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The climate is always changing. Different parts of the planet are always getting colder or warmer, wetter or drier. Many things can cause this climate change. The sun has cycles, sometimes producing more energy, and sometimes producing less. The Earth’s wobble and eccentric orbit mean that different parts of the planet will be exposed to the varying amounts of heat over different periods. If more snow or land is exposed, more heat might be reflected. If more water is exposed, more heat will be absorbed. If the sky gets darkened by dust — caused by a volcano, a meteor, or pollution — it can make the planet colder. Land-use changes, manmade or otherwise, greatly impact local climate. Finally, there is the most famous (but still one of only many) factor in temperature: greenhouse gases.
“Greenhouse gases” are gases that principally occur naturally. Carbon dioxide is one greenhouse gas. We make CO2 when we breathe out. Plants release CO2 and other GHGs when they die. Oceans store and release enormous quantities of CO2. Nitrous oxides are greenhouse gases produced in soils by microbial processes. Methane is another. It comes from decaying plants, seeps from swamps, bogs, rice paddies, and leaks out the front and back ends of masticating animals. By allowing sunlight to enter our atmosphere freely but then absorbing and otherwise trapping infrared solar radiation (heat), these gases form a protective blanket sustaining life; without them, Earth would be uninhabitable, as our atmosphere would be, for all purposes, equivalent to that of Mars.
Humans add to the greenhouse gas concentration by not just exhaling but by harvesting plants, and releasing methane, typically after a meal of Mexican food… But we also create greenhouse gases by the processes through which we generate or release energy — for our homes, our factories, and our cars — all processes that involve hydrocarbons.
Hydrocarbons, which include petroleum, coal, and natural gas, consist largely of hydrogen and carbon atoms. The bonds in these hydrocarbon molecules are very strong, and so breaking the bonds releases a good bit of energy. They are easily combusted, and therefore make great fuels.
To release the energy, we burn them — or oxidize them — and then use the freed energy to keep our houses warm, our refrigerators humming, our cars moving, and our internet servers serving. The coal or oil being burned typically possesses impurities, which can go into the air as pollution. If the hydrocarbon fuel is incompletely burned, it can give off poisonous carbon monoxide. Ideally, hydrocarbons are transformed entirely into energy and the odorless gas carbon dioxide…
As such, CO2 is not a byproduct or pollutant but an intended result of energy production. The more efficiently one combusts a hydrocarbon, the more CO2 one produces. This is one reason why advocates of “energy efficiency” as a global warming solution haven’t quite perfected their argument.
CO2 was previously most infamous for its cruel imposition of the vicious cycle of photosynthesis upon our floral friends, forcing them to produce oxygen which we fauna then selfishly inhale, only to heartlessly exhale more CO2.
While SUVs and power plants garner the most media and environmentalist attention, combustion emissions contribute about 2 percent of greenhouse gases currently keeping our atmosphere habitable. This bears repeating: of all the factors causing climate change, manmade greenhouse gases are a tiny fraction of one factor.
Christopher C. Horner
Chapter Four, “Global Warming 101: Not Manmade, Catastrophic, or Global”
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism
