I read an article early this morning by a guest “environmental expert” via the TCPalm, Edmund R. Malinowski Ph.D. Ironically the article was about pseudoscience and global warming. According to this professor of chemistry, global warming dues to CO2 emissions (or anything else for that matter) is an alarmist myth. The good professor throws some numbers of other scientists supporting the same idea at the reader, mentions some polar bear birth rates, and expects the waiting world to relax and go out and buy that new SUV. There is science, there is pseudoscience, and then there is convenient science. Malinowsi’s brand being the latter. So we another kind of science is needed to combat or compliment those others, let’s call it “cheese science”.
Let’s face it, humanity has gotten so diversified and opinionated even the most logical decisions are now made all but impossible. “Argument”has always been the path to truth, but only when the opposing sides are not so polarized as to being totally and irrevocably opposed to one another. My qualifications are obviously so far beneath a professor of chemistry, they need not even be mentioned. But, one does not have to be a chemist to understand when the cheese is gone.
I will be interviewing an imminent professor of geology later this week to shed some light on some issues Malinowski brings up in his short reproach of those concerned about global warming. However, for now I think it is only necessary to debunk Malinowski on a layman’s level. Let’s take a simple look at some of Earth’s processes.
Cheese Science
Earth is an interesting sphere to live on. Given certain constraints, an ongoing habitat where a given number of organisms can live sustainably. Put simply, Earth is a finite resource for only two reasons. First it cannot go on longer than our sun is able to produce heat (but not too much of it as in a supernova). Secondly, Earth’s own processes might someday make life impossible as in an asteroid strike or massive shifting of the poles, and etc. Outside these circumstances, human beings could live here in perpetuity. Makes sense huh? Then there is something commonly called “sustainability”, or a simple term for not using up things faster than they can be replenished. Over consumption if you will.
What if? The ever present albatross of science
Human beings just over consume, this is no secret. Think of the world’s ability to replenish or even clean itself in a very simple context, like a huge cheese factory. Now, one rat at the doors to this cheddar delight facility is no big deal since this cheese is continually produced at a certain rate. For one rat, cheese pumps out faster than he can ever gobble it up. Given the factory is gigantic, even 100 or 1000 rats make little noticeable impact on production. You get the idea. Let’s move on to stage two of the Earth Cheese Continuum.
Okay, you can see this cheese factory can’t you? The problem with Earth’s resources, the environment, and human beings is much like the rat’s perception from where he or she sits (or eats) away at the production cycle. To a community of rats on one side of the factory (let’s call this community America) that mountain of cheese in front of them may seem endless. But, how deep is it? What is happening to it on the other side of the factory? The average rat has no clue, and probably could care less as long as his little jaws are full of cheese. You get the idea here too I know. Not only are the rats justifiably satisfied there is enough to eat, they have other stuff to do too. Making baby rats, keeping out of the waý of predators, entertaining themselves and etc. Like us. Even an informed rat may not have the time or resources to understand this “sustainability” issue. Even if he does, what difference would it make? Now, let’s interpose another variable.
Earth’s cheese output is effected by much more than rat consumption. What if rat waste, clogs up the milk intake of the plant? What if other creatures, let’s call these Wall Street mega rats (factory owners when all is said and done), start selling off the cows that produce the milk for the cheese? What if they dismantle metal machinery in the factory because it is more valuable as a commodity like corn? Cheese production goes down right? You got it already I guess. Some scientists want us to believe that rats can have cheese even without the factory. Maybe they just cannot prove anything one way or the other? Who knows? Maybe Earth and its processes are just to damned big for even their big brains to cope with? Whatever their limitations or aptitudes, scientists never seem to think simply. There has to be some damned complex formula to explain sunshine.
Finite Period
Big business wants to make money off everything. Politicians do the bidding of big business while making sure you do not get so mad you vote them out, or hang them in the square, depending on where you live. One politician in 100 is in office because you need him or her. Let’s break all this down into simple, manageable facts. The rainforest, oceans, and life-forms which clean our atmosphere being killed or chopped down, is the same thing as those Wall Street rats selling off machinery. What happens when we meet, nose to nose, in the middle? The cheese is gone! Think of all this in an even more simple and personable way. Think about your own body as a miniature Earth. I hope that hit 100 of you. Wall Street, while you slept, sold off your left lung to satisfy their investors. The next night, mysteriously, your right ear shut down. You see the progression I hope. Sooner or later, irrefutably, you lose the capacity to go on. This is what is happening to Earth in ever more rapid progression.
Malinowski and scientists like him do not even seem to care about reality outside mathematics. Math cannot even exactly quantify a circle, and now it cannot explain for some people the finite nature or Earth? I have used these metaphors before, maybe it just seems so simple to me? Taken to the extreme, what Malinowski suggests is cutting every tree, burning all the coal and oil, drying up the seas, killing all the animals, polluting what’s left, and living as we do in perpetuity. Now that is pseudoscience, I don’t care how many egg heads Malinowski gets to sign a petition. A good experiment for these guys would be to lock themselved in the two car garage and both car engines at full throttle for say? Ten thousand years.
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