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Climate change is a highly contentious issue among individuals, environmentalists, industries, governments and nations. Some claim that climate change is real and the ... Read More »
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Philip HaddadThere is no doubt that we are contributing to global warming. The amount can be readily calculated from the world energy consumption, most of which comes from fossil fuel. But it is not the CO2 which causes the rise in temperature, it is the heat period. In 2008 for example. the energy consumption was 50x10E16 BTUs, enough to raise the temperature two times the measured average. Other factors such as glacial melting has moderated the rise. Nuclear and geothermal power also contribute twice as much heat as their megawatt-hr production. CO2 actually cools the atmosphere through photosynthesis. It is the energy absorbed in this chemical reaction, not the physical removal of CO2 that causes the cooling. Removal of CO2 from power plant stacks is foolish and counterproductive, although our secretary of energy is trying to make this happen. The Kyoto protocol should be modified to penalize the heat contribution not carbon dioxide, and give credits for tree planting and nurture. Other than that a correlation exists between CO2 rise and temperature rise (which is to be expected since 80% of our energy comes from fossil fuels), I have not seen any data or equation which can relate temperature rise to an absolute level of CO2 concentration.
Oct 6, 2011