My grandfather was born in 1900 and started farming at a young age. His world was governed almost completely by the “natural processes,” referred to in a letter on July 17, concerning global warming.
Heating and cooking used wood stoves. The fields were worked with teams of mules. Other than kerosene lamps, fossil fuels were not part of the equation.
He was a modern man, open to new ideas, so when rural electrification and gas-powered tractors became available in the 1930s, he was an advocate. The farm became more productive because of these innovations. The entire world followed a similar path.
This productivity depended on electricity and gasoline, made possible by mining and burning fossil fuels. Carbon that had been sequestered for millions of years was released to the atmosphere, where it will stay for hundreds of years. My grandfather’s path was that of our modern society and during the last century, enormous quantities of carbon have been released to the atmosphere, faster than natural processes can sequester it.
Earth had been at an equilibrium that was favorable to humans for the past 10,000 years. The addition of new carbon to the atmosphere has slowed the cooling that had kept us at that equilibrium. So like a winter coat slows heat loss, the planet is warming, moving to a new (unknown) equilibrium.
It is not conservative to ignore this phenomenon. It is irreversible. The consequences are unknown and not necessarily benign. Ignoring this new reality is not an option.
Bob Sanderson
Tempe, Arizona
