“Addicted to oil?
OK, but what we’re really addicted to is the machine.
The machine invariably runs on carbonaceous fuels – coal, oil, or natural gas – or those so-called atoms for peace.”

That’s the opening crescendo in my inaugural Eco Man column. That first column was edited and the lines that followed in that column have yet to be published.

For the first time ever I share those lines with the public:

Ironically, the machine is most visible at night.

Ninety-nine percent of Americans and European Union Europeans and two-thirds of the world’s population live under light polluted skies.

Eighty percent of Americans, two-thirds of the European Union Europeans and twenty-five percent of the world’s population live in under night skies superimposed with manmade light equivalent in scale to that of the light output of a full moon.

According to the National Park Service Night Sky Team, just one percent of landmass in America’s National Parks is light pollution free.

Those measurements indicate how widespread the machine’s imprint is on our planet.

This blog catalogs Eco Man columns that have already been published.

New columns will be posted on the blog as they are published.

I encourage readers to interactively express their own views on ideas conveyed in this blog’s posts.