During the next half century, fossil fuel production will be limited primarily by the amount and characteristics
of remaining fossil fuel resources.
On the contrary, continued development of
remaining fossil fuel resources is essential to provide adequate supplies of energy for the world economy across the many decades that this great transformation will require.
McKibben [255], published in a popular magazine, uses quantitative results of M2009 to conclude that
most remaining fossil fuel reserves must be left in the ground, if global warming this century is to be kept below 2 °C.
Image via Global Warming Art Dear Pablo: I've heard that we don't have enough
remaining fossil fuels available to burn in order to reach the carbon dioxide concentrations that the IPCC scientists are predicting.
The implication is that the world must move rapidly to carbon - free energies and energy efficiency, leaving
most remaining fossil fuels in the ground, if climate is to be kept close to the Holocene range and climate disasters averted.
«However, no amount of reafforestation or growing of new trees will ultimately off - set continuing CO2 emissions due to environmental constraints on plant growth and the large amounts
of remaining fossil fuel reserves.
The implication is that the world must move rapidly to carbon - free energies and energy efficiency, leaving most
remaining fossil fuels in the ground, if climate is to be kept close to the Holocene range and climate disasters averted.
In fact, a 2015 study in the journal Nature revealed that we need to leave at least 80 percent of the world's known
remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground to prevent runaway climate change.
The answer is simple: just burn all the planet's
remaining fossil fuel resources, which would pump another 10,000 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere in the form of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.
The Church of England is to vote on whether to sell off
its remaining fossil fuel investments from its... More
«What the climate science tells us is that we have to leave most of
the remaining fossil fuels in the ground,» Hansen said.
They can not tell us how much money will be invested in green energy R&D, whether fertility rates will go up or down, whether we will dig up all
the remaining fossil fuels and burn them, or the outcomes of numerous other decisions that affect the atmosphere — though they can tell us what will probably happen if we do or don't take them (see «Earth, 2100 AD: Four futures of environment and society «-RRB-.
Clearly we are getting closer to the statement that
the remaining fossil fuels need to be left in the ground.
This chart from a paper in Science Advances shows how burning different amounts of the world's
remaining fossil fuel reserves could affect Antarctic ice.
Lett., 36, L03704, doi: 10.1029 / 2008GL036294), suggested that we if we saved
the remaining fossil fuels, we could head off the next few ice ages by burning on the appropriate orbital schedule (although I have heard people suggest that we could manufacture much more potent greenhouse gases to do the same job).
It's a grand vision for essentially being carbon - free by 2050, Producing electricity from clean generation sources including nuclear, solar, wind, hydro, and with
any remaining fossil fuel plants hooked up to carbon capture and storage systems.
Discussing the need to limit warming to the internationally agreed - upon limit of 2 degrees Celsius, and the challenge presented by the world's
remaining fossil fuel reserves, the president told New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman: «We're not going to be able to burn it all.»
Scientists warn that burning up the planet's
remaining fossil fuel would cause all Antarctic ice to melt and lead to devastating sea level rise.
The BBC piece cites an article in Nature which argues that we must leave 75 % of
the remaining fossil fuels untouched, if we are to avoid dangerous climate change.
The question is how we will use
the remaining fossil fuels — to relocalize food or promote more Wal - Mart culture (to oversimplify the choice).
It just seems so clear to me that the only responsible, moral position is to look on
the remaining fossil fuels as a gift to be passed on to our children; that the only responsible way to use fossil fuels today is to build renewable infrastructure that can last for 100's of years.
These produce significantly different results in areas such as
remaining fossil fuel use and investment requirements.