The problem is, by now, widely known: The world faces a potential catastrophe, which will give little warning before it strikes.
It is the irreversible damage to our biosphere from the greenhouse effect. Every year more than 5,000 megatons of carbon dioxide, nearly all from the burning of fossil fuels, escape into the atmosphere. That is far more than can be absorbed by the growth of trees and other plants. In the past 30 years, the burning of fossil fuels has raised the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 10%. A temperate climate depends on the radiating of excess heat through the Earth's atmosphere. But carbon dioxide traps heat. On our neighboring planet of Venus, the greenhouse effect has gone wild. There, a carbon dioxide atmosphere keeps the surface temperature above 800 degrees, hot enough to melt lead.
For the Record
Los Angeles Times Friday March 10, 1989 Home Edition Metro Part 2 Page 7 Column 5 Op Ed Desk 1 inches; 28 words Type of Material: Correction
A Tuesday headline should have said that solar power provided by satellite would help alleviate the greenhouse effect. The headline said solar power would solve the ozone crisis, which is incorrect.
There is a solution to the problem if nations act cooperatively, something they have proven they can do if disaster is the alternative.
Reducing our energy usage is not an option, because the production of goods and services is dependent on maintaining an adequate energy supply. The least-developed industrial nations use only one-hundredth as much energy per capita as the most developed, but suffer a living standard a hundred times lower in consequence. Therefore, we could not reduce energy usage without condemning the majority of the world to unending poverty.
Maintaining the present rate of energy growth in developing nations would require that we generate more than five times the energy in 2039 that we do now. Obtaining it from fossil fuels would raise the global temperature drastically, flood coastal areas and reduce already acutely scarce supplies of fresh water.
A worldwide program, over perhaps a period of 50 years, is needed to convert to clean, renewable sources of energy. Energy used at fixed sites--for industries and homes--can be electric, generated without burning fossil fuels. It is harder to wean transportation, which consumes 25% of all the energy we use, from gasoline and diesel fuel. But fuels like methane, propane and butane can be synthesized using recycled carbon dioxide to put energy into portable form. This becomes practical when central-station electric costs are reduced substantially.
