Santa Marta, Colombia. An activist demonstrating during a conference aimed at transitioning away from fossil fuels. Photograph: Iván Valencia/AP, via The Guardian.
Santa Marta, Colombia. An activist demonstrating during a conference aimed at transitioning away from fossil fuels. Photograph: Iván Valencia/AP, via The Guardian.
I quite like 'fossil fuels'
ReplyDeleteAll that carbon that GREW from the ground with the help of the magic of the the sun's rays as trees, ferns, and grass, then died and became coal or oil, buried under layers and layers of fallen dust and detritus.
And then, a long time later, hard working people somehow magically get it out of the ground and make the coal fuel power generators, and distil the black gold into Boom Boom juice for my car, thereby putting the earth's carbon back into the earth, as my exhaust feeds the modern trees and plants the carbon they need to grow.
There are also people who protest about the change in climate forcing the sea level to rise, although the mark I put on the concrete pile of the wharf near where I spent my childhood remains exactly at the high tide level, 60 years later (storm and wind surges excluded for obvious reasons)
The fact that we humans, this earth, has had ice ages seems to be forgotten.
We had them, they are not here now, ergo, the world has warmed, and well before we started drinking through plastic straws and driving Italian family sedans because they are prettier than Japanese cars, AND my uncles were not killed by Italians (the Italians had swapped sides before my uncles joined the European theatre) same goes for the German cars.
I digressed there a bit.
Disclaimer; I grouped oil and coal together, but I do not actually know how oil was formed. And knowing that clever people find new information all the time, there is a chance that we will discover that oil, the crude stuff in the ground, Texas T, etcetera, is constantly being made by some tectonic process as yet unknown.
Lol.
Just curious. The high tide mark you drew on a pillar at a wharf in your childhood is the same now? Is it the same every day of the month? As a child did you note when you made the mark what the tide cycle was, and is that when you check it now???
DeleteWell, not knowing how oil was made, implying it may be an ongoing process and not understanding how the release of all that carbon that was stored for millions of years may end up with us having a similar environment to the Miocene period with average temperatures roughly 10c higher than today, which would render uninhabitable millions of acres of land either through rising sea levels or, ya know, heat, is at least consistent ya bumpkin.
DeleteI do note that the Lagan Valley would be completely submerged, so not entirely all bad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagan_Valley
DeleteIf you don't know how oil is made you could ask a scientist. However since you've already dismissed science as unreliable I don't see how the explanation would help you.
Delete@ William Rocket: Here is what Google's AI overview has to say about "thereby putting the earth's carbon back into the earth":
DeleteExhaust puts carbon into the atmosphere, not back into the solid Earth. When we burn fossil fuels like gasoline or coal, we release old carbon—safely stored underground for millions of years—as carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas, which traps heat in the atmosphere.
The Earth does have a natural "carbon cycle," but vehicle or factory exhaust throws this delicate system entirely out of balance. Here is the breakdown:
What Happens:
Burning hydrocarbon fuels (like gasoline) combines the carbon in the fuel with oxygen from the air, creating CO₂. This gas is pumped directly out of the tailpipe into the atmosphere.
The Problem:
The Earth has natural "carbon sinks" (like oceans and forests) that absorb some of this carbon through photosynthesis and natural water absorption. However, humanity is currently pumping exhaust into the air much faster than the planet can remove it.
The Atmosphere:
Because exhaust stays in the atmosphere for a very long time, it builds up over decades. This piling up of CO₂ acts like a thick blanket around the globe, causing global warming and climate change.
To actually put carbon back into the Earth, scientists have to artificially capture CO₂ from the air or from exhaust and safely store it deep underground, or rely entirely on electric vehicles charged by renewable energy.