We are awake! The last thing we need is a lawyer telling us what our duties and obligations are toward human civilization ("A geoscience wakeup call," May 2002, p. 112). What pretentious, patronizing ugliness. Victor John Yannacone Jr. certainly deserves a rebuttal from every one of us.
Geoscientists have made it possible to supply the world with energy at unbelievably low prices. The cost of gasoline is about US $1.20/gal in the United States, about the cost of purified drinking water. There is no economic reason for this. The oil industry often must go through the terrestrial equivalent of hell to explore for hydrocarbons, drill to enormous depth (relative to water wells), build pipelines over mountains, launch fleets of vessels (many similar in size to aircraft carriers) to transport crude across oceans, construct city-sized refineries to make the oil palatable to a variety of engines and furnaces, and finally, maintain a marketing system that can efficiently deliver the final product to virtually any part of the world upon demand.
The economics of the oil/water price structure become even more confusing when one factors in that the former is a finite, nonrenewable resource, and the latter is regularly renewed. If polluted, water can be filtered and voilà, still sell like hotcakes for about the same $1.20/gal through clever advertising. Imported water sells for much more. Parallels other than water abound.
The point is that we have been so efficient in providing the world with cheap energy - and making this incredibly difficult job transparent to the general public - that we are taken for granted and indeed, regularly treated with disdain. To supply gasoline at the same price as purified drinking water should qualify us as superheroes to be admired and appreciated. Are we? Hell no! We are scorned and reminded to do better, to save the world from an approaching energy crisis.
What makes Mr. Yannacone an authority on our obligations toward human civilization?
He is a lawyer, but we have no quarrel with the law. Why did he not pick on brain-dead rock stars or overpaid sports "heroes" who are making millions at the expense of ordinary people taxed by hidden advertising costs? Why not pick on chief executive officers who get paid millions for defrauding company employees and destroying or selling off companies? Why not pick on the multitude of parasites of the superfund or other government programs paid by the people?
He is an environmentalist, but I wonder just how many years he spent in the tropical rain forests, the Sahara desert, the North Slope or similar unforgiving places we have called home for many years. We geoscientists live and work in those harsh, yet wonderful places and keep memories and photos. We find solace in the fact that we lived experiences others only can dream of living. We explored where "no man had gone before." And like any romantic fool, if asked, we probably would do it all over again.
Is there some kind of magic in such harsh work? Gold at the end of a rainbow? There is, but it is not literal gold, for none of us got rich. It is Mother Nature, the environment. In the words of Bobby Vinton, "To know you is to love you." In our lengthy exposure, we learned to know, love and respect the environment long before the so-called environmental movement ever was. We have no quarrel with the environment, either.
Please, Mr. Yannacone, take your wakeup call elsewhere!
We geoscientists have only done good for human civilization, yet none of us has seen millions of dollars except through bulletproof glass in Las Vegas.
The energy crisis eventually will come. Not because we geoscientists have failed in our obligations, but because of the increasing number of parasites in human civilization. The world must learn to recognize the true value of energy and those responsible for providing it. The world must learn to control its parasites. Then we may hope to avoid the energy and other crises. That is truly the last word.

Albin K. Kerekes is a geophysicist.

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