Is capitalism safe for nature a myth?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Protecting atmospheric oxygen supplies is a global priority issue, but things are still there.

In 988, Kagan Voldemar I, the adopted son of the great Kiev prince Svyatoslav, carried out the “baptism of Rus.” In fact, a change in civilization was carried out: instead of the Vedic order of the ancestors, a civilization based on "bank interest" was introduced.

However, in 1917 Russia left the civilization based on "bank interest" and began to develop rapidly on the basis of public ownership of the means of production. But the human egoism of the country's ruling elite prevailed over altruism, and almost 75 years later, in 1991, Russia returned to a civilization based on "bank interest."

Now it is already clear to many that such a civilization is doomed to ecological self-destruction. However, "It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism," said the American philosopher Frederick Jameson, and the motto of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 was: "We did not inherit this Earth from our fathers, we borrowed it from our grandchildren."

Principle 2 proclaimed by the Conference states:

So how is the main thing arranged - the energy supply of this modern civilization of ours? Currently, it is customary to divide energy sources into renewable and non-renewable ones. Based on the concepts of "renewable" and "non-renewable", this division can be classified as follows:

- due to gravitational energy - the energy of the ebb and flow;

- geothermal sources;

- due to solar energy - solar thermal, solar-electric, solar-chemical, hydropower, wind energy, as well as organic fuel in one form or another when recovering the atmospheric oxygen spent on its combustion by the plant world on the territory of the country;

- nuclear reactors for the reduction of fissile isotopes in one form or another by the country's nuclear power industry.

As you know, only fossil fuel and nuclear energy can provide a full-scale satisfaction of the energy needs of mankind.

Let us consider in more detail the concepts of "fossil fuel" and "organic fuel", as well as the implementation by various states of the above-mentioned international norms and principles in relation to the consumption of fossil fuels.

Natural fuel is a combination of some kind of fuel - coal, oil, natural gas, biomass, and an oxidizing agent - atmospheric oxygen. Coal owes its origin, as is commonly believed, to ancient peat bogs, in which organic matter accumulated since the Devonian period.

In the understanding of the processes of formation of oil and gas, a scientific revolution is taking place today. It is associated with the birth of a new science: "Biosphere concept of oil and gas formation", which, according to the authors, has fundamentally solved this problem, formulated for more than 200 years. However, science arose only 25 years ago, moreover, in our country.

Before that, there were two different approaches to solving this problem. One, based on the "organic" hypothesis of oil and gas formation, and the second - on the "mineral" hypothesis.

Proponents of the organic hypothesis believed that hydrocarbons (HCs) of oil and gas are formed as a result of the transformation of the remains of living organisms that plunge into the earth's crust during sedimentation. The adherents of the mineral hypothesis considered oil and gas to be products of degassing of the planet's interior, rising to the surface from great depths and accumulating in the sedimentary cover of the earth's crust.

The main consequence of today's "Biosphere Concept of Oil and Gas Formation", developed by the Institute of Oil and Gas Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is the conclusion that oil and gas are inexhaustible as minerals that are replenished as their deposits are developed.

Deposits of natural gas and oil are formed if the mixture of hydrocarbons synthesized in one way or another does not penetrate into the earth's atmosphere through the earth's crust. When this mixture erupts into the earth's atmosphere, the enormous thermal energy of the reactions of combining atmospheric oxygen with hydrogen, methane and other hydrocarbons in the vents of volcanoes melts rocks up to 1500 ⁰C, turning them into hot lava flows.

If a mixture of gases penetrates the soil in the steppes and forests, then catastrophic fires occur there. In this case, thousands of cubic kilometers of gases are emitted into the atmosphere, including the products of combustion of hydrogen and methane - water vapor and carbon dioxide - the basis of the "greenhouse" effect. And for millions of years, atmospheric oxygen accumulated during the decomposition of water and carbon dioxide by the plant world of the biosphere is irretrievably lost when combined with hydrogen and the formation of water.

