Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The world's coal and oil supplies represent millions of years of carbon absorption. If we burn through it in a thousand years, we've likely put more carbon into the atmosphere than has ever been there before (at one time).


Doing the calculations is a major pain, but I really don't think that's true.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoclimatology#Earliest_atmos...

Wikipedia says that the earth's earliest atmosphere was a stunning 10% C02.

Total coal reserves are 930 billion (non-metric?) tons: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/coal.html

But the earth's atmosphere is 5 quadrillion metric tons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth#Density_and...

So getting to 10% is impossible. Adding in oil, bitumen, and natural gas probably won't get you past 1% (which is still pretty bad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide#Toxicity .)




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: