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I think he's selling it short. Imagine if all 1 billion+ cars used this fuel instead of diesel/gasoline. Even if all the carbon ultimately ends up as CO2 again
by evunveot 10y ago
I think he's selling it short. Imagine if all 1 billion+ cars used this fuel instead of diesel/gasoline. Even if all the carbon ultimately ends up as CO2 again eventually, at any given moment there would be a whole lot of it temporarily sequestered in fuel tanks. The "base load" of atmospheric CO2 would be lower.
I don't know enough chemistry or climate science to estimate whether the amount of carbon in ~5 billion gallons of alcohol-based fuel, when removed from the atmosphere, would have a significant effect on climate change. But it sure seems like a lot of carbon.
- ams6110 10y agoGiven that the current level of CO2 in the atmosphere includes the output of over 100 years of industrial world-wide burning of petroleum and coal, then no I don't think the amonut of carbon that could be sequestered in current fuel inventories would make a significant difference. Unless you stockpile decades worth of fuel.
- sdenton4 10y agoYeah, but it's a hundred years of industrial burn which was growing at an (approximately) exponential rate; the most recent burn has a much, much larger impact than the burn in 1916.
- perilunar 10y agoBut the current level is not ALL the output of over 100 years of burning petroleum and coal — a lot of it has been re-absorbed by plants and the sea.