Peter Ward of the University of Washington found the cause of the "Great Extinction" that happened 250 million years ago. After examining the chemical and biological "crime traces" in sedimentary rocks, Ward concluded that they were caused by high volcanic activity over several million years in what is now called Siberia. Volcanoes not only heated the Earth's atmosphere, but also threw gases into it.

In addition, during the same period, as a result of the evaporation of water, a significant decrease in the level of the World Ocean occurred and huge areas of the seabed with deposits of gas hydrates were exposed to the air. They "exported" huge quantities of various gases into the atmosphere, and, first of all, methane - the most efficient greenhouse gas.

All this led to both a further rapid warming and a decrease in the proportion of oxygen in the atmosphere to 16% and below. And since the oxygen concentration decreases by half with height, the area on the planet suitable for the existence of the animal world has decreased. “If you didn’t live at sea level then you didn’t live at all,” says Ward.

It is easy to trace further the fate of volcanic water vapor and carbon dioxide. Water vapor was “sequestered” by condensation, and carbon dioxide again for millions of years “sequestered” in the biomass of the planet's flora as a result of photosynthesis reaction with the formation of molecular atmospheric oxygen.

When it enters the porous and permeable environment of the sea or ocean bottom, oil and gas do not float, since the surface tension force at the oil-water or gas-water section is 12-16 thousand times greater than the oil floating force. Oil and gas remain relatively stationary until new portions of oil and gas propel them forward. In this case, gases combine with water, forming deposits of gas hydrates, resembling ice in appearance - 1 m³gas hydrate contains about 200 m³gas. It is believed that gas hydrates are present in almost 9/10 of the entire World Ocean, and the concentration of methane in seabed sediments is quite comparable to the content of methane in conventional deposits, and sometimes exceeds it by several times.

Gas hydrate reserves are hundreds of times greater than oil and gas reserves in all explored fields. It should be added that the tectonic activity of the underwater bowels periodically destroys gas hydrate deposits.

So, for example, the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico in the Bermuda Triangle as a result of tectonic destruction of gas hydrate deposits periodically gushes with powerful gas streams, forming huge domes of water and gas on the sea surface.

These domes are recorded as "islands" on the ship's radar screens. When approaching them, the ship naturally loses its Archimedean lifting force with all the following consequences, and the "islands" disappear. With the destruction of gas hydrates, a sharp decrease in temperature in the formation occurs, and as a result, conditions are created for the formation of new gas hydrate ice and sealing gas-bearing deposits.

We have collected from various literary sources the initial data at the end of the 20th century on the ecological and energy characteristics of 30 countries of the world, including the following indicators:

- the value of the annual consumption of coal, gas, oil by each country;

- the structure and area of photosynthesizing biota (flora) on the territory of each country and calculations of the productivity of photosynthesis of the flora of each of these countries of the world at the end of the 20th century were performed, taking into account many factors, including:

- absorption of CO₂leaves, it begins when they reach one quarter of the final size and becomes maximum when they reach three quarters of the final size of the leaf;

- average daily photosynthetic properties of plants in different geographic latitudes;

- different properties of different life forms of plants;

- indexes of the leaf surface;

- different bonitet class (the ratio of the average height and age of the main part of the stand of the upper layer);

- absorption of CO₂ plants in the aquatic environment, it was determined for each region taking into account the coefficient of light irradiation of the water volume, which depends on the transparency of the water, etc.

Although the initial data were collected from various literary sources, they, as it turned out, are adequate to the state of the 1990s. This, in particular, is evidenced by the close coincidence of the values of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, obtained by us by calculation, and the emissions declared by countries in Appendix 1 to the Kyoto Protocol.

As a result of our calculations, it turned out that the total annual production of the "pure primary production" of atmospheric oxygen by the plant world on the Earth's land was ~ 168, 3 * 10⁹ tons, with the annual consumption of atmospheric carbon dioxide by the plant world ~ 224, 1 * 10⁹ tons.

