Our Next Evolutionary Challenge

About 3.5 billion years ago, the first life forms evolved on earth.  The first life forms were prokaryotes, very simple single cell entities.  As the years passed, by the process of mutation, life continued to become more and more complex, until approximately 400,000 years ago, Homo sapiens emerged. [1]  In quick fashion, we became the dominant species on the earth and are now set at the pinnacle of our next stage of evolution, the unification of our species.  If the human species acted as one entity, both mentally and spiritually, we would be a formidable life force that may have the ability to expand into the universe.  Unfortunately, we are far away from this ideal.

What stands in our way?  Just one thing: ourselves.

From the earliest days, humans gathered into small clans, mostly for protection against the harsh realities of nature.  This was the beginning of our social evolution.  Now, these clans would often fight with other clans in order to ensure the survival of the clan.  As we developed, the clans became larger and therefore so also did the social networks.  Also, the fights became larger and ultimately became wars.  Eventually large countries emerged.  The United States of America, the country I am fortunate to live in, emerged with a highly developed democracy and strong national values.

Since the birth of this country, there have been two World Wars and the Cold War, the latter being a stand-off that barely kept the two most powerful countries at the time from hurling enough nuclear weapons at each other to destroy all life on the earth.  Fortunately, that never happened, but even today, there are enough nuclear weapons to destroy ourselves several times over.

That may not be our biggest threat.  More insidious is the polarization occurring in our country today.  There are diametrically opposed political views that split the country, with no real attempt to understand the other side’s concerns.  People hide behind ignorance rather than to learn the facts about an issue and why the viewpoints may differ.  We hoard what is ours, yet, there are those in our midst that do not have food to eat or shelter to protect them.  We still discriminate against those that are different from us in any way, whether it would be color, religion, occupation, upbringing, or some other factor.  We even struggle in our personal relationships – with spouses, family members, and our friends.  In these relationship struggles, often the issue is simply not living by the Golden and Platinum Rules: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you;” “Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.”

In order to reach the next stage of our evolution, our species needs to achieve social justice at a global scale.  Social justice is the concept where all people have equal economic, political, and social rights and opportunities. [2]  In our country, we are far from having social justice.  We squeeze the budgets of the school systems in the inner cities, where children are lucky to get a high school diploma, much less get enough education to find and hold a satisfying job, while in a neighboring suburb, the rich residents send their children to exclusive private schools and the most prestigious colleges.  There is still insidious discrimination in this country against minorities, foreigners, the lower classes, and even to this day, women.  Does a high school graduate from a poor section of Boston, MA who comes from a poor black single parent family have an equal chance to a high school graduate from Newton, MA, who comes from a rich white two-parent family, even if the former has BETTER grades in school?  Only when we are totally honest with ourselves that this isn’t the case can we then take positive action toward leveling the playing field.

One of the sad facts of our society is that an agenda of social justice is not being driven by our elected officials, many of whom are elected on platforms of lowering taxes, whether or not they support gun control, their professed position on creating jobs, or their stand on abortion.  The average voter could easily argue that government is not the most efficient way of distributing wealth or enforcing measures ensuring social justice.  Anyhow, social justice is not the government’s responsibility; it is responsibility of each and every one of us.  It is the right way to treat each other, all of our fellow human beings.

Every human being on the planet has a soul, our spirit within.  This very fact should be enough to revere each other, for each of us carries a piece of the Higher Power, or in my professed faith, God.  If we simply remember that fact, it is far easier to treat each other with positive emotions: love, compassion, empathy, kindness, interdependency, and respect for each other.  We can learn to suppress the negative emotions, such as anger, hatred, jealousy, and greed.  We can choose to uplift each other and share with those less fortunate than us.  Help someone in trouble.  Take an inner city youth under our wing and nurture them into a rewarding adulthood.  Invite a poor family over for a holiday meal.  Most importantly, do someone we don’t know a favor.  Little gracious acts of kindness go a long way to uniting people together.  Think globally, act locally works not only for the environment but for social justice.

If everyone acted like this, what would happen?  People would unite together and truly uplift each other.  As we unite together physically and mentally, something greater happens.  Our souls unite.  We get a little closer to our destiny, the next logical step in our evolution.  Mankind evolves together as one entity.  Think about how powerful a positive force this would be.  We would start revering nature and do whatever it took to reverse the damage we have done to our planet.  We would then be poised to start proliferating into the solar system, perhaps even our galaxy.  Our scientific advancement and further evolution would result in higher and higher intelligence; we would do things considered impossible by today’s scientific standards.  As a benevolent race in a warm universe, could we ourselves in some distant lifetime actually claim to inherit the universe?

