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It is hard to find anyone around today who does not accept that the world's climate is changing in ways which are at least concerning and often frankly frightening.
Some people may say that this is simply cyclic, and nothing to do with human activity. Even if that were true, we should certainly surely try not to make matters worse?
And in any case it has recently been shown to be not true. Scientists drilling core samples in the wake of the awesome disintegration of the Ross ice shelf in the Antarctic have shown that that ice has been there, holding back the immense quantities of frozen fresh water above ground, for several million years. And it has simply melted away. The effect is going on at a much higher speed than any scientist predicted, and on parts of the newly revealed Antarctic land mass, amazingly, grass is growing all the year round. When the above ground fresh water melts, in Antarctica, Greenland, the Alps, and the Himalayas, it will push up sea levels, perhaps by as much as 20 metres (65ft). Even one metre will make London's flood defences useless, and a policy decision has been taken to let the sea do its worst along vulnerable coasts around Britain. That's a British perspective, making the classic retirement dream of a nice little seaside bungalow look more like a scenario from a horror movie.
But this is global climate change. The low lying islands of the Maldives will disappear, most of Bangladesh, much of Florida, the Mississippi basin, everywhere low lying is heading for submersion.
And we are making it worse. The human race, starting with the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century and exacerbated by clear cutting the great tropical rain forests, have sent up, and continue to send up, so much in the way of greenhouse gases that the globe is warming at a frankly terrifying rate. This means hot and stormy summers, and wet and stormy winters. No-one yet seems to have made any connection between the weather and the recent huge earthquake and tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean, but if a massive plate of the earth's crust has been trying to dive under a second plate, but has not been able to wedge its way under for 150 years, and a mighty low pressure area lifts the sea a metre or so, then surely that easing of the weight on the upper plate could allow the lower plate to jerk loose? And it is well-known that high pressure pushes the level of the sea down, and low pressure lifts it up.
A wonderful and terrifying series on British TV's Channel 4 called “the War on Terra” (the Earth, that is) has shown that not only is the weather getting much worse, but it is getting worse much faster than we ever expected.
Oklahoma City being struck by two massive tornadoes on successive days was unheard of. A peak of 90 tornadoes a day and an average 70 a day in the US tornado season, unheard of. Four huge hurricanes hitting Florida in one hurricane season – unheard of. Hurricanes forming in the South Atlantic and threatening Brazil – unheard of.
And so it goes on. Record high temperatures in Britain, followed by immensely destructive flash flooding, 22 cm (9in) of fain falling in a single day – unheard of. Destructive tornados in the UK - unheard of.
The Kilimanjaro ice cap, acting like a water tower,which has until recently been gently releasing melt water throughout the Kenyan summer, has now virtually disappeared.The local climate can therefore, from now on, expect fierce floods through the winter and ferocious drought every summer.
And if matters are this bad now, what will life on earth be like in fifty years time, or a hundred years time? When people who are young today are full grown, what will they think of us?
Extraordinarily, we got virtual unanimity many years ago to phase out harmful CFC's from aerosols, refrigerators etc, although the problem of mountains of old refrigerators being crushed or gently leaking, depending on your local government, is still a huge worry. The problem is of course that our governments have a very short view of the future, from a few months in an election year to a few years once in power. Whatever looks good in the morning's polls drives the day's decisions, some would say.
What can we do? The first thing, the subject of the final programme in the "War on Terra" series, is to downsize our cars. Any modern efficient engine of 1 – 1.5 litres is plenty strong enough to carry an average load along very satisfactorily indeed, and putting heavy taxes on big engines (as we used to in the UK. An Austin 7hp paid far less tax than a Rolls 40hp, as it should) can only make sense.
Fuel should be made more expensive, houses better insulated (and more strongly built, to better withstand the battering they're already being subjected to).
Fossil fuels should be mainly reserved for feed stocks, for things we can't make any other way, pharmaceuticals and plastics for example.
Hard, expensive, electrical power technology will have to be mastered, such as balancing the fluctuating output from wind turbines with reliable “moon power” from the twice daily tides, for example. Nuclear generation will have to wait until we can train up perfect engineers. None have been identified yet.
Now then, after all the hard technology: the easy technology. Walker-type wingsails are hopeless for generating accurate frequency and voltage electricity, even worse for driving cars and trucks, but they are very easy indeed to use for the propulsion of ships of all sizes, and leisure yachts. And we know how to do this. One medium sized ship emits as much pollution and greenhouse gas as 10,000 average sized cars, (or 2,500 gas guzzling and pointless SUVs) and the power yachts of the world are huge emitters of greenhouse gases. How it has become commonplace, as a mark of the wealth that goes with celebrity, to use 2,000hp or even 5,000hp to transport one's family and a few friends along the coast for a fishing expedition, is hard to understand.
The sailing yacht fraternity are already using the free clean energy of the ocean winds. They are the unsung heroes, so far. Walker-type wingsails can make their lives simpler, by protecting them from capsize and overpowering, and keeping them on an even keel. It is the ship owners and power boat owners who have the most to gain, and the most to give, by adopting our modern wingsail technology. Hopefully, emitting noxious fumes from one's transportation will quickly become as socially unacceptable as smoking. Then our children, and our children's children, can have a better chance of decent, and less frightening, lives.
Other links:
Commercial Shipping
Leisure Craft