Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
everyone on earth consumed the equivalent in fossil fuel energy of my
drive twice a week, for heating, lighting, cooking, and other activities.
All this would add about 30 billion metric tons of CO
2
to the world's at-
mosphere each year, which is what global CO
2
emissions were in 2012.
Virtually everything we do has some CO
2
buried in the process. You
might think that riding your bicycle is carbon free. But a little carbon
was emitted in making the bicycle, and quite a bit was involved in build-
ing the road or sidewalk.
1
Why in the world do we use this vast quantity of fossil fuels? We
use it to drive, to fl y, to heat our houses and schools, to run our com-
puters, and for everything we do. Almost 90 percent of the energy we
use comes in the form of fossil fuels, and burning those fuels produces
the CO
2
emissions.
Say we are shocked by how much energy we use and want to cut
back. Why can't we simply stop using fossil fuels now that we know
about global warming? I discuss this issue in Part III, but it is so central
that a few words are useful here. It turns out that we cannot simply
convert to other energy sources by fl ipping a switch, because those
other sources are more expensive. It generally costs more to power our
lives with renewable fuels (such as solar power). In some cases, using
low-carbon fuels requires a completely different capital stock—new
power plants and factories, different engines and furnaces—from what
exists today, and this adds greatly to the expense.
Return to the example of my trip to the University of Connecticut for
which I use my gasoline-powered car. I might decide to buy an electric
car instead. It would not emit any CO
2
. But it would probably use elec-
tricity fueled by natural gas, and generating the electricity emits CO
2
.
Similarly, my home furnace burns only natural gas. To convert it to run
on solar power would require a major investment—not to mention that
the sun does not always shine where I live, and it never shines at night.
So for now, like most Americans, I am for practical purposes hooked
on fossil fuels. Moreover, I enjoy my current lifestyle. I like my car, my
computer, and my cell phone. I prefer a warm house in the winter and a
cool house in the summer. I defi nitely do not want to return to a cave-
man standard of living.
