The Electric Carbon Blanket Part 2

Mr. President-Elect, thank you for remembering my presentation of two weeks ago regarding the quick formula enabler for our present day polluting emissions. There’s a  planetary disease that can be stopped; it’s detrimental to eight billion people, as well as every other species that fills our air, land and water. Earth has a rash known as global warming that reddens with each passing year.

You just stopped me to say, “Whoa, wait, what? Can it be prevented?”

To which I say, “Without a doubt.”

But before I explain, allow me to describe one of our globe’s fragile phenomenons. A perfectly natural one, at that. Following the Quaternary Ice Age that melted away 11,000 to 12,000 years ago, another magical Earthly talent performed splendidly until mid-late last century: the carbon cycle. 

How do scientists know about this?

Because carbon dioxide (CO2) can be measured, from the time it was 100% natural, right up to now when it’s not so natural. With a little bit more knowledge about carbon, it will be easier for you to understand why greenhouse gas should have been made public decades ago for the purpose of welcoming in the transition away from energy-based pollution. At one time, the carbon cycle was a fine-tuned gift from Mother Nature because it was her way of monitoring carbon as it recycles between the atmosphere and Earth’s organisms. It cycles back and forth. Under normal conditions, the process continually repeats itself while maintaining a functional balance for all life on Earth - the only globe in the cosmos that has the tools to accomplish such a splendid feat. Life in all forms is evenly sustained thanks to the carbon cycle because the CO2 moves in a rhythm between greenery, all other living things, minerals, oceans, lakes, rivers and the atmosphere. The natural carbon cycle is intended to rotate excessive carbon out of the sky making way for the sun’s lingering heat surplus to bounce back into outer space. It’s like a thermostat regulating Earth’s temperature.

That is until human directed fossil fuel generated a surplus of approx. 1.5 trillion tons of carbon dioxide and methane that has embedded itself in the sky to create a fixated electric carbon blanket that automatically heats up everything below. Just as worse, 35 to 40 billion tons of fresh emissions annually thicken the blanket’s density.

Until dirty energy gives way to clean energy, the blanket of pollutants will grow in mass to block in more and more of the sun’s heat, thus trapping more and more global heating ingredients on land and sea. Much of the time, this newly hatched invisible plague is throwing the natural carbon cycle out of whack, and in more and more locations around the world. Only people can return the cycle back to its proper balance which requires transitioning away from fossil energy sources, planting trees, alternatives to livestock meats, electric driven transportation, and vacuuming our skies of the excess polluting gasses once and for all.

And yes, Mr. President-Elect, these poisonous chemicals can be measured.

With regard to carbon dioxide, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), since 1974, plus the Mauna Loa Observatory in HA, since 1958, have been doing just that.  Also, through a global distribution network, methane (CH4), which is responsible for about 25% of global warming, has been measured by the NOAA since 1983.

The atmospheric levels of CO2 particle concentration can be tracked at levels of parts per million (ppm) of all chemical particles that comprise the air we breathe. This is humanity’s most reliable barometer for following global warming because as the index increases, the heat trapping effect of greenhouse gas increases as well. For thousands of years prior to the 1800s, due to the undisturbed nature of the natural carbon cycle management process, the sky’s carbon concentration rallied around 280 ppm.

By around 1950, this indicator grew to about 300 ppm, only to explode to an unruly 426 ppm in May of 2024, similar to 4.3 million years ago when the seas were 75 feet higher. A five point jump over 2023 and a 43% increase since the Industrial Revolution! 

As tiny as the quantity is in terms of parts per million, it serves notice that it doesn’t take much of this pollutant, when added to methane, to disrupt the global environment equilibrium, and spin it into chaos. As this ppm index gradually grows, added heat will build up on Earth’s surface.

And then there is the methane which can also be measured by the NOAA in terms of parts per billion, ppb, of all air molecules. Despite its very weak concentration, it is a potent greenhouse gas that registered from about 1500 ppb in the early 1980s to 1922 ppb in 2024, nearly a 30% increase. CH4 is about 30 times more powerful than CO2, and therefore will heat the atmosphere 80-90 times faster than its rival pollutant. Roughly 60% of methane today is brought on by human activities. To be specific, the largest source is the livestock (1.5 billion cattle, 26 billion poultry species, 1 billion pigs, 1.9 billion sheep/goats typically on hand) digestion process, followed by fossil fuel emissions, then waste landfills, and rice fields. CH4 is now two and one half times its pre-industrial level.

The atmospheric residency of methane is around 12 years, and then it will convert to  carbon dioxide which will stay with us for hundreds to a thousand years.

Natural gas consists of 70% - 90% methane, and in the U.S. alone, the oil and gas industry is emitting about 13 million tons of CH4 per year. Regardless of the increasing presence of CO2 and CH4 all around us, people must still be motivated by a belief that there is a better climate not too far off in the future. One day soon, I hope you and others in leadership will learn to adore this planet and save it from further degradation. While excessive amounts of carbon and methane have amplified severe weather episodes, there are various clean energy options being commercially developed to drastically reduce those two raging chemicals in the sky. However, in the meantime, they have caused many of us to live a different lifestyle when considering such surprises as, unavailable fresh water, increased heat, expanding humidity, unavailable property insurance, and the availability of disaster relief funds. 

So much more to think about and put up with because of the increased density of those two threatening chemicals: Carbon dioxide and methane.

The polluting twins are with us everyday and not just in the air we breathe. It’s also in plastics…

Another source of methane? Absolutely. When exposed to sunlight, a polyethylene plastic will release CH4 as a result of the decomposing process. But the carbon content in plastic is at a whole other level of damnation because plastic is mostly made up of carbon atoms, thus a significant portion of its mass is indeed, carbon. When you add in the fossil fuel extraction process to create plastic, the carbon footprint of plastic production is overwhelming.

Not only does the energy sector create greenhouse gas from its fossil fuel, but also from its other product, plastic. Therefore, the oil and petrochemical companies must also be held accountable for the digestion of plastic by the environment and all living species…including us. 

I’m sorry, but while the fossil fuel industry lied for decades about the harmful effect of its oil and gas, it once more deceived the public regarding recycling plastic as a solution for the plastic waste. This industry has always known that recycling was not the answer due to the immense cost and the never ending volume of plastic garbage - yet nothing was more important to it than the annual sales of plastic material skyrocketing to the present day $540 billion business. Approximately 350 million tons of plastic is produced annually with about 22% littered around Earth. Less than 9% is actually recycled and landfills gobble up the rest.

Over 1,000 rivers are draining 80% of plastic throw-aways into our oceans while beach litter is 73% plastic.

It is, Mr. President-Elect, a different kind of planetary disease when compared to global warming, but nonetheless, another environmental predator created by moral compass-less humans who have always insisted on using people for profits over the same people. 

With some disclosure along the way, humanity, while searching for a plastic substitute, could have started the transition from fossil fuel energy to renewable energy as well, and that excess CO2 and CH4 would be under control in the present era. When we next meet on December 10, 2024, I will give you a suggestion that you could very well accomplish sometime during your second term in office.

With all due respect, I’m encouraged by that smile on your face…