Guest opinion by Viv Forbes
Most chapters of human history are defined by the tools and machines that were used.
In the Stone Age, the first tools were “green tools” – digging sticks, spears, boomerangs, bows and arrows made of wood; and axes, clubs, knives and grinders made of stone. These were all powered by human energy.
Then humans learned how to control fire for warmth, cooking, warfare and hunting.
Another clever person invented the wheel and we harnessed animal power using donkeys, horses, mules and oxen, and made better tools like bridles, saddles and yokes from wood, fibre and leather.
All of these tools made hunting, gathering and trade easier and more reliable.
Then wooden ploughs revolutionised the cultivation of wild grasses for food for animals and humans. Farming started.
Trade and exchange was made easier with money using rare commodities like gold, silver, gems and shells.
Tool-making made a huge advance in the Bronze Age with the discovery of how to extract metals like copper, lead, zinc and tin from natural ores using charcoal. Brass, bronze and pewter made many useful tools. These were then replaced with better tools when man discovered how to smelt iron and make steel.
Then along came the game-changers – engines and electricity.
The steam engine, running on wood and then on coal or oil, revolutionised life with steam-driven pumps, traction engines and locomotives releasing millions of draught animals from transport duty. Then came electricity when steam engines were used to drive generators. All the windmills, coaches, sailing ships, lamps, stoves and dryers powered by green energy (wind, water, wood, animal energy, whale oil and beeswax) became obsolete.
Mankind made another leap forward with the invention of internal combustion engines using petroleum liquids and gases for fuel. An even bigger leap was the harnessing of nuclear power to produce almost unlimited clean energy from controlled reactions using tiny amounts of fuel.
Nothing in life is without risk, and every tool or engine can be misused. On balance, however, tools, engines and electricity have allowed humans to live better from less land and natural resources per person than ever before. Societies with an abundance of capital equipment are richer, have lower population growth and have the leisure and resources to provide far more environmental protection.
Therefore we should spend “Earth Day” celebrating “Engines and Electricity”.
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Celebrate the pioneers of engines and electricity
Watt steam engine
Otto 4-stroke engine
Edison and electric bulb
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/09/article-0-0022186700000258-137_634x656.jpg
Tesla and mega volts Tesla coil
http://images.newindianexpress.com/uploads/user/imagelibrary/2017/7/11/original/Nikola-Tesla-Wiki.jpg
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Tens of millions of acres of the U.S. were burned by wildfires every year, until the internal combustion engine gave man the mobility to manage the land and fight the fires.
And to pick up recyclables weekly.
And keep the horse poop off Manhattan streets.
ICE, the greatest environmental invention ever.
Parsons steam turbine
Whittle gas turbine jet engine
Fermi’s nuclear reactor
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/198zsiwyjbqvrjpg/original.jpg
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Oil and gas – all natural, made from plants and biodegradable.
And never forget it was the oil and gas industry that saved the whales!
That is what I can’t figure out, oil and gas come from nature, but the so called nature worshippers are against oil and gas. If they believe in mother nature, she has given them these most wonderful gifts, but they are an ungrateful lot, spoiled rotten little children.
Coil, oil and gas should be considered like breast feeding, which is also not sustainable. It is a necessary step however and once grown up the child has to look for other energy sources. In the human case: develope new (nuclear) technology. But we own our freedom, prosperity, science and technology to fossil fuels.
My favourites are the snow blower and the air conditioner.
Great post. I also loaded “The First Earth Day Myths” post to my phone, feels like I have concealed carry for when I run into one of my friends running on about “renewables”. Also, years ago saw a factoid that said 70 percent of the grain grown in the US in 1900 went to horses, cattle, oxen, mules, and donkeys? Could that be right?
My dad said one third of the crops went to feed the horses. He knew what it was to farm with horses. He quit when he was 17 years old. He was always interested in the progress of farming technology. He has never spoke of the good old days as being good.
Just off the first few lines – How were stone age tools “green?” If you transform that rock into an arrowhead, that rock will never be there again for other purposes. That is not green, that is using limited Earth resources. We should have stopped at the stone age.
Something that so many miss is that slavery would not have ended when it did if not for Steam Power then Gasoline/Diesel engines. And of course electricity. Although the moral push was there, it would not have fared well if not for the alternate and cheaper means of doing work being available. In fact, the areas that today still use slavery are those that have less access to those means of work in mostly the poorest countries.
Slavery was not so much as a means to oppress conquered peoples as it was an economic necessity. Thus it’s existence for thousands of years by even the most enlightened.
In other words, if the alarmists succeed in banning the use of fossil fuels, they will most likely result in a return to the use of slave labor.
I can see that happening, as the alarmist/elitist crowd would still require us to serve them, but without using plentiful, cheap energy in doing so.
One of my art series involved colorizing old black-and-white photos of old engines in the Library of Congress collection. The idea was to colorize them in a way that was more dramatic or romantic than realistic, which, I suppose, is a sort of celebration. I ended up making a calendar out of the series. Here’s a big thumbnail of the back panel, showing samples of the images:
Interesting. Have you seen the engine display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn?
Gamecock,
… looks like an fantastic exhibit. I haven’t seen it, but thanks for making me aware of it.