On the brink?
This is an adaptation of an essay written during studies:
We keep seeing it in the news, endless fires consuming towns, mass die-offs, a new “drought of the century” every year, every summer being the hottest on record, every winter being the warmest on record. What is causing this? A multitude of factors unfortunately. We have the obvious headline making transportation greenhouse gas emissions, though that is not the only factor. We also have the issues of agricultural emissions, industrial emissions, power generation, and continued destruction of natural carbon-sinks. Or to put this simply, the planet’s a frying pan, and we’re turning up the heat.
The obvious place to start is transportation greenhouse gas emissions, after all, it is what continually grabs headlines. The fact is however, transportation greenhouse gas emissions only account for 14 percent of the global emissions when looking at the data from the environmental protection agency. This is one of the smallest sources of emissions, yet it somehow the main focus of society? If it were ranked from the top five sources of emissions, it would place fourth. This is nonsense, akin to worrying about a stubbed toe rather than an arm being chopped off.
Digging deeper, we can see that the third largest producer of emissions according to the EPA data, is industry. It produces 33 percent more emissions than the entire transportation sector, totaling 21 percent of global emissions. What makes up industrial emissions? It is mostly manufacturing and refining of raw materials that become products on the shelves. It is the production of steel, and inherently carbon-intensive process due to it’s use of nearly pure carbon in the form of coal. It is the production of plastics, made completely from non-renewable carbon. It is the emissions from concrete, which directly release carbon in chemical reactions during its curing, and other processes to make the materials we build the modern world with.
Now for number 2 on the EPA’s list of worst offenders, forestry and agriculture. This source of emissions accounts for 24 percent of the global footprint. This has been brought up in the media occasionally, but the story amounts to more than bovine flatulence, though that does emit a massive amount on it’s own. The idea is quite simple, burning down a forest to produce more cropland is going to release a lot of carbon, and degrade the planets natural process for eliminating carbon from the atmosphere.
In the analysis of the largest carbon producers, there is no bigger single source of emissions outside of electricity generation. This accounts for a whopping 25 percent of global emissions, just to generate electricity. Unfortunately, this issue is more of a political issue than a technology or implementation problem. Current renewable power sources are already currently meeting or beating carbon power sources on price. Unfortunately, the carbon power industry is a large employer, and people do not wish to move on, leading to the current situation of taxpayer dollars paying the difference to preserve obsolete, low-wage jobs. The situation is slowly improving in some areas, though the rate of progress is not enough to really “move the needle” in terms of global emissions.
Now, we can talk about the largest producers indefinitely, but there is no perspective on these numbers. A respected scientist, Phil Mason, did an excellent job adding some, so I will summarize his analysis. He decided to calculate the cumulative added energy retention of our collective emissions on the atmosphere, using the unit of nuclear bombs per day. His math worked to approximately the energy equivalent of 240 castle bravo detonations per day worth of energy being absorbed into our atmosphere every day. Castle Bravo for reference, was the largest hydrogen bomb ever tested by the united states. This enormous amount of energy is having the effect of gradually warming the planet, exacting disastrous consequences for the environment and society. The effects of these emissions are a known quantity. In 2020, multiple continents have seen their worst fire season in history, fueled by drought-dried forests, and record temperatures. The polar ice caps are at their lowest level in recorded history, and the permafrost is melting, itself releasing more emissions in a positive feedback loop. Crop yields are plummeting through most of the world’s breadbasket regions, and some regions are now setting heat records beyond the physical limits of human survivability.
To conclude, we’ve roasted this planet, and continue to do so. Our main carbon outputs are known quantities, spread across 4 sectors of the modern world, namely; agriculture, transportation, manufacturing, and power generation. The extra carbon has known effects, though it is on a scale most cannot relate to, and thusly cannot grasp.
Sources:
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data#Sector
Youtube: Thunderfoot “nukes per day analysis”