Today, the annual industrial consumption of oxygen from the atmosphere for burning fossil fuels on the planet is approaching 40 billion tons, and together with natural consumption by nature (~ 165 billion tons) has far exceeded the upper limit of the estimate of its reproduction in nature.

In many industrialized countries, this border has long been crossed. And according to the conclusion of the Club of Rome experts, since 1970, the oxygen produced by all the vegetation of the Earth does not compensate for its technogenic consumption, and the oxygen deficit on Earth is increasing every year.

Today's Earth's atmosphere weighs approximately 5,150,000 * 10⁹ tons and includes, among other things, oxygen - 21% (we were optimistically accepted in some calculations), i.e. 1,080,000 * 10⁹ tons, carbon dioxide - 0.035%. i.e. 1800 * 10⁹ tons, water vapor - 0, 247%, i.e. 12700 * 10⁹ tons.

It was interesting to estimate how many years it will take for the plants to exhaust their current supply when the flow of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere stops at the current power of the Earth's plant world? It turns out that in 8-9 years! After that, the plant world, deprived of the atmospheric carbon dioxide that feeds it, should cease to exist, and after it the animal world of the Earth, deprived of its plant food, will disappear. And if you try to burn all the hydrogen and its compounds? Then all the atmospheric oxygen of the planet will be irreversibly consumed and the entire history of life on Earth will have to be written anew.

Four billion years ago, carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere was almost 90%, today it is 0.035%. So where did he go?

It is known that as soon as life appeared on the planet in the form of primary oxygenic bacteria and up to modern angiosperms, they began, decomposing carbon dioxide and water, to synthesize carbohydrates, from which they built their own bodies. Oxygen was released into the atmosphere, replacing carbon dioxide in it.

This process, called photosynthesis, is catalytic, with the formation of molecular atmospheric oxygen - the energy basis of our modern civilization:

6CO₂ + 6H₂O + SOLAR ENERGY = C6H12O₆ + 6O₂

From an energetic point of view, photosynthesis is the process of converting the energy of sunlight into the potential chemical energy of the products of photosynthesis - carbohydrates and atmospheric oxygen.

In addition, the ozone layer began to form from free oxygen in the atmosphere, which protects living organisms.

It is assumed that about 1.5 billion years ago, the oxygen content in the atmosphere reached 1% of its present-day amount. Then the energetic conditions were created for the appearance of animals, which, during digestion, oxidized the carbohydrates that make up plants with atmospheric oxygen, and again received free energy, using it already for their own life. A complex energetic biocenosis "flora-fauna" emerged, which began its evolution.

As a result of evolutionary dynamic processes in the Earth's biosphere, certain conditions were formed for self-regulation, called homeostasis, the constancy of which in time is necessary for the sustainable development of the entire biosphere and the normal functioning of the totality of all living organisms that make up it today.

However, the rapid growth of the energy consumption of atmospheric oxygen by mankind, which is taking place today in a short evolutionary period, leads to the exit of the entire biosphere of today beyond the boundaries of its capabilities for self-regulation, since the time of the ongoing changes is clearly not enough for the ecosystems of the biosphere to naturally adapt to them.

Academician Nikita Moiseev (1917-2000), developing models of the dynamics of the biosphere, came up with the problem "To be, or not to be for humanity ?!" He warned: "One should only understand that the balance of the biosphere has already been violated, and this process is developing exponentially."

Power engineer I. G. Katyukhin, (1935-2010) in the report "Causes of the Global Catastrophe and the Death of Civilizations" at the International Conference on Climate in Moscow 30.09. 03 g. Said:

“Over the past 53 years, people have destroyed about 6% of the oxygen and it remains less than 16%. As a result, the height of the atmosphere dropped by almost 20 km, the air permeability improved, the Earth began to receive more solar energy and the climate began to warm. The oceans and seas began to evaporate more water, which inevitably should be transported to the continents by air cyclones.

