Abstract
Burning fossil fuels produces waste gases known as combustion products that are released into the atmosphere. The most prominent combustion product is carbon dioxide (CO2), a clear, odorless gas. Levels of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere have been rising steadily since the start of the Industrial Revolution and are linked to the human combustion of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide absorbs infrared radiation and traps heat. Elevated concentrations of CO2 are warming the atmosphere, which has disrupted the global climate. The physics of this are very well understood, and have been for centuries. The geological record shows clear examples of climate change in the past that correlate with changes in concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. Despite the denials of “climate contrarians,” the science is clear, the evidence is unequivocal, and the linkages are very apparent. Other greenhouse gases include methane, the primary component of natural gas and also a byproduct of anaerobic biological processes, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), widely used at one time as refrigerants.
Although the combustion of oil and natural gas produced by fracking does contribute to greenhouse gas levels, the major culprit is coal. Calls to ban fracking because of climate change are not addressing the actual problem. A ban on fracking will only lead to natural gas shortages and restrictions on the use of gas for power generation, where it will likely be replaced with coal. Coal combustion produces twice as much CO2 as natural gas per unit energy. There is no doubt that fossil fuels must be replaced over the next 30 years, but it should be done in a thoughtful and logical manner. Humanity is running an experiment with GHG and climate change, with no clear idea of how it might turn out. The International Panel on Climate Change predicts a one in six chance that global temperatures will increase less than 2 °C in the next century and be lost in the background. There is also a one in six chance that global temperatures may rise by more than 9 °C, leading to catastrophic sea level rise, intense storms, droughts, and killer heat waves. The odds in Russian roulette are also one out of six. Do we really want to risk playing that with the Earth?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adair, R. K. (2012). Another exchange on climate change. Physics Today. Readers Forum, 65(3), 8.
Arrhenius, S. (1896). On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon the temperature of the ground. Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science (London, Edinburgh, and Dublin), Series 5, 41(251), 237–276.
BP p.l.c. (2019). BP statistical review of world energy (68th ed.). London: 64 p.
Brown, D. (2019, November). Hydrocarbons expected to remain the world’s primary energy source. AAPG Explorer, 40(11), 6.
Brulle, R. J. (2014). Institutionalizing delay: Foundation funding and the creation of U.S. climate change counter-movement organizations. Climatic Change, 122(4), 681–694.
Coleman, C., & Dietz, E. (2019). Fossil fuel subsidies: A closer look at tax breaks and societal costs: Fact sheet. Washington, DC: Environmental and Energy Study Institute. 10 p. (https://www.eesi.org/files/FactSheet_Fossil_Fuel_Subsidies_0719.pdf).
Dole, R., Hoerling, M., Perlwitz, J., Eischeid, J., Pegion, P., Zhang, T., Quan, X.-W., Xu, T., & Murray, D. (2011). Was there a basis for anticipating the 2010 Russian heat wave? Geophysical Research Letters, 38(6), L06702. 5 p.
Ehlers, J., & Gibbard, P. (2011). Quaternary glaciation. In V. P. Singh, P. Singh, & U. K. Haritashya (Eds.), Encyclopedia of snow, ice and glaciers (Encyclopedia of earth sciences series). Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2642-2.
Epstein, A. (2014). The moral case for fossil fuels. New York: Penguin Group. 256 p.
Fairbanks, R. G. (1989). 17,000-year glacio-eustatic sea level record: Influence of glacial melting rates on the younger Dryas event and deep-ocean circulation. Nature, 342, 637–642.
IPCC. (2018). Global warming of 1.5°C: An intergovernmental panel on climate change special report (Summary for policymakers). Geneva, Switzerland, World Meteorological Organization, 32 p. (ISBN 978-92-9169-151-7).
Jardine, P. (2011). The Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum. Palaeontology Online, 1, 1–7. Article 5.
Klare, M. T. (2019). All hell breaking loose: The Pentagon’s perspective on climate change. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 304 p. (ISBN: 9781627792486).
Kolbert, E. (2014). The sixth extinction: An unnatural history. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 319 p. (ISBN 978-0-8050-9299-8).
McNeill, L. (2016). This lady scientist defined the Greenhouse Effect but didn’t get the credit: Smithsonian Magazine, December 5, 2016. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/lady-scientist-helped-revolutionize-climate-science-didnt-get-credit-180961291/
Merlan, A. (2019). Republic of lies: American conspiracy theorists and their surprising rise to power. New York: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Co.. 288 p. (ISBN: 9781250159052).
NOAA. (2020). What is ocean acidification? National Ocean Service website. https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/What+is+Ocean+Acidification%3F. Accessed 13 Jan 2020.
Pierrehumbert, R. T. (2011, January). Infrared radiation and planetary temperature. Physics Today, 64(1), 33–38.
Polvani, L. M., Previdi, M., England, M. R., Chiodo, G., & Smith, K. L. (2020). Substantial twentieth-century Arctic warming caused by ozone-depleting substances. Nature Climate Change, 10, 130–133. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0677-4.
Poore, R. Z., Williams, R. S., Jr., & Tracey, C. (2000). Sea level and climate. Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 002–00. 2 p.
Richardson, J. L. (1966). Germany and the Atlantic alliance: The interaction of strategy and politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 403 p.
Showstack, R. (2019). Senator urges ending dark money’s stifling of climate action. EOS Earth & Space Science News, 100(8), 7–8.
Soeder, D. J., & Borglum, S. J. (2019). The fossil fuel revolution: Shale gas and tight oil. Amsterdam: Elsevier. 354 p. (ISBN: 9780128153970).
Soeder, D. J., Raffensperger, J. P., & Nardi, M. R. (2007). Effects of withdrawals on ground-water levels in Southern Maryland and adjacent Eastern Shore, 1980-2005. USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2007-5249, October, 2007.
Solomon, S., Douglass, A. R., & Newman, P. A. (2014). The Antarctic ozone hole: An update. Physics Today, 67(7), 42–48. https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.2449.
Taylor, L. E., Swerdfeger, A. L., & Eslick, G. D. (2014). Vaccines are not associated with autism: An evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies. Vaccine, 32(29), 3623–3629.
The Economist. (2019, Feb 9). Crude Awakening: ExxonMobil and the oil industry are making a bet that could end up wrecking the climate. The Economist, 430(9129), 9.
Thompson, M., Gamage, D., Hirotsu, N., Martin, A., & Seneweera, S. (2017). Effects of elevated carbon dioxide on photosynthesis and carbon partitioning: A perspective on root sugar sensing and hormonal crosstalk. Frontiers in Physiology, 8, 578.
Turco, R. P., Toon, O. B., Pollack, J. B., Ackerman, T. P., & Sagan, C. (1983, December). Nuclear winter: Global consequences of multiple nuclear explosions. Science, 222(4630), 1283–1292.
USDOE (U.S. Department of Energy). (2012). The United States carbon utilization and storage atlas (4th ed.). Washington, DC: DOE Office of Fossil Energy. 129 p.
USEIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration). (2018). Levelized cost and Levelized avoided cost of new generation resources, Annual Energy Outlook, 20 p.
Waitt, R. B., Jr. (1984). Periodic jökulhlaups from Pleistocene Glacial Lake Missoula – New evidence from varved sediment in northern Idaho and Washington. Quaternary Research, 22, 46–58.
Webb, S. (2013). Corridors to extinction and the Australian megafauna. Amsterdam: Elsevier. 308 p.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Soeder, D.J. (2021). Fossil Fuels and Climate Change. In: Fracking and the Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59121-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59121-2_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-59120-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-59121-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)