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It’s About Energy, Work and the Laws of Physics, Stupid!

Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.  ~ Archimedes

I swear by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, and Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation—to reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this Art, if they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture, and every other mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath according to the law of medicine, but to none others. I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art. I will not cut persons laboring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of this work. Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and, further from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves. Whatever, in connection with my professional practice or not, in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret. While I continue to keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art, respected by all men, in all times! But should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot!

 ~ The Actual Hippocratic Oath by Hippocrates

At the end of the day, it’s all about energy, work and the laws of physics.  Consider an encyclopedia Britannica quote:

Work, in physics, (is the) measure of energy transfer that occurs when an object is moved over a distance by an external force at least part of which is applied in the direction of the displacement. If the force is constant, work may be computed by multiplying the length of the path by the component of the force acting along the path. To express this concept mathematically, the work W is equal to the force f times the distance d, or W = fd. If the force is being exerted at an angle θ to the displacement, the work done is W = fd cos θ. Work done on a body is accomplished not only by a displacement of the body as a whole from one place to another but also, for example, by compressing a gas, by rotating a shaft, and even by causing invisible motions of the particles within a body by an external magnetic force.”

Since roughly 90% of the energy in the world is generated by the only cheap, plentiful, reliable, scalable, portable and plentiful fuel that exists on planet earth – fossil fuels – the work generated by fuel (in physics terminology) depends on heat (“measure of energy transfer”) to power up our machines and provide prosperity.  Prosperity has almost nothing to do with economics, because at the end of the day it is about the Laws of Physics.  Money is simply symbolic as an exchange commodity to purchase work. Physics always has the last word.

Before the laws of physics were scrutinized, our ancestors knew how to skillfully apply those laws that govern energy transfer (calories) and work.  Humans can only generate about 2,000 calories a day,[1] so the monarchs and other despots, at the point of a gun, forced serfs and slaves to expend their 2000 calories a day to provide the tyrants with far more work than they were individually capable of, about 2000 calories a day.  Beasts of burden (also “slaves”) were used, like horses (aka horsepower), to improve the energy needed to do work (see definition above) and generate prosperity for the ruling classes.  Today, the most socio-economically-challenged individual has far more prosperity than the richest and most powerful tyrants of the past, because in the US at least, our machines are fueled (heat transfer) by roughly 100 times more energy (200,000 calories per person per day), mostly derived from fossil fuels, than our body is capable of.  Prosperity is not about economics; it’s about physics which always has the last word.

The violence that my ancestors exerted to fight slavery in the Civil War, which soaked up their 2000 calories a day of energy transfer (calories) and work, may not have been necessary, since we were well on our way to feeding our machines calories so that serfs and slaves were becoming obsolete.  The abolition of slavery in Britain in the early 1800’s, preceding that of the US, was relatively non-violent and inevitable.[2]  The Cotton Gin[3] which was discovered at the beginning of the industrial revolution, had already started our inexorable ascension into the industrial age, making much of the caloric and inefficient expenditures of human calories unnecessary.  Serfs and slaves were becoming obsolete because they were grossly outperformed by our high-work-capacity machines, and slavery was already doomed as an institution.  Prosperity is not about economics; it’s about physics which always has the last word.

The blockbuster insight here concerns the number one industry in the world, agriculture.  The laws of physics also govern the transfer of the sun’s energy into plants via photosynthesis which utilizes the amazing molecule chlorophyll.  We take that energy stored in plants as protein, fats and carbohydrates and generate ATP, the fuel that runs our life and allows us to generate about 2,000 calories of heat transfer into work.  Modern technologies of farming, powered by fossil fuels that runs the 40 million tractors in the world, allows farmers to adequately feed almost seven billion human beings.  Another 500 million souls or so, are still calorically challenged, but we have made astonishing improvements in world starvation thanks to agricultural machines that gobble up about 17% of the fossil fuels in the world.

In order to switch to a non-fossil fuel economy, the 40 million petrochemical-gulping tractors are going to have to run on electricity. 40 million electric tractors at a cost of about $100,000 each (very minimal estimate) will total 100,000 X 40,000,000 = 4 trillion dollars.  The gas-gulping infrastructure that prepares the soils, fertilizes the soils, plants the soils, waters the soils during a drought, harvests the crops, stores the harvest in silos, transports the harvest to food processing facilities, and transports that food to the retail stores, all requires energy transfer and work.  The generation of electricity to power up the agricultural industry will require many millions of expensive windmills and solar panels.  If we destroy the fossil fuel industry, and we do not spend many trillions of dollars to manufacture and power up at least 40 million tractors and all the machines needed to manufacture and deliver the food to the end users, physics will have the last word.  The irrefutable conclusion is that billions of human beings will starve to death because the laws of physics cannot be violated without obvious consequences.

A Mortal Sin

“In medicine sins of commission are mortalsins of omission are venial.”

~ Théodore Tronchin 

The world is about to commit a mortal sin.[4]  We at An Earthly Chance Foundation are trying to stop it from happening and we believe there is An Earthly Chance that we will be successful.  The war against fossil fuels has recently taken on a social justice flavor.[5] As fossil fuels become expensive and scarce, fuel that is needed for work, to prepare and fertilize the fields, plant the seeds, water the fields, harvest the crops, transport the crops to storage areas, transport the food to processing facilities, and package and distribute food to the end user, the socioeconomically-challenged will starve first.  Where is the social justice in that? 

