Not Quite Right

Carbon cycle - greenhouse gas

CO2 (carbon dioxide) levels are rising, have risen 40% plusin the last 200 years. And not much before that, according to ice core samples, well not for a long time, thousands of years.
This increase is due to human activity, most noticably the burning of fossil fuels. Oil, diesel, petrol, LPG, natural gas and coal. What about deforestation, widescale burning of forests and desertification - largely the the result of human activity particularly monocultural agriculture. Yes these are huge problems. No they don't count much in the scheme of things compared with fossil fuel burning. How do I make this judgement? Imagine that 50 years ago you could fix one or the other. Would fixing the waste of renewables affect the greenhouse effect - NO. Would ceasing to use fossil fuels fix the greenhouse effect - Yes. Hang on you say, you couldn't do that, civilisation would fall. We wouldn't have Imperial America and huge cities of disenfranchised people doing nothing productive. Sorry - doesn't follow. Look, if we had no fossil fuels we could use renwables. Solar energy, tidal energy, biofuels. b.b.but, you (mouthpiece for gbig money) squark, wouldn't that put hydrocarbons into the air just the same. Yes, but the same hydrocarbons would be taken out of the air to grow the plants. That is a renewable cycle.

posted by dougi @ 2:05 pm