Mary Ann Segal, M.D.
Disqualified
By Tara Arcury
Dr. Mary Ann Segal was born in 1941 in Jersey City, New Jersey, and at eleven years old she skipped a grade in school. When she walked into the class of new kids she announced that she would someday be President of the United States. Those classmates may or may not be surprised to hear that at the age of 66, she is working towards making that declaration happen in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. Although her path to this goal has not been a straight-line trajectory but rather a diversified melding of interests and abilities that have led her to act on what she says, "God put in my face." She attended Swarthmore College receiving her B.A. in religion and premedicine in 1962. In 1965 she received her M.A. in Science Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, while also studying theology, church history, and philosophy of religion at Union Theological Seminary. Dr. Segal taught high school briefly before going back to school to get an M.D. in 1971 at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She has been a practicing Psychiatrist working extensively with the disadvantaged mothers and children. Most recently she is an author.
So what brings Dr. Segal to follow her proclamation of becoming the President of the United States? This author would say it is her propensity to help humankind. She has spent a great deal of her life reaching out to the marginalized population. This work coupled with a sudden awakening of the fuel crisis left her awake at night worrying about their ability to simply heat their homes in the future. What was most alarming is that this future is not far off in her estimation.
Dr. Segal felt pushed into action after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. She is self-described as a problem-solver and when she began to read articles describing where we will be in 2010 regarding the fuel crisis she couldn't ignore being pulled into action. She began contemplating writing a book but by 2005 she felt she was running out of time. She acted quickly to get her book, Getting Through the Wilderness: The Fuel Crisis, Global Warming, and The Hydrogen Frontier, published by AuthorHouse. She has the aptitude to understand the complexities of alternative fuel and a humanistic quality that prompts her to research this issue thoroughly and seek solutions. She feels the best venue in which she can make a difference is by being the next leader of one of the most powerful countries in the world.
Dr. Segal talks about the urgency and the dire need to make changes now and presents solutions to do so. First she proposes serious conservation that will allow time for research and production of alternative fuels. Hydrogen fuel is a viable option according to Dr. Segal, "hydrogen, made by electrolysis of water, is the cheapest way to get massive amounts of clean transportable fuel."
The windship, pictured on the cover of her book, "is much more efficient that 'state-of-the-art' wind turbines and is less expensive. Off shore, at sea, about 5 to 15 miles it operates to release hydrogen from the seawater. It was surprising to find out that with only 64.5 square miles of seascape, we could erect enough windships [one million] to supply 100 quadrillion BTU's of energy, enough to replace all the fossil and nuclear fuel that the United States needs."
Dr. Segal claims if hydrogen was made available to us now all we would need to do to the cars we currently own is add another tank and lines and with the flip of a switch go from gasoline to hydrogen. This will make due until hydrogen is developed enough to use it on its own. BMW has already produced a car that can do this. Solar energy can be used in conjunction with hydrogen to supply energy to buildings. "All our needs for heating, driving, electricity, farming and manufacturing, as well as jet plane use and space shuttles can be met with clean hydrogen from water."
By building hydrogen infrastructure it will boost the economy and supply jobs for those struggling to makes ends meet.
When asked about other issues she states she is in favor of withdrawing troops from Iraq but would review the options with military leaders while finding out what our troops need while they are there. The work needed to build the infrastructure should be handed over to the Iraqis, whether they need our help is up to them to decide. She feels a stumbling block is the privatized deal that the current administration has made that doesn't allow the Kurds to gain proper compensation for the sale of the oil, rather the U.S. company is making profit.
She said she is interested in a national health insurance. Cost of managing Medicare is lower then HMO according to Dr. Segal, and you choose your own doctors. Typically with HMO's you get cognitive behavioral therapy and generally speaking it doesn't work. Co-payments are prohibitive though and this is a particular problem for senior citizens.
Businesses should be paying a fair tax rate, "in the 60's they paid 21%, now they are paying 8%." Dr. Segal says with the start of new Hydrogen businesses they can commit to a fair tax rate that will make a substantial contribution to federal revenues. The energy business in America makes "a 300 billion dollar profit, pay taxes in good faith" accordingly. She also feels small farmers are more organic and efficient then Agri-business and she is concerned with the way we treat the small farmer.
Dr. Segal has remained in contact with her professor of religious studies from her undergraduate studies at Swarthmore, Dr. Linwood Urban. He has this to say about her candidacy, "It's a big responsibility. I don't think Mary Ann temperamentally could manage all the stress of the presidency. I think she has high motivation to try to correct deficiencies in our society. But I am not sure she has the concept of how demanding it will be. I think her biggest accomplishment is the writing of the book. I think it has many strong points and important things to say. I do disagree somewhat of the feasibility of the project, particularly the windships, technologically it seems more difficult, but should be explored. Hydrogen fuel is so ecologically positive, a real alternative, that is not being seriously enough considered."
Dr. Valerie Banschbach, Professor of Biology at Saint Michael's College in Vermont, is currently teaching a First-Year Seminar titled "Solving Environmental Problems" which includes a unit on alternative fuels. She was intrigued to review the information that Dr. Segal provided. Dr. Banschbach will confirm the science is right on but feels it is overly optimistic, "both the technology and the economics (and public policy challenges are more daunting then the technology however) of hydrogen fuel." She heartily agrees that ethanol, as Dr. Segal has stated in her material as being "no longer a bargain," is a bad solution. Dr. Banschbach points out that salt water is not available to large portions of the country making it very inconvenient for those states. She also shows concern about using hydrogen now for our cars by providing an extra tank. She voices skepticism regarding the safety of that option.
Dr. Banschbach continues by stating that there are currently too many barriers for hydrogen fuel to be a viable option to fuel our vehicles. The oil lobbyist, and for the matter the ethanol lobbyist, are a powerful group, changing policy will not come easy. Another barrier is cost, the cost for hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles prohibitive. For example, three buses were bought for the 2008 International Expo in Spain, the cost was $1.7 million. Stations to supply hydrogen would need to be retrofitted. The figure for that is also daunting; to retrofit 12,000 gallon stations with hydrogen to support 1 million cars would be $12 billion. Promoting private companies to make the switch also presents problems. Dr. Banschbach makes specific mention of a case where Toyota and GM were working together but ended the relationship when they couldn't agree on sharing intellectual property rights. The shift has more than one complexity that would need to be overcome and Dr. Banschbach mentions that choosing this as the main political platform is a risk.
Book Information
Mary Ann Segal, M.D.
Segal, Mary Ann. (2005). Getting Through the Wilderness: The Fuel Crisis, Global Warming, and The Hydrogen Frontier. AuthorHouse.