Solving climate change requires understanding

One billion years ago, plus or minus a few million years, the Earth’s atmosphere was quite different than it is today, because it contained much more carbon dioxide and less oxygen, a verifiable fact. It was a hot humid world, much like a greenhouse, due in large part to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that helped to trap the sun’s heat.

But organisms such as cyanobacteria, green plants and trees used photosynthesis to thrive by using the Sun’s energy to break the chemical bonds of the carbon and oxygen from the atmosphere, to form new carbon-based organic molecules. The carbon was stored and oxygen was released to the atmosphere. When these organisms died and were buried, they took with them the stored organic carbon compounds. These became fossil fuels; petroleum, methane gas and the coal that was used as an inexpensive energy source to drive the early Industrial Revolution.

Over time, the balance in the ancient atmosphere changed. There was much less carbon dioxide and more oxygen. As a result, the Earth cooled and the cooler Earth and its atmosphere became more hospitable for humans. Today, we are reversing the process that occurred millions of years ago and we are doing it quickly. For the last 100 years we have been burning these carbon compounds by combining oxygen from our atmosphere with oil, gas and coal to release the energy stored in those molecules. Burning these compounds produces water vapor, carbon dioxide and releases the stored solar energy that produced these carbon molecules millions of years ago

Each of us in a small way can make a difference. Understanding the cause of the problem, burning fossil fuels, is the first step in solving it.

Carl Missele

Elgin