We humans must accept that infinite growth on a finite planet is suicide. We must accept that our human presence is already far beyond sustainability and all that that implies. … Instead of climate change, we must accept the fact that it’s not the carbon dioxide molecule that’s destroying the planet, it’s us. It’s not one thing, but everything we humans are doing — a human-caused apocalypse.
— From ‘Planet of the Humans’
We have recognized for at least six decades that fossil fuels are a finite resource and that the time would come when alternative sources of energy would be necessary. The fossil fuel industry, heavily subsidized by taxpayers, has pushed back at efforts to transition toward solar and wind power, attempting to discredit them on the basis that the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow. No one has denied that, but the general argument in their favor is that, unreliable as they are, they help to reduce our dependence on the fossil fuels that damage the earth and harm the environment.
Jeff Gibbs was one of the early environmentalists who was inspired by Rachel Carson’s 1963 book, Silent Spring, and the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. He remains an environmentalist today, but his support for renewable energy has been tempered by what he learned about what it takes to produce those solar cells and wind towers.
Gibbs put together “Planet of the Humans,” a documentary made with the backing of controversial filmmaker Michael Moore for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and in it he postulates that the manufacture of the equipment necessary for renewables requires even more fossil fuel and greater harm to the planet than current oil and coal extraction is causing. The requirements for rare earth elements and precious metals will increase with the move to electric cars and solar arrays requiring battery backup.
My daughter is an environmental attorney teaching at Pace University, and she says that Gibbs’ claims are overstated and that, as the country moves away from fossil-fuel reliance, scientists and engineers are solving some of those problems.
Still, the overall message — that man’s actions are harming the planet and that meeting the ever-increasing demand for electricity will cause greater devastation — cannot be denied. We take for granted the need for cell phones and computers, themselves objects requiring the extraction of rare materials, and electric cars require toxic batteries with no plan in place for their safe disposal. As the population grows and the demand increases, the earth is in greater danger.
With Gibbs’ film in mind, John Sellers of Bristol argued against a pair of town meeting warrant articles that would allow a company to place a solar array on town property in order to supply electricity to the town’s wastewater treatment plant at a projected cost savings of $3,000 a year. “These panels are not as green-friendly as we think,” he said, and “the cost of getting the materials out of the ground … we use more fossil fuels than we would if we didn’t put up the panels.”
Voters did agree to the proposals, recognizing that it made economic sense for the town to do so. Whether it is greener remains to be seen, depending on where the research into greener source materials leads.
Fukushima, 10 Years Later
Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly what went wrong with the Fukushima nuclear power facility on March 11, 2011, and the future of nuclear energy hangs in the balance.
A 9.0 magnitude earthquake, followed by a series of tsunamis that reached heights of 128 feet, first caused the nuclear reactors to shut down, then the emergency diesel generators that are supposed to provide cooling water to the reactors failed. That caused steam to built up pressure and generate hydrogen gas. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which operated the plants, evacuated thousands of people around the power plant while they tried venting the steam, which released radiation. They also injected seawater to cool the reactors, but that corroded the reactors’ pumps and pipes. A hydrogen explosion in reactor 3 and the burning of spent fuel released further radiation, and three reactors ended up severely damaged.
Regulators had made no contingency plans for a situation where both the main and backup power would fail, considering the likelihood of that happening to very small. Other nuclear power companies around the world have made similar decisions.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute tested ocean water near the Fukushima reactors, finding radiation at “50 million times higher than before the accident,” posing “a threat to marine life.” A study in 2019 found that radionuclide levels in fish off the coast of Fukushima remained elevated, and tuna as far away as California have been found to have low levels of radioactive cesium from the Fukushima accident.
As a result of the catastrophe, Germany has committed to closing all of its nuclear power plants, while Belgium, Spain, and Switzerland plan to phase out their nuclear programs by 2030.
Lost Knowledge
Scientists have been working to solve the mystery of the so-called Antikythera mechanism—an ancient Greek astronomical calculator believed to be the earliest example of a geared device. Parts of the mechanism were retrieved from the sea in 1901, and experts believe it was designed and built by Greek scientists between 205 and 87 BC, or perhaps a generation before the shipwreck, which has been dated to 70–60 BC.
The mechanism provides evidence of early technological knowledge that has been lost. It took decades to clean the device off, and it was not until 1951 that British science historian Derek J. de Solla Price looked into its workings. Price hypothesized that the mechanism was the world’s first analog computer, and that it had been used to calculate the motions of stars and planets.
Now, an interdisciplinary team at University College London (where I studied for six months on a college exchange) has released a new report about its efforts to create a replica mechanism with moving gears. Tony Freeth and his co-authors have been working to reconstruct the cosmos display, featuring planets moving on concentric rings with marker beads as indicators, as described in the inscriptions found on the mechanism's back cover.
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