Simultaneously, with a decrease in the altitude of the atmosphere, its cold horizons, previously located at an altitude of 8-10 kilometers and higher, today dropped to 4-8 km, thereby bringing the coldness of outer space closer to the earth's surface. The masses of water evaporated over the oceans, rushing to land, are forced to pass over the mountain peaks of the continents, which lift them into the cold horizons of the atmosphere.

There, the vapors quickly condense and fall as cooled drops to the earth's surface, cooling the lower streams of vapors. Behind the mountain ranges, the effect of "condensate vacuum" is formed, which literally "sucks" the moist air masses from the plains, creating floods and destruction. Thirty or more years ago, when the cold horizons of the atmosphere were located at an altitude of 8-10 km and higher, wet streams of evaporation freely passed over the mountains and reached the middle of the continents, falling out there as rain. After 2004, the rains will fall over the seas and oceans.

Dry years will come on the continents, the level of groundwater will drop catastrophically lower, the rivers will become shallow, the vegetation will wither. Closer to the coast, people will endure more terrible floods, and in the middle of the continents, land desertification will accelerate. It is impossible to stop these processes in any other way, except for the restoration of the oxygen balance!"

In the publication "We are waiting for the aircraft to take off ?!", it is noted:

“In 52 years we have lost 16 mm. rt. st., or about 20 km. heights of the atmosphere! If at the beginning of the last century the upper limit of oxygen penetration was located at an altitude of 30-45 km (the border of the ozone layer), today it has dropped to 20 km. If planes fly today at an altitude of 7-10 km, then at this altitude they have no more than 30-40 years to fly. The lack of oxygen will be felt, first of all, in countries with hot and humid tropical climates.

And in the very near future, such countries will be India and China, which have concentrated a huge industrial potential, which will soon be forced to stop not because of environmental pollution (filters can be installed), but because of the lack of oxygen."

Main Geophysical Observatory A. I. Voeikov of Roshydromet, which is obliged to monitor the state of the atmosphere, at the request of I. G. Katyukhina: "How much oxygen is left in the atmosphere today?" The growth of CO is another matter.₂».

And doctor phys.-mat. Sci., professor, I. L. Karol begins to count how much atmospheric oxygen is consumed during the combustion of hydrocarbons for the formation of CO₂ without realizing (!) that the same amount of oxygen is simultaneously spent irrevocably on the formation of steam H₂O (also a greenhouse gas). In my article "Compradors in Russia and the Climate", published in PRoAtom [2016-09-13], similar manipulations of my "heroes" are described in more detail.

So, if the total oxygen content in the atmosphere reaches, or has already reached, the threshold when the ozone layer begins to deplete (although the task of preserving this layer was and still remains one of the most important environmental problems of our time), then it becomes clear that the power of the entire earth energy using fuel should not have to exceed a certain level corresponding to the capacity of the plant world of the Earth for the reproduction of atmospheric oxygen, taking into account the anthropogenically burned!

Such an international order of balanced fuel consumption should have been established for each country as well. Then, if it is observed, it will be possible to assert that the country uses a "renewable" or "renewable" source of energy when burning fuel. In this case, Principle 2 of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992) is not violated by it and it does not harm the environment of other states

That's the whole very simple mechanism for the formation of organic fuel on Earth, as a combination of various types of fuel (coal, hydrogen, methane, oil and various "biomass") and oxidizer (atmospheric oxygen), as well as the elementary necessary rules for its consumption.

However, the world community does not seem to be going to abide by these rules, as well as the mentioned Principle 2 of the UN Conference on Environment and Development. Most of the industrially developed countries have long become “parasitic” countries, whose industrial consumption of atmospheric oxygen on their territory is many times greater than the reproduction in the form of “pure primary production” of atmospheric oxygen by the plant world on their territory.

