Living in the "Last Hours"

I read Thom Hartmann's The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight because it was an assignment for a class. It has, however, proved itself one of the most important books I read this year.

Last Hours describes in great detail how the earth's fragile ecology is on the brink of total collapse.

If there was ever a time to read such a book, it is now.

The book's title refers to oil and coal, and in fact, all matter, as "ancient sunlight".

Throughout the book, Hartmann mentions that all forms of energy and matter are comprised of sunlight.

Plants grow by taking in carbon dioxide and expelling oxygen, converting the carbon through photosynthesis into plant matter.

Animals eat those plants (and eat animals that eat those plants).

The genius of Hartmann's book, however, is the connection of "all things rely on sunlight" to the modern energy crisis.

An energy crisis is the last thing most Americans want to talk about, but if someone doesn't address it soon we will keep going to war over power sources.

Yes, there are the options of wind, solar, hydroelectric and nuclear power; however, every one of them has its drawbacks.

Wind is unreliable except in certain conditions.

Solar power does not provide sufficient energy to power a city the size of Evansville, unless every home and business had its own solar panels.

Hydroelectric also presents location troubles.

Nuclear power is inefficient due to the need of oil to build the power plant and split the atoms.

In addition to all those reasons, all of the "green" power options require oil to build the parts, build the buildings, and transport the workers to and from work.

Not only does Hartmann bring to "light" oil and energy problems, but also show that throughout the world trees, topsoil and water are scarce.

We cannot grow edible plants or feed livestock without topsoil.

The world O2-CO2 cycle will shut down without rainforest trees.

The temperatures of Europe and Eastern North America will plummet without the Gulf Stream bringing warm water from the Pacific.

Northern hemisphere civilization will collapse and billions will starve.

Hartmann certainly paints a bleak picture in the first part of his book.

In the second part, he explores how we got to such a sad state of world affairs.

One of the problems, he hypothesizes, is an "information deficit".

Yes, we supposedly live in an "information age", but more Americans watch television than read a newspaper or book.

In Peru, they barely even teach the age of the Incas, relegated to prehistory.

Australian aborigines refer to the past 200 years as "The Great Forgetting", in which they have had to assimilate to white European culture and ignore their own.

American Indians have a similar situation.

Many Americans and Europeans know nothing of environmental problems and government sponsored terrorism, and instead worry about how fat Britney Spears looks and wonder if Jennifer Aniston can make a comeback.

While I was reading Last Hours, I had to fuel my car. I never made a purchase of which I was more conscious than my most recent gas purchase. For the first time, in a pathetic attempt not to destroy the world, I drove at or below the speed limit back home.

When I got back, the TV, two computers, and the air conditioning were all on.

Irreplaceable materials that came from the earth comprise all those things that, well before there was life on this planet, were sunlight.

We are running out of them all.