To repeat something I wrote elsewhere, people forget that small scale processes can have big effects. Especially if there is something that works to leverage the small change to a large one,
If you build the largest steel ship in the world, but fail to take into account the effect of water on steel, you may find that the slow, small scale effect of rust has destroyed your ship after time, (Put it in salt water, and it goes faster).
Likewise, CO2 and Methane (CH4) are just tiny molecules, but it they have the property that they tend to trap some infrared radiation from the surface (ground and water) and the air, leading to a rise in temperature of the atmosphere. Like rust and corrosion, they work 365.25/24, even in the dark.
We’ve increased CO2 from 315 ppm to over 405 ppm in less than 60 years. The CO2 does not magically go away. The processes to remove it from the atmosphere take generations. Without a significant reduction in amount of greenhouse gases added, we are stuck with it and the inexorable side effects for centuries to come.
Rejecting the burning of fossil fuels doesn’t mean we give up civilization. We have a good start on renewable energy sources. We can build better, and much, much, much safer nuclear power plants. We can then have electric vehicles with no fossil fuel use. And save that oil for making plastics, etc, instead of just burning it up.
To repeat something I wrote elsewhere, people forget that small scale processes can have big effects. Especially if there is something that works to leverage the small change to a large one,
If you build the largest steel ship in the world, but fail to take into account the effect of water on steel, you may find that the slow, small scale effect of rust has destroyed your ship after time, (Put it in salt water, and it goes faster).
Likewise, CO2 and Methane (CH4) are just tiny molecules, but it they have the property that they tend to trap some infrared radiation from the surface (ground and water) and the air, leading to a rise in temperature of the atmosphere. Like rust and corrosion, they work 365.25/24, even in the dark.
We’ve increased CO2 from 315 ppm to over 405 ppm in less than 60 years. The CO2 does not magically go away. The processes to remove it from the atmosphere take generations. Without a significant reduction in amount of greenhouse gases added, we are stuck with it and the inexorable side effects for centuries to come.Rejecting the burning of fossil fuels doesn’t mean we give up civilization. We have a good start on renewable energy sources. We can build better, and much, much, much safer nuclear power plants. We can then have electric vehicles with no fossil fuel use. And save that oil for making plastics, etc, instead of just burning it up.