Atmospheric Carbon-dioxide Concentration as Fuel Gauge

Climate change skeptics like to point to the high atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentration in paleo records as a “ proof ” of the exaggeration of the climate change agenda. Instead of debunking these arguments, the present paper represents a thought experiment that considers the carbon-dioxide concentration in the past as a proxy for fossil fuel reserves and interprets the contemporary rise in carbon-dioxide concentration as a fuel gauge to estimate the exhaustion of the remaining fossil fuel reserves under different energy consumption scenarios. The resulting conclusion is that to dangers of exhausting the remaining fossil fuel resources are likely in par with the anticipated adverse effects of climate change and should convince even climate change skeptics that the transition to non-fossil energy sources is inevitable and urgent. The presented analysis actually goes further than the currently adopted “ net-zero ” ambitions and demonstrate that there is no room for compromise and the transition has to be “ truly zero ” use of fossil fuels. Accounting gimmicks like carbon trading or carbon capture and sequestration are just as unsustainable as the continued reliance on fossil fuels.