It takes just one simple concept to further our evolution: social justice.  Think globally, or if we choose to think of grander designs, think universally.  Act locally.

[1] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101230123554.htm

[2] http://www.naswdc.org/pressroom/features/issue/peace.asp

Coal - a Blessing or a Curse?

So as I watch oil prices skyrocket due to the turmoil in the Middle East, I am reminded that the United States has a huge reserve of coal.  So, why don’t we just burn more coal for electricity and convert more coal to synfuels for automobiles and chemical manufacture?  Coal already generates 54% of the power in the United States, [1] so it seems logical to expand its usage. 

Well, it turns out coal is quite dirty and has a huge environmental impact.  A typical 500 MW coal plant generates each year as air pollution: [2]

·         3.7 million tons carbon dioxide (CO₂);

·         10,000 tons sulfur oxides (SOx), which lead to acid rain and respiratory issues;

·         500 tons of small airborne particles, which can cause respiratory issues and even early death, as well as haze;

·         10,200 tons nitrogen oxides (NOx), which among its obvious hazards also forms toxic ozone;

·         720 tons of carbon monoxide;

·         220 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), hydrocarbons, which form ozone;

·         170 pounds of mercury (Hg).  Less than one gram will make all the fish in a 25 acre lake unsafe to eat;

·         225 pounds of arsenic (As).  Causes cancer in 1% of all people who drink water containing 50 parts per billion;

·         114 pounds of lead and 4 pounds of cadmium.

In addition, the coal plant generates as solid waste 125,000 tons of ash and 193,000 tons scrubber sludge containing heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, chromium, and cadmium.  Over ¾ of this gets disposed of in unlined, unmonitored onsite landfills and impoundments.  The plants also use cooling water, which gets discharged into waterways.  The thermal pollution causes thermal stress to fish and also contains chorine and other toxic chemicals used to treat the water.  [3]

The coal of course needs to be mined.  60% of all coal is strip-mined, an environmentally destructive technique which deforests over 300,000 acres of forest and destroys 1000s of miles of streams.  Then the coal needs to be transported to the electricity plants.  This takes 14,600 rail cars for each 500 MW plant.  The locomotives burn more fossil fuel and generate NOx.  [4]

One report commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force reports that pollution from Indiana coal plants has led to 347 deaths, 584 heart attacks, and 264 visits to the emergency room in the Greater Chicago area.  And these figures are exceeded in the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas.  Fortunately, the EPA has recently reached an agreement with Northern Indiana Public Services to close one plant and to install scrubbers on three others.  [5]

The EPA by January 31, 2014 will finally issue rules to reduce the amount of toxic heavy metals and other pollutants entering the air and waterways.  These rules are over 30 years overdue.  The Clean Water Act requires the states to set limits on the discharge of pollutants from power plants, but the states have largely ignored this.  This source also mentions the toxicity of As and Hg in the waterways.  “Power plants produce more toxic waste than any other industry in the U.S.”  A major issue with using pollution controls is that, although the toxic metals are kept out of the air, they are collected as solid waste and wastewater, which still leaves the environment at risk if discharged into waterways or improperly in solid waste disposal.  [6] 

There may be a renewable substitute to coal.   A company called New Earth Renewable Energy has created a renewable coal-like product and claim that it burns clean without toxic metals, sulfur oxide emissions, and is carbon neutral.  It comes from a plant called ArundoDonax, which is a very robust plant and a formidable CO₂ consumer.  [7]  This solution sounds too good to be true.  At any rate, the technology seems to be several years from being commercially available and there is little reputable literature either for or against the material on the Internet.  And it is unclear what the cost of such a material will be.  If it is true, though, it could be a revolutionary way of reducing the negative impact of coal on the environment.

