Great to Have a Brain

68,877 tons of GreenHouse Gas emission (GHG) is negligible, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration (page 8). That's how much will be produced by the SpaceX Falcon launches in a year. This is too good an example of dishonesty to ignore, but it is the last time I will pick on Elon Musk, cross my brain and hope to die.

What does "negligible" mean here? It means that compared with the annual global emissions of 50 billion tons or so, this is just a sneeze; so don't blame these guys; lend them a hanky and let them get back to work. It's a trick. Don't fall for it. You can easily make something big look small by comparing it with something bigger, which is just cheating. They are messing with your brain, not measuring harm. You might also consider that 68,877 tons is approximately the annual emission of 4,500 US citizens, which is less negligible.  

Negligibility is in the eye of the beholder and it is put there by somebody who doesn't care about your eye. Their eye is on progress and profit. Put 68,877 tons in your eye and see if it's negligible. We don't want anything in our eye, nothing, zilch, nada, zero. Within the next few decades, we need to reduce GHG emissions to ZERO, that is zero, I mean zero,  or more accurately ...., which isn't going to happen if we imagine 68,877 tons is negligible and just let it go. Any GHG emission whatever compared to .... is HUGE.

You think I'm being silly. The bit of fuel we burn to keep warm in winter or drive to the grocery store, that's just negligible, you say. Perhaps you didn't read the first chapter of the story of life on earth written in stone.  Synopsis: the first mass extinction (or the one before the first, depending on how you count) was brought about by cyanobacteria changing the atmosphere one negligible molecule at a time. We are smarter than cyanobacteria. It took them a billion years, and we are getting the sixth mass extinction done in a few centuries. 

Isn't it great to have a brain?

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Fossil Fuel Industry No Friend to Workers: David Suzuki Foundation