| Highlights of DAWN | April 1977 |
Long-Heralded “Crisis” Arrives on Time
“The [everlasting] sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.” —Malachi 4:2 RSV
WITH the passage of time the world becomes more painfully aware of the pressures wrought by a growing world population on diminishing world resources. As the resulting problems increase in intensity and diversity, it becomes ever more apparent that imperfect man is unable properly to manage his own existence, provide for his own well-being, direct the affairs of the world, or to control his own destiny. Indeed, he appears weak, helpless, and utterly perplexed in the face of the developing mighty forces that threaten to destroy the civilization he has labored for thousands of years to establish in the earth.
Most would heartily agree that war is irrational and a blight on humanity, yet wars have been fought by men to settle differences almost from the beginning of human existence. They cause indescribable suffering and heartbreak, impoverish nations, despoil the land, and create bitter and lasting hate between peoples and governments. Yet there has never been a period of any consequence in the history of mankind when the world has not been torn and divided by war. The peace of the world during this present century alone has been shattered by ruthless and devastating wars, including two so-called world wars. And the whole world is at this very hour suspended in a state of fear lest the most devastating of all wars should suddenly break out.
Also, all men everywhere deplore poverty and starvation; yet in this reputed day of science and progress, hundreds of millions of our fellow human beings the world over go to bed every night with virtually empty stomachs. George Borgstrom, a food production expert, says that one-half of the children alive today will never reach adulthood for want of proper nourishment. In undeveloped nations, multitudes will die without ever once having enjoyed what those living in affluent nations would consider to be just an ordinary good meal. The hunger that is habitual in the slum areas of Hong Kong, Bombay, and many other parts of the world is unbelievable and heart-sickening. Meanwhile, millions more are added daily to the world’s already hungry population.
Likewise, to give another example, the anguish and grief of drug addiction suffered by men and women, young and old, the world over, is universally bemoaned. But New York City alone has some 100,000 heroin addicts, each of whom must, somehow or other, get a minimum of $40 a day to buy his required allotment of the drug.
U.S. News & World Report states that alcohol and marijuana are a spreading menace among teenagers, and that the rise in drinking and pot smoking is creating frightening problems for the nation’s schools. Customs Commissioner Vernon Acree states that “narcotic substances are on the streets of virtually every city, town and village of the United States.”
Yet, in spite of the expenditure of huge sums to reduce the use of drugs, discouragingly little progress is being made to bring it under control. As fast as one source of supply is reduced, another is quickly developed, and the misery and evil consequences of addiction continue unabated.
An “Unsurprising” Surprise
The energy crisis through which the eastern part of this nation has lately suffered presents another glaring example of the ineptitude of imperfect human leadership. Aggravated by the extremely cold winter, the nation’s long-heralded and well-publicized shortage of gas arrived, causing hundreds of thousands to be thrown out of work, while other thousands endured cold homes. The situation (and the exasperation of the general public) was reminiscent of the gasoline shortage of the winter of 1973.
For long years the national government and the leaders of our energy industries have all been aware of the energy problem looming ahead. In October, 1971, U.S. News & World Report presented details of an interview with Edward E. David, Jr., Science Adviser to then President Richard Nixon. The article was entitled, “Coming: Fuel Crisis.” One of the vital points that Dr. David made at that time was that the demand for power in this country would double every 10 years, if continued at the then current rate of consumption. This, of course, clearly indicated the need for beginning construction of new sources of power at a rate that was not then envisioned, and pointed to an inevitable shortage not long hence.
“Cheap Energy Finished”
Also in 1971, Dr. John J. McKetta, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas, had similarly called attention to the approaching energy crisis in the United States. He made it clear that cheap energy was about finished and that future production would involve huge expenditures for exploration and manufacture of energy from alternative sources of fuels.
“The days of abundant, cheap energy, regardless of form, are gone,” McKetta stated. When asked why something had not been done before that ‘time (1971), he replied, “Unfortunately, too many people, including some of our national politicians, simply refuse to recognize the plain, hard facts. They think someone will always come up with a magic solution and the problem will go away.”
A 1972 issue of a publication of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana also called attention to the rapidly developing squeeze on oil. It stated, “Over the last ten years, Americans have increased their use of energy almost 50 per cent. During that decade, oil industry spokesmen repeatedly and increasingly pointed out that demand was rising faster than domestic supply and that an energy crisis was inevitable unless preventive steps were taken. … Now there is much public outcry about a developing energy shortage, which should have been no surprise at all. The nation has been consuming oil and gas for years at a faster rate than it has been finding new reserves, and energy demand is expected to nearly double in 15 years.”
