We Need A Fossil Fuel Primer Because The Media Isn’t Telling Us Enough About Climate Change eg. scientists can prove that CO2 in the atmosphere comes from human activities and which ones
People sometimes declare that the world has always had periods of warming and cooling. So — how do we really be certain that today’s warming is primarily caused by humans? How do we know that putting too much carbon into the atmosphere (CO2) when we burn coal, oil, and gas or cut down forests is really the cause of current global warming trends? According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, we know human activities are driving the increase in CO2 concentrations because atmospheric CO2 contains information about its source.
Carbon from fossil fuels has a distinct “signature” — its composition of heavier and lighter atoms of carbon. The smaller the ratio of heavier to lighter carbon atoms, the higher the proportion of carbon from fossil fuels. Over the years, the ratio of heavy to light carbon atoms has decreased as the overall amount of CO2 has increased. This information tells scientists that fossil fuel emissions are the largest contributor of atmospheric CO2 concentrations since the pre-industrial era.
Interesting also on the economics around the effect of falling demand for fossil fuel from late 202's in that no we won't just have the option to pay more for it, it is worse than that, as the price for fossil fuels will actually fall meaning it is not economically viable to extract, produce, transport and sell = it won't be made available,. Which means we just won't have the choice to use it any longer. The article below is really well worth reading as it also looks at how media is, or is not, covering these issues and for example how often did media covering these issues disclose their ties to the fossil fuel industry.
 |
We Need A Fossil Fuel Primer Because The Media Isn’t Telling Us Enough About Climate Change | CleanTechnica Why don’t we know more about climate change |