Abstract
Ever since the research conducted by the Swedish physicist and chemist Svante August Arrhenius towards the end of the 19th century it has been known that the increase in temperature is connected with the increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. This makes it possible, according to Arrhenius, for humans „to live under a warmer sky“. His optimism appears to us today to be naive We now know that the emissions of carbon dioxide together with other greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere and the resulting increase in the average temperature of the Earth has some very unpleasant results, it even can trigger catastrophic consequences for the evolution of life on Earth, for the peaceful reproduction of human societies, for economic wealth and welfare. The climate-conference of Cancún in December 2010 agreed on an obligatory limitation of an increase of the planet’s average temperature of 2° Celsius above the pre-industrial level. In order to reach this objective it is necessary to reduce the increase of greenhouse gas-emissions and to respect the level of 450 parts per million air molecules (ppm). That will only be possible, and we know this too, if fossil fuels are no longer burned as they have been since the fossil-industrial revolution in the second half of the 18th century.
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Altvater, E. (2011). The „Tragedy of the Atmosphere“ or the Doubling of the Carbon Cycle and the Circulation of Capital. In: Altvater, E., Brunnengräber, A. (eds) After Cancún. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-94018-2_7
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