It is a simple equation; No fossil fuels = no food.  The planned starvation and murder of billions of people caused by malnutrition and disease is a Grave Matter and based on Roman Catholic doctrine, a Grave Matter becomes a mortal sin based on three components;

  1. Grave Matter: The act itself, the starvation and planned murder of billions of human beings, is intrinsically evil and immoral.
  2. Full Knowledge: The person must know that what they’re doing or planning to do is evil and immoral.  Our mission is to make it clear to everyone that the murder of billions of human beings is evil and immoral.  After considering how Grave this Matter is, you can no longer naively believe that you were innocently unaware.  You have Full Knowledge.
  3. Deliberate Consent: The person must freely choose to commit the act or plan to do it.  Once an individual has the full knowledge that the climate movement’s war on fossil fuels is evil and immoral, if an individual nevertheless freely chooses to participate in its objectives to murder billions of human beings, they have met all of the requirements of committing a Mortal Sin.

The author is physician and a scientist.  I believe that physics has the last word.  Perhaps God does, but I am not religious.  Perhaps a divine intervention will feed the masses when the fuel required to do so has disappeared.  I have never seen the laws of physics violated.  But for those who have faith or for those who take monotheistic considerations seriously, you might want to carefully consider the quote below.  The commitment of a Mortal Sin, as opposed to a Venial Sin[6], is defined in the Church’s Catechism.

Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God’s forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ’s kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning back.” (important phrase underlined by author for emphasis)

Without belaboring the religious perspective, we at An Earthly Chance Foundation believe there is an earthly chance that Climate Change can be solved without causing world starvation and that human beings and our ecosystems will be healed through regenerative agriculture and geoengineering. We also implore the world to abandon the Mortal Sin being committed and planned by the climate movement’s true believers.  We seek a better world where people live and act without engaging in this mortal sin.  If the climate movement is successful, lots of nice people, according to Roman Catholicism, may find themselves condemned to Hell and relatively incapable of redemption.  We seek spiritual healing for all, a heaven on earth,[7] including for our Catholic friends, that everyone will; “not (be lead) into temptation[8], but delivered from evil.”[9]  Continuing the Lord’s prayer;may “Thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.”  The author is not a theological scholar, but I could assert with full confidence that in heaven, wherever or whatever it is, no threat of Climate Change exists. We are simply proposing an irrefutable solution to make that heavenly circumstance exist “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Théodore Tronchin’s quote above differentiates the two main kinds of sin: mortal and venial.  In other words, if you walk away from the Climate Change madness completely, ignore the war on fossil fuels and also ignore the geoengineering solutions for excess carbon dioxide and global warming we present here, you will have committed a far lesser transgression, a venial sin, a sin of omission. You will have omitted from your life the climate movement’s Grave Mortal Sin by simply ignoring it, but you will also have avoided efforts to support An Earthly Chance which should be responsibly embraced by everyone.  It is the only solution possible, but you do have the free will to ignore it.  Nevertheless, we point out that the world is now Hell-bent on committing the worst Mortal Sin in history, the mass murder by starvation of many billions of human beings, by eradicating the only indispensable fuel which can grow enough food to feed the world’s inhabitants.  We seek to provide the heavenly alternative.  Even though ignoring us is only a venial sin, nevertheless this sin of omission may also contribute to the worst Mortal Sin in history, simply because people will simply not know what else to do (AKA Full Knowledge – see above).

Furthermore, once you have “Full Knowledge,” you have the free will to complete the mortal sin, the “Deliberate Consent.” If you freely choose to commit mass murder by supporting the climate movement’s war on fossil fuels, you have met all of the requirements of committing a mortal sin.  If there is validity to the Church’s teachings, one’s support for the climate movement should be deeply considered as a mortal sin and as a dangerous threat to one’s immortal soul.  Even morality and ethics is about physics which always has the last word.


[1] Rough average.  Older folks and children much less.  Athletes (except bowlers) substantially more.

[2] See movie Amazing Grace.  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454776/

[3] A significant invention of the Industrial Revolution was the cotton gin, which was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793. The cotton gin was a machine that could quickly separate cotton fibers from seeds in order to create cotton items such as clothing and linens.  The production of relatively inexpensive textiles by our calorie-powered-up machines, made all sectors of the clothing industry, such as the picking of cotton, far less expensive than human clothing manufacturers.

[4] In Catholicism, three conditions are necessary for mortal sin to exist: Grave Matter: The act itself is intrinsically evil and immoral. For example, murder, rape, incest, perjury, adultery, and so on are grave matter. Full Knowledge: The person must know that what they’re doing or planning to do is evil and immoral.  Deliberate Consent: The person must freely choose to commit the act or plan to do it. 

[5] See bill The green New Deal sponsored by Ocasio-Cortez.

[6] Venial sin (in Roman Catholicism) a relatively slight sin that that does not entail damnation of the soul.

[7]  See website, www.heavenly.com

[8] Temptation is falling for the irrational propaganda of Climate Change.

[9] Paraphrased from Matthew 6:9-13