There is evidence that the greatly increasing use of fossil fuels, whose material contents after combustion are principally H20 and CO2, is seriously contaminating the earth’s atmosphere with CO2. Analyses indicate that the CO2 content of the atmosphere since 1900 has increased 10 per cent. Since CO2 absorbs long-wavelength radiation, it is possible that this is already producing a secular climatic change in the direction of higher average temperatures. This could have profound effects both on the weather and on the ecological balances.
In view of the dangers of atmospheric contamination by both the waste gases of fossil fuels and the radioactive contaminates from nuclear power plants, Professor Hutchinson urges serious consideration of the maximum utilization of solar energy.
There it is, easy as pie.*
Which thoughtful expert wrote such a crisp summary of this all-important matter?
Was it James Hansen in 1988?
Bill McKibben in 1989?
Some Naomi Klein-like activist who was too early for her time?
...
No.
It was Marion King Hubbert, Chief Geology Consultant…
for Shell Oil Company.
In 1962.
Internal Documents Shed New Light on Shell’s Role in the Climate Crisis
Center for International Environmental Law, April 5, 2018
Washington, DC – CIEL’s analysis of a massive new trove of Shell internal documents [PDF] unearthed by Dutch journalist Jelmer Mommers shows the global oil giant understood and acted on climate science while publicly sowing doubt as to its validity and fighting its regulation.
As with Exxon, Shell knew.
We must keep it in the ground.
* To expand a little on the Earth’s temperature: The Earth’s surface reflects some sunlight and absorbs the rest into heat, which does also get re-radiated as light, but in infrared (which is at a longer wavelength than visible light). In the long run, the energy from sunlight coming in versus the energy from visible light reflected and infrared light radiated out into space equalizes. See this diagram from the Royal Society.
But what if you increase the proportion of CO2 in the air? Because CO2 absorbs infrared light into heat more than the other components of air (N2 and O2), it means that the atmosphere retains more heat energy instead of allowing the usual amount of it to radiate back out into space. This imbalance sets up a process of heat energy piling up, which continues until the global surface temperature is high enough such that the amount of infrared light emitted into space returns to its previous level (hotter objects emit more infrared light). At that point, a new equilibrium is reached. That’s the “greenhouse effect,” and hence global warming, i.e. climate change. Add more CO2, and the equilibrium temperature is even higher.
It is of course far more complicated in terms of how it plays out globally and locally, but that’s the basic mechanism. One thing that Shell didn’t foresee, though, is ocean acidification. The oceans absorb some of the excess CO2 out of the air, which mitigates global warming a bit, but it turns the water more acidic. This makes it harder for shellfish and crustaceans to form shells. When they can’t do that, they die. The consequences of this effect are so dire for life on Earth that even if CO2 didn’t warm the planet in the slightest, the threat of CO2 emissions would be no less existential. Up with shells; down with Shell!