Very good! I have seen this done abstractly, but people UNDERSTAND $100!
I have another item to add.....
ALL of the fossil fuel reserves, known and unknown, contain carbon that was in the atmosphere. We only know a portion of the fossil fuel reserves and of that we have only burned some of it.
If we have only burned a portion of the known reserves, and there remains carbon to be found, then we have only put a small amount of the carbon back into the atmosphere.
If the world survived when ALL that carbon was in the atmosphere, it will certainly survive the small amount we are putting back.
To take it a step further, if the earth is recovering carbon by plant and animal growth, the amount of carbon permanently released is smaller than the enviro-mentals would have us believe. Yes, somewhere there is a coal mine or oil well that is being depleted. But somewhere else, there is a considerable amount of carbon being stored for a future coal mine or oil well. Hence the "1 penny out of $100" human related rise of carbon in the atmosphere since the industrial age began.
This assumes that the rise in CO2 is due to man, which may not even be the case.
Very true ... there was a huge concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere at one time. A number of ‘CO2 sinks’ have brought the atmospheric levels to CO2 to historically very, very small levels.
The Chemical Engineer in me sees this as an equilibration of reactions among ocean CO2 levels, our CO2-consuming biomass, and other less important ‘sinks’.
With our industrialization and subsequent release of the CO2 that had been previously captured into fossil fuels, we can (and have) produced a small increase in CO2 levels. This cannot and will not last, since the ‘CO2 sinks’ sill exist and will uptake CO2 at ever increasing levels.
Let me make one last comment in a different direction.
If our politicians were really interested in a strong America and keeping our real enemies at bay, they would immediately move to drill/mine/construct energy-producing facilities of the proven kind (oil/coal/natgas/uranium). This is what we did for 3/4 of the 20th century - arguably the ‘American Century’.
This is an infrastructure play what would truly create jobs, ignite the economy, keep America strong and our enemies weak. There is no downside to such a program of making ourselves both energy-rich and energy-independent, unless you’re a politician looking to control more and more of our lives. THAT is the real shame in what is happening with our energy policy. Green Jobs to create mostly useless windmills and solar panels will be wasted money to be re-paid by our children’s children...