As I continue to explore running for President, I am putting forth parts of the “Chance for Sanity Party” platform. This time the plank concerns the most dangerous threat to Americans and all humanity. Although we humans have evolved to live on all parts of the Earth, we are mainly adapted to our regional conditions. The upcoming changes caused by the warming of the planet will cause great social upheaval and this plank explains my plans to reduce and compensate for it.

The most obvious change will be a general warming with the final rise unknown because it will not occur in this century or possibly the next depending on when we are able to start reducing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Very likely warming will continue for a few decades after the reduction starts.
We are already over a third of the three degree’s target limit by 2100. How much higher it will go depends on us now.

The countries contributing the most gases from burning fossil fuels are United States, China, and India. China and India are slowing their release by building nuclear plants, wind farms and solar arrays. They are reducing consumption with energy efficient lights, appliances, and electric cars. China is the leader in designing and producing wind and solar generating equipment. India is starting to build green generation, too.

My plan is to continue to subsidize wind turbines and solar arrays, and to fund needed new technologies and equipment. Current wasteful technologies will be replaced. We have new safe designs for nuclear plants which may need to be either funded or guaranteed by the federal government. Yucca Flats storage facility will be opened to store used fuel and bomb materials for eternity.

Another source which is not yet in great use is geothermal. Power from massive geothermal projects can be moved to states east of the Mississippi River using more efficient direct current transmission lines.

Continuing to subsidize more efficient technology and utilization of it will cut the power need for existing uses such as lighting and appliances. The cost will be a three percent increase in revenue.

Rapid growth of electric vehicles will greatly reduce carbon emissions if we have other sources for generating green power to replace gasoline and diesel engines.

As the world’s population grows more power will be needed and reducing carbon emissions will be increasingly difficult and require dedicated leadership because of the massive disruptions in economies. The change will have as great an impact as horses to cars and create millions of new jobs while costing millions. We must quit subsidizing fossil fuels and jump into the future where we develop the technology instead of buying it from Europe and China as we do now.

I hope this answers some of Randy Katro’s March 12 letter in the Joliet Herald concerning global warming. As to what happens when oil is pumped out of the ground, the surface does sink. The same thing happens when gas and water are removed. The space between particles is filled with the fluid and-or gas under the pressure of all the rock above the strata. As the pressure is released by the drilling process (ever see an oil gusher on TV?) the space between the particles gets smaller. The thicker the oil-bearing strata and the type of rock, the more surface will sink. Houston is the great example I used in teaching geography labs in college.

Yes, rain does clear the air of pollutants. Nature’s quickest way to cool the earth is a huge volcanic eruption putting sulfuric gas and billions of tons of ash into the air. Both will reflect the light rays keeping them from reaching the surface. The term “little ice ages” coincides with huge eruptions. One affected the Northeast by lakes freezing over in the summer and killing the crops.

Nature can clean CO2 if it isn’t overwhelmed by turning it into a particle which sinks to the bottom. We are overloading the oceans and they are becoming so acidic that shellfish are having trouble with their shells.

As for your comment indicating a little extra heat doesn’t make a difference, you are so wrong. The Earth’s atmosphere allows life to exist on a knife edge composition of gases. Mars once had an atmosphere and Venus’ so out of balance the surface is hundreds of degrees. We know CO2 and methane requires only a microscopic increase or decrease to cause massive changes. We have known this for 150 years. CO2 levels have increased from under 300 ppm to over 400 on half of the increase in the last three decades. That’s our fault!

The news keeps saying we need to keep the world’s average temperature under three degrees by 2100. Those degrees are Celsius which is 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit. A third of the rise has already been reached. What if we can’t stop at three?

Humanity isn’t prepared for the consequences of a runaway climate change. We are having problems dealing with the initial changes caused by one degree. Just in our country, 100 year storms are occurring almost weekly. 120 degree days used to be just in Death Valley, and coastal cities are being flooded with high tides. Storms are becoming more common and more intense. In spite of the recent polar vortex that was probably caused by warmer Arctic water, our winters aren’t killing off insects which allow infestations to move farther North destroying trees and crops.

With population growth to 12 billion by 2100, I am very pessimistic about humanity’s survival.

After reading excerpts of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Arctic report, I had to rethink my opinion on the impact of global warming and climate change. The world’s scientific community has been slowly shortening their predictions of the effects of climate change. When the effects of methane (30 times more damaging than CO2) from thawing tundra was added to our imput of CO2, the time line shortened. When the impact of melting Arctic ice cap leaving less ice to reflect sunlight was added, the time line shortened.

This year there were more climate changing gases and less ice reflection than ever before. Another reason for sadness is the Earth had less major volcanic activity putting more gas and ash into the high troposphere reflecting the sun.

I have lowered my expectations to agree with the scientists who predicted major impacts by 2050 and not 2100. The oceans are rising faster than originally predicted because of thermal expansion, melting ice caps and glaciers.

Today’s very sophisticated computer programs predict the radical weather of November and December when the jet streams dropped to the south from a warmer Arctic.

Our eastern coastal cities (Miami, Norfolk, Charleston, and New York among others) are starting to plan – too late – to make zoning changes, or build up levees and install massive pumps. I think their efforts are too little, too late. Many predictions indicate they will experience constant flooding within thirty years, not fifty or more. Miami, Charleston, and Norfolk flood with king tides now.

Long, long ago in lands far away people believed the world was flat. The people were good catholic folks who were told that by their priests. The heathen Vikings were pretty sure it wasn’t. The Islamic scientists knew it wasn’t because of their great knowledge of science, in particular, mathematics and astronomy. Even after Columbus found the New World and Magellan’s ships sailed around it, many people clung to their flat Earth beliefs.

After our space capsule circled the moon and astronauts walked on it, lots of people still say it didn’t happen. Their belief is just as strong as the flat Earthers. Mounds of facts and seeing things with their own eyes can’t convince some people.

The same is occurring with Global Warming. The Earth is not only heating up but at a higher speed than any time in biologic and geologic records. Those records are like phony moon rocks to climate deniers. Even though they can see the effects and feel the warm winters they still can’t fathom the truth. Deniers use misinterpreted facts showing the warming is occurring but they can’t see it. One recent letter cited the minuscule amount of CO2 in the air and the amount of water vapor. Our atmosphere is a fine tuned balance of gases. The minuscule amount of carbon dioxide is the regulator for temperature. A tiny fraction up increases temperature and a tiny fraction down decrease it. It’s the difference between running the air conditioners year around or an ice age like 20,000 years ago. Another point was made of atmospheric water vapor increase as the cause is partially true because it is the result of the CO2 increase warming the oceans, melting the ice caps, and glaciers adding to the rise in temperature and violent swings in the weather. Just as predicted 150 years ago when its influence on climate was discovered.