Climate change. From an atmosphere of methane, ammonia, carbon dioxide, with high speed large amplitude tides due to our moon's few days orbit of Earth at much closer distance, climate changed on Earth right up to today. Just in the last couple of hundred million years since carboniferous times, the climate has changed dramatically, with sea level changes of hundreds of metres with a reduction of CO2 from thousands of parts per million right down to the tragedy of the commons [for chlorophyll dependants] 280 ppm before people started a vast carbon recycling process from buried carbon. Plants have loved the improvement to 420 ppm. More please!! 1000 ppm would be great for them. And probably us.
Long before there was wifi and radar making aphids hop around, there was climate change writ large.
Our little increase from 300 ppm to 400 ppm is not a biggie in the grand scheme of things and had negligible effect on climate. The addition of microwave transmissions is laughably trivial. Taupo eruptions have nothing to do with wifi. Or all the electromagnetic radiation combined.
CO2 production is a big deal, but my estimate is that it's a very good thing, at least up to 500ppm, maybe 1000ppm. Just stopping the ice age if it has that much effect would be great. We sure won't want a return to glaciation, which was the main climate issue that is/was looming.
Before CO2 gets to 500ppm people will be switching to cheaper, better, methods of getting energy. Nobody wants to buy oil. It's not like wine, cheese, and things wanted for their goodness. Free energy would be perfect for people who buy oil [unless it's to produce CO2 in glasshouses, fertilizer, plastics, pharmaceuticals and whatnot]. As Sheik Yamani said, the stone age didn't end for a lack of stones.
Electricity for cars is much better, if cheaper, than oil. Hardly any moving parts. Even if oil, coal, gas is used for generating electricity in power stations, it's so much more efficient than burning it in cars [about 60% efficiency compared with 40% tops] that electric cars have an advantage [if the cost of the car is lowered to that of petrol/diesel cars].
But who cares about oil and climate when the end of the world is nigh?
Mqurice |
