By MARK DEVOLDER
Los Alamos

Whether you believe in global warming or not, it has been a hot, dry summer.  I can remember a time when:

1) it snowed in the Jemez Mountains in September,

2) about 2 feet of snow fell in the Jemez Mountains around Thanksgiving,

3) whatever snow was on the ground in the Jemez Mountains around Dec. 10 stayed around for most of the winter, and

4) the monsoon season began around the third week in June.

With the progression of time, the weather has changed. A regulator for the State of New Mexico told me recently that New Mexico is currently involved in a thousand-year drought. Long ago, hot, dry weather conditions prompted the Anasazi Indians in Chaco Canyon to abandon their lands and homes.    

If there is a link between rampant consumption of hydrocarbons (that is, coal, natural gas, and oil) and global warming, I can understand that consumers still want the benefits of automobiles, home heating/air conditioning, major appliances, etc. What I cannot understand is the consumption of hydrocarbons to produce items which are really not necessary for a decent, sustainable quality of life. In addition, the consumption of coal to power electric cars also generates sulfur dioxide and a certain amount of ash which requires disposal. The transfer of electrical power from generation stations to consumers is only 33 percent efficient. Due to the existence of industrial ammonia plants, an additional billion hydrocarbon-hungry people can exist on our planet.   

Some manufactured items are designed with two purposes in mind – an appeal that helps someone keep up with the Jones and helping manufacturers get every last dime out of consumer’s pockets. Product appeal may also create credit card debt.  

I will name a few items which consumers may not really need. There are all kinds of decorative items for homes and yards which do not contribute to keeping a home warm or cool. The same is true for automobiles – colorful lights, reindeer antlers, Christmas bows, eyelashes for headlights and hub caps which spin backwards. There are other items – electric wine bottle cork removers (a limited-life item), an all-purpose tool with combined hammer, pliers and wrench (does not work as well as individual tools), shoes with blinking lights on them, hair dyes in primary and other colors, toys which result from the latest characters in movies (for example, Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story).  

Disney has been marketing movie-related novelties since the depression-era 1930’s. McDonald’s Happy Meals typically provide a plethora of movie-related toys. Fad items come and go in popularity.  Unfortunately, many of the Disney toys, McDonald’s Happy Meal toys, Beanie Babies, Barbie Dolls/accessories eventually find their way to garage sales or the trash can.

Once the items go into the trash, they go into landfills where chemicals (that is, plastic resin decomposition products, plasticizers, adhesives/glue, paint, dyes, etc.) gradually migrate into underground aquifers and potentially affect the quality of the water which we drink. Hydrocarbons are also consumed to haul trash away to landfills as well as excavate and cover landfills. The pandemic is over and camping gear may not have much appeal anymore. I will leave it to readers to decide if a television is more important than food. I have to wonder about cosmetics, jewelry and sporting good items too. Consumer demand for worthless manufactured items also drives up the price of gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, other hydrocarbon products, petrochemicals and plastics.  

Many manufactured items originate in China. In addition to hydrocarbons being consumed to produce manufactured items, hydrocarbons are also consumed to transport manufactured items by ship, rail and trucks to marketplaces.

If you are a Democrat and believe in global warming, then reducing the purchase of worthless manufactured items/fad items should help to reduce the ill effects of global warming.

If you are a Republican, reducing the purchase of worthless manufactured items/fad items will reduce the amount of funding, which China has available to spend on building up their military resources. Lowering the world-wide consumption of crude oil from Russia might be helpful to the Ukrainian War effort.  Therefore, it is a winning situation for both political parties.