Posted on 02/11/2020 7:54:29 AM PST by yesthatjallen
Global energy-related emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide remained steady last year, with declines in rich countries balancing out a rise in poor nations, according to data published Tuesday.
The International Energy Agency said emissions of the main man-made greenhouse gas stayed at 33 gigatons in 2019, even as the world economy grew by 2.9%.
“This was primarily due to declining emissions from electricity generation in advanced economies, thanks to the expanding role of renewable sources (mainly wind and solar), fuel switching from coal to natural gas, and higher nuclear power generation,” the Paris-based agency said. “Other factors included milder weather in several countries, and slower economic growth in some emerging markets.”
The country with the biggest drop in energy-related CO2 emissions was the United States, which recorded a fall of 2.9% to 4.8 gigatons on the back of coal-fired power plant closures and lower demand for electricity. The European Union saw its emissions fall by 5% to 2.9 gigatons, while Japan's dropped 4.3% to just over 1 gigaton in 2019.
By contrast, emissions in the rest of the world rose by almost 400 million tonnes last year, led by higher coal use in Asia.
The IEA's executive director, Fatih Birol, expressed hope that annual emissions of CO2 would only decline in future.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
Someone should explain photosynthesis to these morons.
Reposted from another thread:
There is not, and never has been, any scientific rationale for assuming that atmospheric carbon dioxide has any measurable effect on heat retention in the atmosphere or in the hydrosphere, the surface oceans, lakes and rivers.
In the original atmosphere that surrounded the young and cooling planet earth, carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia and water vapor were the chief constituents. There was NO free oxygen, or free nitrogen, or liquid water anywhere, conditions so hellish that life as we know it could not have survived.
Yet life came into being, when the surface cooled enough so that liquid water was no longer volatilized immediately, and collected in the presence of the ammonia, carbon dioxide, and sulfurous compounds, giving rise to the first of enzymes that formed the basis of the primary simplified life forms. Obviously, this whole process was anaerobic, as there was no free oxygen, but as soon as the capability to split oxygen off other compounds developed, the atmosphere gradually began to evolve. As the oxygen content grew, first the methane, then the ammonia, were converted to more carbon dioxide, water vapor which cooled and added to the existing supply, and free nitrogen. This process proceeded until the oxygen content increased to the point it was lethal to the anaerobic life forms that had evolved, as these life forms were replaced in large part by other microbes that could utilize the excess oxygen for their own life processes, all the while the composition of the atmosphere was evolving, into the relative percentages that now exist, nitrogen some 78%, oxygen 21%, all other gases at less than 1%, with virtually no ammonia or methane left free in the atmosphere, and only a trace amount of carbon dioxide.
This trace amount of CO2 is what forms the basis of oxygen regeneration, through reliance on the energy that comes from sunlight, and the process of photosynthesis, which also forms the wide variety of compounds known collectively as carbohydrates, with the generic composition of C6H12O6, with a vast variance in the individual arrangement of the constituent atoms around a central ring of normally 6 carbon atoms with hydrogen and hydroxy radicals attached in different combinations. Thus we get fibers, sugar, and starches of all kinds all based on the same basic structure, and essentially the building blocks of more complex life form, along with amino acids and the esters they form, with very small amounts of other elements like sulfur, phosphorus, and trace amounts of many metallic elements.
At the core of all this, carbon dioxide is absolutely essential to perpetuate this life cycle, and cannot be eliminated altogether. In fact, if all carbon dioxide were somehow removed from the atmosphere, in very short order, natural processes would quickly restore the levels to somewhere near where the optimal level should be, so these “carbon credits” reflect only a fool’s errand, in any massive effort to significantly decrease the CO2 content of the atmosphere.
Bought 40 acres of desert land near honey lake by Doyle for the hell of it some years back. One of the acres used to be occupied and is covered with junk which is slowly being cleaned up. There are dozens of tires scattered about. I think in celebration of this, it is time for a monster tire fire
Did you notice they grudgingly credit milder weather and decreased economic activity for the carbon load decline? Wonder how much of a factor that was , percentage wise.
NOT good enough. Grrrrrrreta DEMANDS “net negative” carbon emissions. Guess you could drive your tesla in reverse. She’d buy that probably.
When will the Gretakins go after China, India, et al?
Yup. That’s the way I learned of this process in sixth grade science class. The “intelligentsia” fails on so many fronts.
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