People need to take action out of necessity to stop the damage caused
by fossil fuel companies to their islands, cultures and environments.
It's been think tanks funded
by fossil fuel interests and Republican politicians that have made climate change a political issue.
The renewables plus nuclear in 2013 make up 57 % of new capacity additions, while those
powered by fossil fuels alone are down to 43 %.
They have very little to do with the long term trend (driven
by fossil fuel burning) but are important for understanding the sensitivity of the carbon cycle to changes in climate.
The electrons remain at the center and are then free to do work, just like the electrons
generated by fossil fuel combustion.
That's partly because of a long
campaign by fossil fuel interests to muddy the science on global warming and fight pollution regulation.
It's estimated that more than a third of global carbon emissions, between 1980 and 2010, were
driven by fossil fuel subsidies.
The baseline scenario was the business - as - usual path where we continue phase out support for renewables and the energy mix is mostly
dominated by fossil fuels.
It is the proven false information about climate science that has been paid
for by the fossil fuel industry to delay sensible, responsible action that is the problem.
If this had been
supplied by fossil fuels instead, CO2 emissions would have been at least 5.5 million tonnes higher, and as much as 12 million tonnes higher.
A companion phenomenon of emitting CO2 into the atmosphere is the loading of the oceans with elevated levels of carbon dioxide
created by fossil fuel burning and other human activities.
So although much more CO2 is
released by fossil fuel burning, smaller amounts of these high - greenhouse effect chemicals can cause equal damage.
The Republican opposition to this is heavily subsidized
by fossil fuel money for campaigns in their various states.
Although an in - depth comparison has not been conducted for the purposes of this paper, there seems to be much agreement between stakeholders on what should be
reported by fossil fuel companies.
The records offer a glimpse into the decades - long
effort by fossil fuel interests to engage researchers who doubt the scientific consensus that global warming is real and caused by human activity.
They are necessary to mitigate the twin problems
posed by fossil fuels, carbon emissions and peak energy impact.
The huge financial
investment by fossil fuel interests into electoral politics might reflect how threatened they feel these days.
The authors also broke the results down
by fossil fuel type and usage (coal, petroleum, natural gas, electricity).
The damage getting done to this
planet by fossil fuel burning is a crime beyond everything ever done by mankind.
This is a point routinely mentioned at the top of the list of challenges for wider deployment of clean energy (and too often blown way out of
proportion by fossil fuel interests).