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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James Seagrove who wrote (1000787)	2/18/2017 11:48:39 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1574139

This climate change is natural only in that 7 billion members of a species are digging up fossil carbon and putting it into the atmosphere in an attempt to re-create fossil climates by following the laws of physics. Elevator Pitches - Chapter 01 - Ancient Sunlight Posted on 17 February 2017 by Rob Honeycutt ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Chapter 01 - Ancient Sunlight [View full-sized image] The energy received from our Sun fuels all life on the Earth. Plants use this energy in combination with CO2 in the atmosphere to produce carbohydrates, which animals use for energy. As plants and animals die the carbon and energy contained within that organic matter, is slowly subducted into the geology of our planet. Through heat, pressure and time this ancient carbon is fused with hydrogen to form various “hydrocarbons.” Those hydrocarbons represent a concentrated form of the Sun’s energy that entered the climate system millions of years ago and collected over the course of millions of years. What is also being sequestered in the Earth’s geology is the heat-trapping capacity of those carbon molecules when they were combined with oxygen as CO2. Around two million years ago, as early humans learned to control fire, their access to food energy increased enabling an increase in body mass and allowing them to fuel and develop our most energy demanding organ: our brain. Harnessing energy sources for cooking food allowed us to expand both our cognitive abilities and our range across the planet. Over the following millennia humans improved tools and methods and advanced the capacity to survive natural variations in climate and defend against predators. This primitive access to an energy source is what defined us as a new and highly adaptable species on Earth. Energy use escalated dramatically with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 16th century when humans became aware of the energy that could be extracted from geological deposits of hydrocarbons. Widespread use of coal began in the mid-1700’s and increased over the following centuries. In 1859 oil was discovered, giving birth to the modern petrochemical industry. While early humans subsisted on about 100 watts of energy, Americans today use roughly 9200 watts per capita of energy for, among other things, heating and lighting our homes, transporting ourselves to and from work, cleaning our clothing, heating our water, storing our food, and engaging with each other over the internet. Energy rules our daily lives. No one should dispute the almost magical properties of refined oil. Its energy density and transportability are nothing short of amazing. This accessible energy has allowed us to devote time to curing diseases and feeding the world in ways that were previously impossible. It allows travel to any location on the planet within a day or so. And we regularly send people and sophisticated machines beyond the reaches of this world. If you were an individual who lived just 1000 years ago and were transported to today, you would believe yourself dropped into a world populated by gods. Now, each year, humans extract 10 billion tons of carbon from the earth, most of which is then used as fuel for energy and electricity. That’s nearly 1.5 tons of carbon per person liberated annually from where it’s been sequestered for many millions of years and relocated to the atmosphere. While it’s remarkable that we’ve tapped into this bountiful supply of energy and used it to improve our lives, what’s also become clear to scientists is that our modern god-like status comes with serious side effects. As we release the energy of this ancient sunlight, we are also reintroducing an ancient carbon cycle to our modern atmosphere, along with all its cumulative heat trapping capacities. skepticalscience.com