A letter to the editor of the Austin American-Statesman, published on December 2

Question

A letter to the editor of the Austin American-Statesman, published on December 23, 2009, asks this question: "The trillion-dollar question that Copenhagen has not answered [is this]: Because carbon dioxide molecules arc all identical, why is it that carbon dioxide from carbonated beverages, pets, cattle, farm animals, and humans, yeast, dry ice, fireplaces, charcoal grills, campfires, wildfires, alcohol and ethanol is good, and carbon dioxide from fossil fuel is bad? Can anyone in the United States answer this question?" What is your answer? Your aunt asks you how we know that volcanoes arc not responsible for the observed increase in carbon dioxide. What do you tell her?

Explanation / Answer

First thing to be understood is Carbon dioxide is not a bad thing. It is not a poisnous gas like carbon monooxide or Sulphure dioxide. It is responsible for many natural phenomenon like photosynthesis, production of many medicines and many more. But when it is excess in environment, it causes global warming by green house effect.

And fossil is major sources of Carbon dioxide to the environment. It is not that cattle or farm animals do not contribute, but their share in net carbon dioxide release is negligible compared to that of fossil. Electrical generation from fossil fuels and transportation powered by fossil fuels are the two leading causes of greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming. So unlike fossil, the mentioned sources are not cause of concern.

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