Bearing in mind the discussion above about the role of carbon dioxide in our existence, it is also worth noting that we have been cutting down trees and burning coal virtually since man emerged on the planet – first to keep ourselves warm and to cook food, then, as the industrial revolutions began, to power machines.
In fact, the industrial revolution began partly because of coal. From Roman times, Britons relied upon plentiful supplies of coal for heating and cooking. It was also used increasingly for smelting. At first, it could be found in outcrops on the surface. But, as people used it up, they had to start digging for supplies. By the late 1600s, miners in England had already dug up every bit of coal close to the surface and were having to dig deeper and deeper to find more. They eventually struck water tables and their mines filled with water. The demand for coal was such that a solution had to be found and Thomas Savery invented a crude steam engine to pump water in 1698. His invention was developed first by Thomas Newcomen and later by James Watt whose much improved engine fuelled the industrial revolution. The pace of digging up coal has exploded around the world through the 20th and 21st centuries.
Coal and oil are simply rotted and compressed plant matter – great stores of carbon. So, by the way, are diamonds.
At the same time as we consume increasing amounts of coal, we are clearing more trees and other vegetation. Professor Ron W. Nielsen has estimated that about half of the Earth's mature tropical forests - between 7.5 million and 8 million square kilometres of the original 15 million to 16 million square kilometres that until 1947 covered the planet - have now been destroyed (The Little Green Handbook). Paul F. Maycock, a forest ecologist at the University of Toronto, and others have predicted that, unless significant measures are taken on a worldwide basis, by 2030 there will be only 10 percent remaining.
By clearing trees, we are systematically reducing the amount of plant matter that undertakes the vital photosynthesis process by which the plants capture carbon and release oxygen. At the same time we are burning the coal and oil that has stored carbon for millions of years. Burning carbon creates – among other things – carbon dioxide. It seems to me that simple logic would suggest we are doing no good to the planet. At the one time we are doing the two things that will most promote an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; we are destroying the plants that absorb the gas and we are burning stored carbon (coal and oil) in vast quantities, releasing energy and gases including carbon dioxide.
Whether this and our emissions are enough to actually cause the entire planet to warm remain for analysis.
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