This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Imagine that, a few thousand years from now, some alien archaeologists visit a remote and now unoccupied planet once called "Earth" to study the remains of a once great civilization there. This civilization had art, music, culture and science. They were even beginning to reach out to the stars. But something happened and they vanished from the globe, taking most animal and plant species with them.

The archaeologists studied the writings of the long-lost culture. They learned that the culture's scientists were warning of a pending disaster. It seems their use of buried hydrocarbons for energy was altering their atmosphere, eventually with catastrophic consequences.

They also read that many bright minds offered solutions to switch the culture to non-polluting energy sources. They devised clever solutions like "fee and dividend" that used an economic system called the "free market" to rapidly switch to clean sources of energy.

But the people ignored the crisis and engaged in a bizarre ritual called an "election" to choose a new leader. Rather than select a savior to aggressively attack the environmental crisis, they did something that perplexed the archaeologist, who turned to his companion and asked, "What was a 'Trump'?"

Grant Geer

West Jordan