Cheap Energy Taken for Granted
In the same year (1972) the American Petroleum Institute also issued a statement calling attention to the urgency of the situation. Among other things it said, “Unlimited supplies of low-cost energy have been taken largely for granted in the United States. … Yet there is clear evidence that the United States is falling from a position of relative energy self-sufficiency into dependence on other countries to meet its requirements. … Continuance on the present course will lead to dependence on imports to meet more than half of the nation’s daily oil needs within the next several years—mainly from Eastern Hemisphere sources, some of which pose problems of increased costs or possible supply interruptions.
“It is imperative that the United States adopt comprehensive and coherent national energy policies. Without adequate energy supplies within the United States, the nation will become increasingly vulnerable to foreign influence on its foreign and domestic policies and internal economic conditions.” Unhappily, and foreseeably, this prediction shortly came to pass when, in October of 1973, the mid-eastern oil-producing nations placed an embargo on oil shipments to the United States.
“No Time to Waste”
In 1973 Exxon Corporation, largest of the international oil producers, commented on the inevitable diminution of the world’s supply of oil. It stated, “It would … seem imprudent to plan the world’s energy supplies on the assumption that it would be possible to accelerate discoveries of crude oil to parallel the rising consumption. … We need to face the fact that the world’s conventional oil resources will not indefinitely support increases in production.”
To prepare for such a situation and for an orderly transition into a new energy era, Exxon said that “every consuming nation must … encourage energy conservation and speed the development of other conventional and nonconventional energy sources.”
Among other things, they specifically suggested that the United States should use more coal, speed up nuclear power plant construction, increase research on recovery of solar energy, advance commercial development of shale oil, and implement far-reaching conservation programs to tide us over until new sources of energy should be available to supply the growing needs of the nation. “There is no time to waste if the United States and other major energy-consuming countries are to adjust to the changed situation that lies ahead.”
Much as all would like it to do so, the problem just does not “go away.” Reporter Jack Anderson of the Washington Post recently wrote that the Energy Research and Development Administration has possession of documents which show that the United States, “already dangerously dependent on overseas oil, will be desperately short of petroleum in a few years.” Further, according to these papers, the total world reserves of 700 billion barrels will be exhausted by the end of the century. They state that U.S. dependence on oil imports is becoming untenable and that the nation’s heavy reliance on oil and natural gas must be reduced. Meantime, it is generally agreed that it will require more time to develop new energy sources than it will take to use up available domestic oil supplies. At the same time that foreign supplies have become less reliable, energy production from other domestic sources has increased but insignificantly.
“Shell Oil Says So!”
Yankee Magazine carried an article (February, 1977) headed, “When (not if) the World Runs Out of Oil.” The subheading continued: “You don’t have to take the word of energy expert Dr. Tom Eastler … that the world’s oil will be gone within 30 years. Shell Oil Company says so, too!”
Dr. Eastler handed the writer of the article, Steve Sherman, a short excerpt from a review of the oil situation that was published by the Shell Oil Company in Houston, Texas. It read, in italics: “This analysis would indicate that the petroleum age of the free world may be expected to continue at most for only about 30 more years.”
Writer Sherman says that Eastler pictures a bleak future “that nobody believes.” He quotes Dr. Eastler as saying, “In 30 years you will not be able to go down to your local gas station and buy a tankful of gasoline that is pumped out of a well somewhere. You will not be able to heat your house with an oil burner in 30 years and I suspect sooner than that. I know this is a … statement which nobody wants to believe.”
An Apocalyptic View?
Dr. Eastler foresees, at the least, a drastic change in the lifestyles of Americans. He suggests, ominously, that this may come about in one of two ways: by directives from above imposing forced conservation, or by an agonizing revolution. He continues, “We don’t have the riots of Watts that we had a few years ago, but we’ll have them again and they’ll be centered around food and energy, particularly in the northern climates.”
Only last June the government of Poland attempted to raise food prices. This triggered worker riots by the already oppressed populace, and the militia had to be called out to put down the trouble. The government hastily rescinded the price rises. Much the same thing happened in Egypt in January of this year. When the government of President Anwar Sadat imposed certain higher consumer prices, the people rioted, with 80 being killed and 800 hurt. Again, the price rises were revoked.
Sadat immediately initiated tough measures against strikes and demonstrations, providing for life sentences for violations. “Democracy too can have teeth and fangs,” said Sadat. But, reports Newsweek Magazine (February 21, 1977), “Sadat isn’t taking too many chances. Ever since the riots, three truckloads of riot police have stood discreetly in the shadows near his residence all night long.” Those wretched companions, Hunger and Anarchy, are never far apart.
The Latest Hazard—LNG
In an attempt to relieve the domestic shortage of natural gas, a new hazard is on the way—the importation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in huge tankers presently under construction. It is proposed that these shall dock at terminals on Chesapeake Bay and the Savannah River, Georgia. “But what a risk we will be forced to take to feed our energy habit. Transporting LNG is an eerie business,” reports the National Observer (February 19, 1977), “and the consequences of an accident are almost too terrible to think about.”
