oxygen sequestration? And what would we be saving the planet from exactly?
It seems to me that our planet has already reached a state of entropy. Soon the South Pole will melt, causing 7,000 cubic miles of water to raise see levels by 240 feet. This process is irreversible because for isolated systems, entropy never decreases. So how much trouble are we in?
Let’s look at this from an optimist’s point of view: Once people are forced to relocate to higher ground, the demand for billions of new domiciles will spur economic growth like nothing we’ve ever seen. The hundreds of millions of low lying structures in threat will either be relocated or recycled causing an unprecedented recycling boom.
Antarctica is larger than the continental United States and contains untold resources which can finally be tapped. Millions of jobs would be created for that purpose alone. Not to mention over 5 million square miles of real estate which can finally be developed. With the sun shining nonstop during the summer months, cabbages the size of Volkswagens can be grown which will create millions of jobs in agriculture.
We’ve already seen an increase in shipping in the North Sea as a result of the longer summers there. Soon, that pesky ice will stay melted year round which will save untold treasure in shipping costs.
In Scotland, the mountain goats have gotten smaller as a result of warmer temperatures. Previously, only the large goats could survive the cold winters there. When temperatures were warmer a thousand years ago, Scotland had grape vineyards. Soon, Scotland, Canada, Siberia, and many other previously cold areas will once again be warm enough for year round agricultural production. Warmer temperatures also translate to a boom in plankton production in our oceans which means more delicious fish to eat.
As we take advantage of this warming trend, the global population will explode from 6 billion to 50 billion persons within 100 years. That would put us at or near the limit of what the planet can sustain with today’s technology. Of course by 2109 our technology will be at a much higher state, so who’s to say we can’t support 100 billion persons by then?
The threat of global warming has finally given environmentalists an advantage in efforts to control pollution which is always a plus. However, the idea that we will stop burning fossil fuels is a pipe dream, along with the idea that global warming is a threat to life on Earth. Quite the contrary, oil production will steadily increase alongside global population. Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind will gradually replace the non-renewables as we march into our warm sustainable future.