But they also do not intend to be held responsible for the fact that activities within their jurisdiction and / or control do not harm the environment of other states or areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. Russia, Canada, Scandinavian countries, Australia, Indonesia, and other countries are "donors" that supply "parasite" countries with atmospheric oxygen free of charge.

It can be assumed that in countries - "parasites" anthropogenic consumption of atmospheric oxygen occurs due to all the net primary production of oxygen by photosynthetic organisms on the territory of their own country, as well as on the territories of other countries - "donors".

Heterotrophic consumption of atmospheric oxygen (by roots, fungi, bacteria, animals, including human respiration) occurs exclusively at the expense of atmospheric oxygen reserves accumulated on the planet by millions of previous generations of photosynthetic organisms.

In countries - "donors", anthropogenic consumption of atmospheric oxygen occurs exclusively due to a part of the net primary production of photosynthesis on the territory of the country, and heterotrophic consumption of atmospheric oxygen - due to the underutilized net primary production of photosynthesis during anthropogenic consumption, and in some countries - and reserves of atmospheric oxygen.

Such a spread in the absorption of atmospheric oxygen is due to the fact that all life on planet Earth has a natural right to breathe. It should be borne in mind that the heterotrophic consumption of atmospheric oxygen is not within the jurisdiction of any state.

In the countries of the European Union at the end of the 20th century, photosynthetic organisms on its territory produced approximately 1.6 Gt of atmospheric oxygen, and at the same time, its anthropogenic consumption was approximately 3.8 Gt. In Russia, during this period, photosynthetic organisms produced about 8.1 Gt of atmospheric oxygen on the territory of the country, and its anthropogenic consumption was only 2.8 Gt.

Many defenders of globalization propose today to consider the supply of atmospheric oxygen as a supply of "practically inexhaustible" or, at best, its anthropogenic consumption - uncontrollable.

That is, in their opinion (Alberta Arnold (El) Gore Jr. and Co), anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions in the territory are controllable, and anthropogenic consumption of atmospheric oxygen reserves is supposedly uncontrollable. But there is a corresponding legal precedent in methodological terms. Back on October 6, 1998, Peter Van Doren in Cat Policy Analysis # 320 wrote:

“In the United States, ownership allows landowners to extract minerals, including oil and natural gas, from the land they own.

However, underground oil and gas flows do not count as title to the earth's surface. If a landowner tries to maximize his own income from the extraction of oil and gas on his plot, then the general exploitation of the oil and gas field for other owners will no longer be effective.

Therefore, the terms of the "pooling contracts" provide for the transfer by landowners of their right to drill and operate the well to some operator seeking to maximize the total income, and in return they receive their share of the profit from the field, regardless of whether work is done on their land."

In our opinion, the principle of “unification contracts” can also be used as the basis of law when using atmospheric oxygen as an oxidizer of organic fuel with the transfer of the functions of an “operator” to some international organization. Russia has a huge reserve of quotas for atmospheric nature management using its flora to restore anthropogenically absorbed atmospheric oxygen on the planet and absorb planetary anthropogenic carbon dioxide.

It is clear that globalization must be linked to the use of this reserve in international trade. The BRICS countries can already create such a common “operator” and conclude “unification contracts”.

When establishing certain international rules, the purchase of organic fuel must be accompanied by the presentation of an appropriate license for the buyer's right to burn atmospheric oxygen in the required volume or by the purchase from an "operator" - some international organization created on the principles of "unification contracts", the same license for the purchase of fuel (oil, gas, coal).

The countries of the European Union are experiencing an environmental crisis, primarily due to the consumption of fossil fuels, which many times exceeds the capabilities of the environment in their territories to restore anthropogenically absorbed atmospheric oxygen and absorb anthropogenic carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, the political pressure of the “greens” there is directed against nuclear energy. So how can an economy be sustained and developed without efficient power generation?

The new, liberalized energy model fails to find a place for nuclear energy. Now essential for society, nuclear power is not profitable for private investment - the main engine of the energy future of the entire world in a neoliberal economy.

