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Section Contents
- Questions and Answers
- Business simple questions on CCS
- Climate Change questions
- Scotland Electricity
Climate Change questions
CCS is a way of continuing to burn fossil fuel (coal, oil, gas) without putting much CO2 into the atmosphere. Some people think this is not ideal, as it prolongs reliance and use of fossil fuels.
Well, it might. However, if the world does not undertake CCS, then fossil fuel wil continue to be burned anyway,a nd increase atmospheric CO2.
CO2 is linked to warming of the earth surface. Soem folks do not believe that. However, the evidence is very strong that measured temperatures can only be mimiced / simulated / matched by computer models which combine multiple effects on climate. In these models a poor match is obtained by leaving out the CO2 produced by humans. A poor match is also obtained if sunspot activity is plotted against temperature. Soem people are still using old graphs of sunspot data to try and prove that controls climate. However the information measured after 1980 really shows how poor that match is.
If you are in need of a simple explanation, then dowload this animated and commentated power point on climate change
http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/chris the GREAT GLOBAL WARMING SWINDLE. In 22 March 2007, there isa PC version. A Mac version should be available by 25 March 2007.
Will Carbon Capture and Storage take Oxygen from the atmosphere?
If Carbon (dioxide) capture and storage ever gets to be as big a technology comparable to the size of the combustion of fossil fuels, then Yes oxygen as well as carbon will be stored below ground.However, the amount of CO2 removed from disposal into the atmosphere would be 100 parts per million each year (present day CO2 is 380 parts per million - ie 0.000001 percent). So thats a very small amount compared to the 18 percent oxygen in the atmosphere at sea level - and less concentrated with higher altitude.
So there is a factor of between one and ten million difference. or to put it another way this would need to carry on for a very very long time, before the atmospheric oxygen is affected.
A much greater effect, would be to do nothing, and then large areas of northern forest and rain forest, and northern peat land emit carbon dioxide instead of storing it - and that would lock up much more oxygen much faster, as well as enabling a planetary warming unprecedented in human existence.
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