Human Creativity Helps us Meet Challenges

SOCIAL STUDIES - April 14th 2008

How about this: The CBC reported last week that CDs, beverage bottles and other products made from hard, clear plastics may have a role to play in slowing global warming.

It seems like a complete reversal of everything that has been said for the last couple of years about the evils of plastic. For example, water bottles are clogging our landfills; not to mention commodifying water which should be an inalienable right for all, but that is another issue.

We all know that plastics have done wonders for life -- everything from making cars lighter, faster, and more dangerous right through to food preparation and preservation. In fact, without plastic most of us would not end up with the food we do, as it would be inefficient to package and transport it.

So how great is it if it is being redeemed! This all happened at the American Chemical Society meeting in New Orleans; and the simplified idea was that we take waste carbon dioxide and make polycarbonate plastic from it. This is almost too good to be true -- a waste product caused by burning all those non-renewable resources gets channeled into a creative process to make a product necessary to maintain our quality of life. All that and it improves the environment too; assuming we still try to keep the bottles out of the landfill.

We are also talking about contact lenses, all kinds of plastics, all of a sudden taking on a secondary role as "carbon sinks" to soak up unnecessary CO2 which, admittedly, will not solve the global warming crisis any more than changing to vegetarianism will solve the food crisis.

It is, however, a building block, a step in the right direction; and everything we do that makes a difference does add up.

Take the Earth Hour a couple of weeks back when we were all supposed to turn off our lights. We turned off the power to our house completely for that one hour; but regardless of whether the results were huge or the change significant; millions of people around the world participated and that means something.

Or how about all of us changing to compact fluorescent light bulbs; is that going to save the planet? No. It most assuredly will not -- but there will be a percentage change in the amount of energy we require and accidental heat we create; so it will make a difference and be part of the building block towards a better future.

It reminds me of a conversation I read with a doctor who said that people who take vitamins daily are much healthier. When asked directly if the vitamins increase health he said, no one knows, perhaps not -- but those people that actually follow through on taking the vitamins are more likely to do other things that would improve their health as well; thus they are healthier overall.

I like to think of it the same way; if you are willing to change your light bulbs, you will probably move on to other steps and voila!

More important than all of this, however, and what really excited me about this news item, is human creativity. Have you ever noticed that when faced with a challenge we rise above it admirably? I could be accused of being overly positive about the human species and our capacity for self-improvement -- but I truly think that we should celebrate the successes.

Every day there are things I see that when I really think about it I cannot for the life of me understand how they came into being. Take bread for example: One day you see a plant growing in the field and you decide to pick the heads off it. Later you decide to roast and grind the seeds into dust. After that you mix the dust with liquid and make dough. Then you bake it in an oven? Who would even think to do any one of those steps let alone the whole kit and caboodle?

Or in a more serious way, think about the last century and the literally thousands of inventions and ideas that have changed the world: in 1901 Ransom Olds created the assembly line; 1903 brought the airplane out of the Wright brothers creativity; and in 1912 Robert Goddard invented the rocket. John Logie Baird brought us the first television in 1925 and Alexander Fleming invented penicillin in 1928. Duct Tape (older then you think, Johnson and Johnson first made it in 1948), Lego, bikinis, toasters and microwaves all came out of someone's creative mind during the middle of the century. Not to mention photocopiers, computers, cell phones and the like.

There are days; heck, there are months, when I think my daughters are going to inherit an arid, lifeless and desolate future.

But then I remember that there has never been a period of history from the dawn of fire and planting of seeds right up to the harnessing of CO2 for the creation of plastics when we have not been able to come up with something better.

It is awfully nice to read something positive in the news every now and again.

Thank goodness for chemical engineers.