Energy Matters

It’s the holiday season, a time for reflection on one’s effort toward improving Earth, or doing it no harm. In that spirit, I offer a plea for the end of the past time of skipping stones, and I ask Congress to make this illegal or for the EPA to find it in violation of pro-environment policy.

          Skipping stones is the habit-forming, neurotic, overly competitive practice of trying to excel at something. In this case, it is the attempt to flick a stone across water, and count the number of times it will skip (upon natural water tension) before losing velocity and simply sinking.

And, this is destroying the environment.

          To toss a stone into a lake, pond or river displaces the volume of oxygen-rich water that is available to the life that thrives within that body of water and is entirely dependent upon the oxygen this water offers. For every stone that is tossed into the water, at least one fewer organism takes a breath.

          Meanwhile, some organism—usually a paramecium—is usually stunned, possibly mortally, by the ding of the stone upon the water it happens to inhabit. Paramecia are food for other water-cleansing life, and their work is set back by the stunning stone.

          Also, the act of skipping stones is usually with what stones are readily available. These stones were produced to the shoreline by the body of water because their mass and other characteristics were rejected by the body of water as non-habitat-friendly. To return the stone to the body of water creates stress on the natural state, and on its effort toward equilibrium. Efforts by the body of water to restore the stone to the shore are renewed, and this detracts from its effort to sustain the life it hosts.

          In particular, if these stones are carried to the targeted site of violation and these stones are lumps of coal, the lumps’ expression of their natural gas content further displaces the water due to natural desorption.

          Lastly, the act of skipping stones requires energy on behalf of the stone-skipper. This energy is derived from consumption, and increased consumption—of food and potable water, and, at times, non-self-propelled transportation fuel—creates further depletion of available non-renewable energy resources, such as the fuel required to harvest, process and transport the food, which could have been used to create transportation fuel, such as ethanol, which is made from applying gross amounts of the depleting-hydrocarbon natural gas to corn.

          In the new year, act proactively and discourage stone-skipping behavior.

          Thank you for your consideration of this suggestion toward improving Earth.

–Nissa Darbonne, Executive Editor, Oil and Gas Investor, A&D Watch, OilandGasInvestor.com Today, OilandGasInvestor.com, A-Dcenter.com; ndarbonne@hartenergy.com

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