A Statement of the Obvious.

My Fellow Americans,

As citizens of This Great Nation, we Americans, regardless of our political affiliations, burn more energy per person than a vast majority of the 6.4 billion (and counting) people on the planet today. Thus, our energy footprint is disproportionately large. And, as much of our energy comes from coal fired power plants, in terms of releasing heat trapping gases, we win baby. And not in a good way.

So, many of our hopes lay within the development of alternative energy. We think clean sources of power will help decrease our dependence on fossil fuels and therefore alleviate the problems associated burning oil, natural gas, and coal. But will it?

Our (Pretend) Bright Future.

Lets consider the following hypothetical example. Scientists at Big Green University announce the creation of the black box generator. The BBG produces energy without emissions of any kind. It is portable enough to be carried anywhere. It is adaptable enough that it can power your Ipod, your car, your city, your aircraft carrier, and your commercial jetliner. Great. We have solved the problem. Now what?

Damn Yankees: An Example.

We already have a historical model we can consider that may give us insight into what may result if we solve our energy production problem. The Yankee whalers on the East coast of the United States moved their ships with wind power. These guys captured roughly 100 Atlantic Right whales per year from the early to the mid seventeen hundreds.

They then stopped hunting them because they killed so many right whales, they could not make money off killing them anymore. Today the northern right whale population rests in the low hundreds. Biologists state this population will likely dwindle into extinction within the next 200 years.
So, using sail driven vessels and hand thrown harpoons, American whalers decimated the North Atlantic Right whale population in a little more than 60 years.

Failure by Success.

So, in recent history, Americans drove a successful marine mammal species near to extinction with the power of the wind and the power of human muscle. Today in our evolving conversation about renewable energy, we would define a wind and muscle powered industry as a success story. “Wow! Good for you, zero emissions!” we would say. But, we must keep in mind that any human endeavor taken on without consideration for its impact on ecological systems is a disaster in the making.

The Big Finish (Hopefully Not)

Without considering the type of lifestyles we are leading, it won’t matter how we power those lifestyles if we continue to take more than the planet can give. A species will not care if it was driven to extinction by a culture powered by renewable energy. It’ll still be extinct.

Remember citizens, if we kill off enough species, we’re gonna be one lonely bunch of holiday shoppers. There’s only so much biodiversity to go around.