The burning of coal, oil, and gas returns carbon to the atmosphere and oceans (“carbon store”) where it can once again play its vital role in greening the planet. This carbon, as carbon dioxide (CO2), is as important as water and oxygen in sustaining life on Earth.
The global-warming alarmists want us to believe that the return of carbon to its origins will cause runaway warming.
This is what their computers tell us. However, the alarmists fail to tell us that the carbon store has been severely depleted by natural processes that use carbon to form carbonate rocks such as limestone and coral.
As a result, today’s carbon store contains only 20 per cent of the carbon that was available to support life during the age of dinosaurs. The alarmists also fail to tell us that the quantity of carbon in all known coal, oil, and gas deposits is relatively small (2 per cent) in comparison to the carbon in this ancient store.
Consequently, the CO2 generated by the consumption of coal, oil, and gas will not materially replenish today’s carbon store.
More important, it is illogical to believe that this partially replenished store will cause a climate catastrophe when the planet thrived at much higher levels of CO2.
Although man-made CO2 does not give us the power to counteract what has been the greatest threat to civilizations (i.e. global cooling), it will, nevertheless, be available to green the planet.
Thorpe Watson, PhD
Warfield