After all, all the nuclear power plants operating in the world today were built at one time by state or private monopolies, which operated within the framework of the previous model of the economy. The new model made investment in capital-intensive nuclear power unprofitable for private investors, although public demand for nuclear power remained.

"The fundamental question is whether or not regulation and legislation can justify investment in nuclear power so that it can compete with other types of energy?" - this question was asked by George W. Bush after his election as President of the United States. In our opinion, the problem is solved quite simply - by introducing the necessary payment for the consumption of "foreign" autotrophic atmospheric oxygen, that is, natural capital that is not privately owned.

The paradigm for the development of nuclear energy should not be the exhaustion of natural fuel on the planet Earth, but the exhaustion of the capabilities of the plant world of the Earth for the reproduction of anthropogenically absorbed atmospheric oxygen.

And further. According to many scientists, including the Russian professor E. P. Borisenkov (Main Geophysical Observatory named after A. I. Voeikov), out of 33, 2^O Since the temperature rise in the surface layer of the atmosphere, which gives the "greenhouse effect", only 7, 2^O C is due to the action of carbon dioxide, and 26^O With this - water vapor.

The fact is that in the creation of the "greenhouse effect" one weight part of carbon dioxide takes part 2, 82 times more than one weight part of water vapor. Nowadays, the greenhouse effect in the surface layer of the atmosphere is, on average, 78% due to water vapor and only 22% to carbon dioxide.

It is easy to show that today in the total greenhouse emissions from coal combustion at TPPs, the greenhouse share of water vapor is 47.6%, when gas is burned at TPPs - 61.3%, and when pure hydrogen is burned - 100%! Thus, even from the standpoint of supporters of the anthropogenic origin of global warming, one should consider not only anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide, but also anthropogenic emissions of water vapor, and to quote - anthropogenic consumption of atmospheric oxygen.

From all that has been said above, it follows that the protection of atmospheric oxygen reserves from industrial consumption is today a priority task in the field of regulating the relationship between mankind and nature and can only be solved by the development of economical and safe nuclear energy.

However, it should be borne in mind that the average construction time of 34 reactors in the world in the interval from 2003 to the present time is 9.4 years.

The system of production costs at NPPs over the past decade has grown from $ 1,000 to $ 7,000 per design kW. And all this is in accordance with the "Grosh's law", according to which, "if a technical system is improved on the basis of an invariable scientific and technical principle, then with the achievement of a certain level of its development, the cost of its new models grows as the square of its efficiency."

In other words, it is impossible to create competitive new NPP power units without changing the scientific and technical principle with “gadgets” and “blotches” on the old project, as is done, for example, in the Russian NPP VVER-TOI project.

And while this does not happen, the growth of energy consumption by mankind in today's civilization based on "bank interest", in spite of everything, will occur mainly due to the growth of hydrocarbon energy, and not as a result of the growth of nuclear power.

Boldyrev V. M., "Atmospheric oxygen for globalization and creditors", "Promyshlennye vedomosti" No. 5-6 (16-17), March 2001.

Boldyrev V. M.. "Renewable energy sources, fossil fuels and environmentally friendly nuclear energy", report at the Expert Discussion at IA REGNUM "Economic and environmental consequences of international climate agreements for Russia, Russia, Moscow, March 17-18, 2016.

Boldyrev V. M. "Renewable energy sources, fossil fuels and environmentally friendly nuclear energy", report at the Tenth International Scientific and Technical Conference "Safety, Efficiency and Economics of Nuclear Energy", Moscow. 25-27.05.2016.

Boldyrev V. M., “Capitalism that is safe for nature is a myth !?”, ATOMIC STRATEGY XXI, June, 2016

Boldyrev VM, "Capitalism safe for nature is a myth !?"

Boldyrev V. M., “Capitalism safe for nature is a myth !?”, article on the website of the Nuclear Society of Russia.