On Injecting Stuff Into the Earth

Now, today was quite cold in this part of the world, and some would argue that this is proof against the phenomenon of Global Warming (last week was almost 30 degrees Celsius btw, and "climate change" is the better term). But, as I watched my breath freeze in midair I noticed a similar occurrence on the road in front of me - gases visibly billowing out of idling cars at a busy intersection. It's really quite appalling when you think about it... I mean, if you were to close yourself into a contained room with this idling car you would die. Everyone knows that. Now, as humans, we all seem to live on this one large contained planet - a global room, if you will, and it seems that we are poisoning ourselves.

I bring this up due to the increase in activity in preparation for the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Conference which will hopefully point our world in a better, if more difficult, direction. Note Ban Ki-Moon, the UN's Secretary General, is on the front - I adore this man for his compassion, honesty and drive for global reform on big social issues.

Here in Alberta we have had a flurry of activity (along with media suppression) on the happenings of Greenpeace "extremists" who have recently protested the Alberta Oilsands by chaining themselves to various machines and whipping out banners for the press. Leader of this particular project, Mike Hudema, is quoted as saying:

“I think we succeeded in really continuing to tell the tarsands horr

ors story, and the growing environmental and human rights price tag associated with tarsands development.”

Take a second to think critically about what he's saying: we have the human right to a safe world where rising water levels isn't a concern for wiping out our homes. We have the human right to breathe clean air, and not be afraid of the sun because of what we have done to our atmosphere. We have the right to support those who invoke change for the better.

That brings me to my last point, which is that to fix this problem, companies, governments and researchers are encouraging major greenhouse gas emitters to take all that CO2, compress it into a liquid and - get this - inject in into the earth. Now, when I first heard about this I honestly thought it was some sort of Jonathan Swift Satire. Nope. It's called "Carbon Capture and Sequestration" (CCS), and you can read the Synopsis by Edmonton's own Graham Thomson, who decided to pursue this story for the last year of his journalistic career after being awarded a Fellowship from the Canadian Journalism Foundation.

There's a lot of points in the article, but I'll ruin the ending and tell you what it boils down to: If we inject stuff into the Earth we have no idea what the consequences may be. It most probably will have negative effects on our water tables (that's our drinking water), and will be incredibly expensive and difficult to regulate. Besides, it would be an excuse to allow us to carry on progressing in the backwards and irresponsible fashion until some other disaster is imminent.

If you're thinking "WHOA, there's no way I can make an impact on all this big stuff going down" you are mistaken. One easy way is to take the Nature Challenge, which is simply a guide to help you make small changes in your life that are environmentally friendly and impactful. Trust me, making those changes not only improves the global environment, but your personal environment: feel good about yourself!