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Climate & (too much) CO₂.
First, remember that George E.P. Box said that “All models are wrong, but some are useful.”
You don’t get to say “I found a place where a model is incomplete, so nothing means anything!” You have to propose a better model.
So let’s talk climate and carbon dioxide.
Climate & (too much) CO₂.
First, remember that George E.P. Box said that “All models are wrong, but some are useful.”
You don’t get to say “I found a place where a model is incomplete, so nothing means anything!” You have to propose a better model.
So let’s talk climate and carbon dioxide.
Comments
Bottom line up front:
Svante Arrhenius showed in 1896 that increasing the CO₂ in our air warms our planet. This is still true. Both burning things & living organisms release CO₂. But they get their carbon from the atmosphere, so it’s a net wash… UNLESS you’re talking about fossil fuels (bad).
Fossil fuels pull carbon out of the ground, and USUALLY release it to the air. This can be very bad. And our commodities markets even show us how much we release. It’s REAL bad: we humans release over a hundred times more CO₂ than Earth’s volcanoes. And it hurts our climate.
How bad? CO₂ in our air averaged 266 parts per million (ppm) since the last ice age. Now it’s over 400 ppm.
Me, I bet this administration shuts down monitoring done since 1958 (yes, Scripps did it before NOAA). After all, this guy tried to make agencies stop talking about CO₂ last time.
What can we do?
Simple: stop moving carbon from the ground (coal, gas, petroleum) to the air.
• For cars, trucks & planes, use biomass fuels.
• Get electricity from wind, solar, geo, hydro, & other sources.
• CAPTURE any CO₂ from fossil fuels like gas (and that’s EASY with new sCO₂ plants).
I AM TALKING TODAY’S TECH, NOT TOMORROW.
• Wind & solar saved Texas’ ERCOT power grid.
• Higher efficiency Allam electrical plants make sequestration easy.
• California burns more renewable diesel than petroleum diesel (1.97B v. 1.41B gal).
Oh!
And stop subsidizing the petroleum industry.
Wait, what?
YES. IF WE STOPPED SUBSIDIZING PETROLEUM FUELS, AND ROLLED IN THEIR COSTS, WE’D SAVE MONEY AND SAVE THE PLANET BY SWAPPING. (But petroleum companies own the parts of the GOP that Russia doesn’t, so I ain’t holding my breath.)