Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church – Unitarian Universalist

The Earth Is Our Mother

October 22, 2006

F I R E

Glenn Short

Although we commonly call earth, Mother Earth, I think it’s equally appropriate to call the sun, Father Sun. As with the other elements, the sun is essential to life on earth, or even to the existence of the earth itself.

Why, if my topic is Fire, do I begin talking of the sun? Well because the sun is the source of all energy. And only when man learned how to make fire, could humankind begin to control energy.

Starting with the discovery and control of fire, a transformation of the world began which continues to this very moment. Once we learned to control fire, we could heat our caves a little in winter and begin cooking our food. Our fuel for these tasks was wood, which continues to be the fuel for much of the developing world. Just before the introduction of coal, Europe was running out of available wood to use as fuel. Now, since the population explosion in the third world, subsistence-level peoples are increasingly cutting down trees for fuel, causing an unsustainable rate of deforestation.

In the 1800s a new energy source emerged—coal-- which rapidly produced the industrialization of the Western world. The steam locomotive brought the relatively rapid transport of passengers and freight.

Cities grew as economies expanded.

But then in the 1880s, near Titusville, PA, the U.S.

drilled its first oil well. It was a new source of liquid energy that could be distributed through a pipeline and, when refined into gasoline, could fuel

the newly developed automobile. Steam engines were

converted to diesel. A whole new era opened up, based on relatively cheap energy.

Those nations which possessed fossil- fuel energy beneath their soils became rich. Those without it were forced to import it at great cost. Soon scientists developed a myriad of new petroleum-based products, ranging from fertilizers, rubber tires, herbicides, pesticides and an incredible gamut of plastics. More and more, modern economies were dependent on a sure supply of petroleum.

One small fact about petroleum and natural gas, which most economists and planners continue to ignore, is that fossil fuels are finite, non renewable. When they’re gone, they’re gone! And when any society becomes unduly dependent on a non-renewable element, that’s when planning should begin for the time when that element is no longer available.

But today planners plan for more roads, more suburbs, more malls, bigger gas-hungry vehicles, more use of plastics. However, among many geologists and a few oil industry executives, there is a growing recognition that the petroleum era may be approaching its end.

The question then becomes—what can we do now to plan for that end?

It’s not that oil is going to abruptly disappear.

There is a lot of oil still. What may soon disappear is the cheap, light, easily refined oil, which has supported our civilization. Energy is very likely to become more expensive as we’re forced to produce the non-conventional, heavy, costly- to- extract- and-refine, petroleum. Ever more expensive energy can affect almost every aspect of our lives—from the way we heat and cool our homes, how and where we get the food we eat to the kind of vehicle we drive.

What are some of things we can do now to plan for the future? First and foremost, in every way possible we must reduce our consumption of energy. This means:

driving smaller or hybrid vehicles; driving less while walking and/or biking more; demanding more fuel-efficient public transport; installing compact fluorescent bulbs in all our lamps; building and living in better insulated, ecologically-designed homes; drying newly washed clothes outside or on a drying rack, instead of using an electric dryer; consuming locally produced organic foods; --(incidentally, food in the average American meal travels 1,500 miles before passing our lips. Most of that trip is in diesel-fueled and often refrigerated

trucks.)

If you suspect that you’re living in a high-energy household, then start noting your monthly electric, natural gas and water usage bills, as well as trash production. Compare these against last year’s. You’ll soon know whether you’re a profligate energy consumer and perhaps you’ll even discover how to cut back.

Overall we must think in terms of a Sustainable life-style instead of pursuing the American myth of constant unlimited Growth, based on cheap energy.

Thank You.