Re: So
Keep in mind that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Except for solar energy, using wind or tidal energy actually slows the Earth. Minutely of course! Indirectly, wind is "solar" (no heat from the sun, no pressure difference, no wind).
The whole inter-reaction of heating/cooling is fascinating. Anthropogenic warming is a legacy our grandchildren will fall heir to. All we can do is mitigate it - the effects are now in place and are inevitable. Mud and ice cores indicate that in 1400 (i.e., prior to industrialisation), the CO2 content of the atmosphere was 280ppm; the latest readings (2012) show 400ppm. Not all of that is created by the burning of fossil fuels (Krakatoa et al contributed), but this "legacy" CO2 is predominantly human generated. It is not that the Earth has not had higher levels, or lesser but that by burning fossil fuels we have released the stored energy created in those fuels.
Consider the physical law of the conservation of energy (energy is neither created nor destroyed). To make "x" units of electricity eight tonnes of air has to be consumed to burn one tonne of coal. The residue in ash, nitrogen (not burnt but returned to the atmosphere) is therefore nine tonnes, the oxygen, hydrogen and other combustible gasses are converted to CO2 CH4 etc and released. The carbon came from the coal, stored there millions of years before.
ALL living things transpire or respire CO2 and CH4. Everything living is part of the "carbon cycle", from the largest creature to the least microbe. But, and this is the central issue - living things do not ADD to the carbon load regardless of how many there are. They (we) are part of a loop, every unit of energy that makes us is cyclical. So if living things in and of themselves do not add to the increase in atmospheric CO2, and there have been few cataclysmic volcanic eruptions (e.g., Taupo, Yellowstone Toba), it is logical to see the energy release from fossil fuels as the driving force.
The Earth has been here before - it will survive - but there is no guarantee that the human organism will not become extinct.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
