According to Gilbert Plass, at Johns Hopkins University, C02 will build up in the earth’s atmosphere, raising the earth’s temperature by four percent by 2080.
Dr. Plass added that if our burning of fossil fuels were spread out over a thousand years or so, the earth’s oceans would be capable of absorbing excess C02. As the industrial revolution began only 200 years ago, the earth’s oceans simply don’t have the capacity to absorb the C02 in our atmosphere today. As a result, global warming is a growing threat that we have to consider.
This may sound like the result of one of hundreds of recent global warming studies, but I bring this up because it appeared in the August 1953 edition of Popular Mechanics magazine.
Back in 1953, next to nothing was known about climate science, but this study was thought to be important enough to appear in a mass market publication.
The question this forces us to ask is: if this was known since 1953, why have we done nothing about it? Why do we still debate whether the science is true, over 60 years later?
Although fossil fuel burning contributes to C02 emissions, it might not be something we need to actively curtail and the reason is largely economic.
As it stands, alternative energy sources are becoming more economically viable. The question this poses is: ‘do we need to restrict fossil fuel combustion or can we advance the technology of alternate energy far enough along that fossil fuels become irrelevant’?
Fossil fuels are a terrible thing to waste and by burning them that is exactly what we are doing. They’re terrific feedstock for plastics, fertilizers and pharmaceuticals. It’s a shame to pump liquid petroleum out of the ground only to set fire to it.
There are better ways to do things. Let’s discuss how.