One thing that is clear is that we can’t give up coal immediately.  The European Union is as a result promoting research to help lessen the impact of coal on the environment: [8]

1.  Clean coal technologies (CCT): target to scrub out NOx, SOx, and particulate containing heavy metals from the air emissions from a coal plant.  Although not perfect in that what is captured becomes a solid waste that needs to be disposed of, at least these toxins are kept out of the air;

2.  CO₂ capture and storage (CCS): is an effort to keep the CO₂ out of the environment, provided that it can be safely sequestered underground;

3.  Raising the conversion efficiency to electricity a mere 10% will reduce pollutants and CO₂ footprint by the same percentage.  Technologies exist today to increase efficiency by over 40%.

Industry in Europe has challenged themselves to build 10 – 12 zero emissions fossil fuel power plants. (ZEP TP).  [9]  Europe is taking a big gamble in front-running these strict types of environmental standards, but don’t they have it right  - sacrifice now for the betterment of humanity?  Of course, these technologies will likely raise electricity costs, but is that a bad thing?  Higher prices will promote electricity conservation and allow alternative energy to be more cost competitive.

Coal is by far a dangerous source of energy which, unfortunately, is abundant in the United States and China, two major energy consumers.  It is too large of a sacrifice to make too quickly to ban the use of coal; meanwhile, while we continue to develop renewable sources of energy to replace the fossil fuels, cleaner coal-burning and waste/carbon dioxide sequestering technologies may be adapted.  Efficiencies of coal plants may be increased to reduce the impact of the waste products per BTU of energy produced.  Finally, energy conservation efforts need to be adopted world-wide to reduce the need for fossil fuels and to allow the emergence of clean, renewable sources of energy to take hold.  These types of measures will help us protect the amazing planet we live on as well as preserve our amazing species.

[1]        http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/coalvswind/c01.html

[2]        Ibid

[3]        See [1]

[4]        See [1]

[5]        http://rusustain.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/epa-deal-will-close-indiana-coal-fired-power-plants-polluting-chicago

[6]        http://www.sustainablecitynetwork.com/topic_channels/environmental/article_7bbefd8e-ec7f-11df-b687-00127992bc8b.html

[7]        http://www.newearth1.net/downloads/E-Coal.pdf

[8]        http://ec.europa.eu/energy/coal/sustainable_coal/sustainable_coal_en.htm

[9]        http://eur-ex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52006DC0843:EN:NOT

Creationism vs. the Big Bang – Looking God in the Eye.

We scientists believe the universe exploded from a singularity 14 billion years ago, forming everything we know today.  Five billion years ago, a dust cloud in our galaxy condensed, forming the Sun and the planets in our solar system.  The third planet was the right distance from the Sun for liquid water, the right size to hold an oxygen atmosphere, life formed, and eventually the species Homo Sapiens emerged.  We humans often question the meaning of our existence.  Well, it turns out we apparently have a genetic disposition to the spiritual, [1] so I would like to explore the religious perspective on the creation of the universe and how it relates to the story that science has returned to us.

Christianity: Genesis 1 1:4: “In the beginning when God created the heaven and earth, while the earth was a formless waste and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters, God said ‘let there be light’; and there was light.  God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.”

John 1 1:5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being with him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

Recognizing that thousands of years ago there was little scientific understanding, the Scriptures are surprisingly close to what science believes.  There was essentially nothing.  God wills there to be light.  Light = big bang?  As in most other religions, the difference between light and dark is stressed.  Although the ancients were referring to day and night, when the writing is carefully examined, creation began when God sparked light in a previously dark pre-universe.  John writes that God is “the Word” and light is again associated with God.  The reference to language is compelling – could he be saying that that God is, like, a universal language of some sort?  When I hear that, I think about our understanding of Natural Law, mathematics, and how they reflect the very fabric of the universe, and further speculate that math is a universal language.

Buddhism: They believe that creation of the universe is cyclical and we are in essence spirit beings.  “At the beginning of each kalpa (cycle) land forms, in darkness, on the surface of the water. Spiritual beings who populated the universe in the previous kalpa are reborn; one of them takes the form of a man and starts the human race. Unhappiness and misery reigns. This is the interval that we are experiencing today. Eventually, the universe dissolves; all living creatures return to the soul life, and the cycle repeats.”  [2]

“ Lama Shenpen Hookham of Buddhism Connect writes: "The Buddhist view is that everything… is illusionlike…the illusion is created by infinite intricate connections that are not anywhere and not in time. Time and space are part of the illusion that is emanating from that Primordial expanse - so it is all very mysterious… evolution is not in itself a full story or full account of life on earth…” [3]

In short: the universe forms from darkness (Big Bang), spiritual beings are reborn into the new universe (life emerges), life struggles, then the universe dissolves (the Big Freeze).  Living creatures die and return their souls to the spirit world.  Repeat.  And the Buddhists accept the mystery that the universe and existence itself are illusions.

