Suppose science were to provide us with a microbe that could make oil or gasoline equivalent out of any plant matter. How long would it be until the entire earth is stripped of green living things so that we can rocket along in personal transport devices containing three tons of steel, glass and leather? Would we have the self-control necessary to limit what is done? Or would “individual travel at any cost” rule the day?

We face similar questions in the pursuit of fossil fuels today: how much of nature should be destroyed so we can drive to the mall? Is there maybe some better way of doing things that would also make life more pleasant and sustainable?

A great book to read about “farming of forests” of the Amazon basin and other pre-Columbus history of the Americas is Charles C. Mann’s 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. A thick book, but readable language and many surprising revelations.

Much of what we previously believed about inhabitants of the Americas has been overturned by science. Sophisticated cultures, complex managed ecological systems, advanced astronomy, weaving as a form of money; all existed prior to European travel to the Americas. Far from heathen savages, there were cities bigger and cleaner than those in Europe at the time. Certain soils in the Amazon appear to have been “man-made” or “man-managed” over long periods of time -centuries.

Anyway, I’m off track with what I wanted to say. At the same time we begin to realize there are so many valuable plants, we are finding ways to turn plant matter into fuel. Will we have the self-control to manage the situation well? Or, like previous civilizations, will we outstrip the support capacity of the ecosystem and experience as massive die-off caused by our own actions?

Maybe Dead Zones and Red Tides are warnings that will be seen as wake-up calls to bad practices.

Far more energy falls on the earth in the form of sunlight every day than we can possibly use. If we can manage that energy into transportation and electricity, we will not have to consume fossil fuel (stored sunlight) or sustaining organisms (plant life). We can make huge advances in energy systems, if we can break the oil addiction.