[Dialogue] ENERGY DEPLETION

[LAURELCG at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/29/07 8:33:43 PM, FacilitationFla at aol.com writes:

<< I understand that the Democrat governor of Montana is serious about 
finding  
ways to extract coal -- which would serve the US for the next 60 years, 
without  putting CO2 or other gases into the environment.  The technology is 
almost  
there and he is keen to find a way to use it. >>

Cynthia, This is from a D.Min. colleague.  Jann

Unfortunately, this vision is not so "green" as it purports to be.  The 
emissions resulting from coal use are only one part of the problem.  Another 
serious consideration is the process of mining itself.  Like all mining, the 
mining 
of coal involves toxic-runoff, pollution, etc.  In the Appalachian area just 
west of where I live, a recent change in mining technology has led to even 
greater environmental destruction.  Mining companies are literally blasting 
the 
tops off the oldest mountains in the world & dumping the contaminated rubble 
into neighboring valleys.  Whole ecosystems & watersheds are being destroyed. 
This is called "mountaintop removal"-- and, no matter what some 
fundamentalist 
executives may claim,  I don't think it's what Isaiah had in mind when he 
wrote 
(40:4) "Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made 
low; and the rough places a plain."

If you are not familiar with this method of coal extraction, please check out 
the following websites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountaintop_removal  (general information)

http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/mountaintop_removal/ (photos)

http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/06-1om/Reece.html (personal description & 
activist response)

In any case, even the optimistic Governor Schweitzer says that the use of 
Montana's coal is only [my word] "enough to replace all our imported oil for 
60 
years."  In other words, it's just a way to delay our (and Earth's) recovery 
from our addiction to an extractive economy based on consumption.  

If anyone is not perfectly clear about why we need to make radical [i.e., 
root] changes in our outlook, I recommend The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: 
The 
Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before Its Too Late by Thom Hartmann--a 
book that was required reading for Apela Colorado's "Indigenous Mind" 
Intensive in October.  As Einstein said, " We can't solve problems by using 
the same 
kind of thinking we used to create them."  I don't want to knock technology 
-- 
I love my indoor plumbing, I use a car & a computer, and antibiotics have 
saved my life.  Still, how likely is it that a "techno-fix" will save us from 
the 
problems created by our romance with technology?  I've read that most 
technological research is focused on overcoming problems created by earlier 
technology.  What do we really need if we are going to "re-invent" the human, 
as Berry & 
Swimme suggest?   How will we translate "wisdom" into a political program?

"In my dream, the angel shrugged & said,
If we fail this time it will be a failure of imagination.
& then she place the world gently in the palm of my hand."
                                                            -- Brian Andreas

With love & blessings in this season of returning light,
Margery