Hindu: “…universes form from the breath of the God Vishnu's breath…‘With each breath, countless universes emanate from Vishnu in seedlike forms that expand. Then Vishnu multiplies Himself in as many forms as there are universes and enters into each universe.’

“…One started with the sacrifice of the primal man, named Purusa. His body was the entire universe. The lower quarter of his body became the earth; the rest became the heavens…” [4]

Vishnu creates numerous parallel universes, and “Primal man” became a universe.  This supports a concept on multiverses I wrote about earlier on.  Also, is there a possible reference to a super-race of beings that inhabited the universe or, for that matter, created our universe?

Islam: “When describing the creation of the ‘heavens and the earth,’ the Qur'an does not discount the theory of a ‘Big Bang’...‘the heavens and the earth were joined together as one unit, before we clove them asunder’ (21:30).  Following this big explosion, Allah ‘turned to the sky, and it had been (as) smoke. He said to it and to the earth: 'Come together, willingly or unwillingly.' They said: 'We come (together) in willing obedience'’ (41:11). Thus the elements and what was to become the planets and stars began to cool, come together, and form into shape, following the natural laws that Allah established in the universe…It is He Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; all (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course’ (21:33).”  [5]

The Big Bang is referred to in the Qur’an, then Allah coalesced the heavenly bodies from the resulting “smoke.”  The balance of the story parallels the Christian perception.

Taoism: “Chinese art and culture and Confucianism speaks of the yin and yang or the dark and the light. They are supposed to be the creative power that sustains life and being. Yin and yang are natural forces behind even the gods. According to the theory, there was a time of utter chaos, mist and emptiness. Suddenly, there was a colorful light from which all things came to be…The heaven and earth yielded two strong forces - yin and yang. While yang is hot, fiery and male, yin is moist, cool and female. Left alone they are capable of destroying the world and together they generate balance and harmony. The belief is that yang created the sun and the moon came from yin. Together they created the four seasons and the five elements and all kinds of living creatures…” [6]

Dark and light are creative forces even mightier than the gods.  The Universe started empty, then “Suddenly, there was a colorful light from which all things came to be,” or, the Big Bang.

So what’s the common theme in these beliefs?  A supreme entity existed before the universe formed.  The entity did something and the Big Bang happened or the universe (and several others) was created.  What I find fascinating is that these stories were all written thousands of years ago, before modern science.  So is the story of the creation of the universe wired into our minds somehow?  Carried by our spirit within?  Or even programmed right in our genetic matter, as per the compelling Time article “The God Gene.” [7]

To further understand what happened, what does science say existed before the Big Bang?  “As physical entities, time and space can change - suffer distortions - as a result of gravitational processes.  Gravitational theory predicts that under the extreme conditions that prevailed in the early universe, space and time may have been so distorted that there existed a boundary, or "singularity," at which the distortion of space-time was infinite, and therefore through which space and time cannot have continued.” [8]  And just at the point of the Big Bang, if it indeed was created from a supermassive black hole, imagine the space-time distortion at t = 0 – it would be infinite!  How can this be rationalized with our limited understanding and perception?

Thanks especially to the Hubble telescope, we strive to look as far back into the Universe as we can to understand what happened.  If we succeeded in observing the Big Bang itself, would we be looking God in the eye?

Since the very day man became self-aware, we question why we are here.  We have a genetic disposition toward spirituality.  Many including myself believe that we possess a soul.  The soul is our spiritual entity within.  If the ancients understood the “Big Bang” genesis of the universe, is there any doubt that we have a spirit within, genetic hard-wiring toward the spiritual, and that our existence is Purposeful?  Most importantly, will we learn to treat each other as though we possess Spirit within despite our numerous differences?

Are we ready for the message we will receive when we look God in the eye? 

References:

1.         http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,995465,00.html

2.         http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_denom2.htm

3.         Ibid.

4.         Ibid.

5.         http://islam.about.com/od/creation/a/creation.htm

6.         http://www.buzzle.com/articles/creation-stories-for-different-religions.html

7.         See [1].

8.         http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/big-bang.html