LNG is presently brought into this country at Boston Harbor, and the respect accorded this dangerous substance may be seen in the elaborate precautions taken when a tanker filled with LNG arrives. It is given permission to enter the harbor on clear days only, and then under the strict guidance of the United States Coast Guard, escorted by tugs, and at a time when all other traffic in the harbor is brought to a virtual standstill.
A practical but costly example of the danger inherent in the handling of LNG was provided on October 20, 1944, when one of four tanks storing LNG at Cleveland, Ohio, broke open. The LNG formed a vapor cloud that was touched off by a spark, sending flames a half mile into the sky. More than 30 were killed, 300 injured, and dozens of houses and factories were reduced to cinders.
“High Noon in Solar Showdown”
We hear much about alternative sources of energy to meet our domestic needs—vast coal deposits in the West; oil-bearing rock in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming; nuclear, tidal, thermal, and wind energy. All have been hampered in greater or lesser degree by environmental or cost considerations, but more particularly by the inability or unwillingness of responsible leadership to agree on and establish an urgently needed national energy policy and program.
At present much research is going into tapping the energy which the sun so lavishly bestows upon this planet. The National Geographic News Service states, “In one second, the sun emits more energy than man has used in all the time since civilization began. All the homes on earth could be powered by the amount of light that falls on Los Angeles.”
The National Observer (March 27, 1976) featured an article that said, “It’s High Noon in Solar Showdown.” The writer stated, “The United States is embarking on what could be the nation’s major scientific effort of the 1980’s.” Its goal: to find ways to convert sunshine into energy to heat and cool homes, office buildings, and schools; water crops in desert areas; cook your food; and eventually provide perhaps 25 per cent of the nation’s electric power. He pointed out that nuclear energy is beset by problems, and oil, gas, and coal are exhaustible resources.
“The sun’s energy, however, seems beyond calculation,” he said. “Three days’ worth of the sun that shines on earth provides energy equal to the energy of all the world’s known oil, gas and coal reserves. Solar collectors occupying just a few thousand square miles could supply all of the nation’s electric power, researchers say, and by the year 2020 sunshine could provide 25 per cent of these needs.”
Solar cells for converting sun heat to electricity and storing it are already available. Homes in many parts of the nation are at least partially heated by solar hot water systems. It is believed by some experts that general use of sun-fueled electricity is only a decade away. Photovoltaic cells that convert the sun’s rays into electricity have already worked efficiently on more that 600 manned and unmanned space flights. But this relatively new science has not yet developed to the point where it can relieve the growing gap between energy supply and energy demands.
“Distress of Nations, with Perplexity”
Mankind today is indeed plagued with many difficult and perplexing problems which cause much suffering, injustice, and unhappiness. As the problems multiply, the solutions become ever more elusive. The energy problem that is even now in our midst is just one more of these perplexing situations.
Speaking to his disciples of this very period of time in human history, Jesus said there would be “upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity.” The New English Bible translates this passage, “On earth nations will stand helpless, not knowing which way to turn,” while James Moffatt says, “the nations will be in dismay, bewildered.” (Luke 21:25) How eloquently descriptive is this language of the present state of human affairs, as we watch feeble man’s faltering efforts to hold back the swelling tide of world events! The very confusion that is universally present in high places is evidence of our Lord’s presence, the approaching end of the age, and the coming establishment in the earth of Christ’s kingdom.—Matt. 24:3,21
When Christ’s thousand-year kingdom is established in the earth there will be no energy problem. Much of the energy used today is produced at the expense of polluting the air, the seas, and the earth. The pollution resulting from nuclear activities alone may well contaminate the earth for hundreds of years or longer. But in that glorious future day it shall no longer be said, “The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants.” (Isa. 24:5 RSV) Whatever the source of energy in the kingdom, it will be clean, whether derived from the tides of the oceans, from the winds, from the rushing rivers, or directly from the sun.
The blowing of the winds upon the face of the earth, the ebb and flow of the tides of the oceans, and the tumbling mountain streams and the rivers are all the result of the alternate heating and cooling action of the sun and the gravitational attraction of the moon on the waters of the seas.
“Blessed Be the Lord God”
These are all clean sources of energy, and they will never fail. Speaking of the antitypical David, the Christ, the psalmist says, “His line shall endure for ever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established for ever.” (Ps. 89:36,37 RSV)
In another place the psalmist likens the endurance of the sun to the everlasting endurance of Christ. “His [Christ’s] name shall endure for ever; His name shall be continued as long as the sun.” (Ps. 72:17) We learn from Solomon that “the earth abideth for ever” (Eccl. 1:4), and from Peter that Christ’s kingdom on earth will be an “everlasting kingdom.”—II Pet. 1:11
Thus we learn that the loving Heavenly Father has not only planned an everlasting home on earth for the resurrected billions of mankind, but he has also arranged for a constant and endless source of pure energy to provide for man’s everlasting comfort, occupation, and happiness.
“Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.”—Ps. 72:18,19