The “consumption” of fossil fuels is not the important metric from a climate change perspective. It is the CO2 emissions that result from that consumption. Ther

The “consumption” of fossil fuels is not the important metric from a climate change perspective. It is the CO2 emissions that result from that consumption. There is a direct relationship between the amount of consumption of fossil fuels and the amount of emission of CO2. The article is entirely correct in using CO2 as the measure. Yes, CO2 is emitted by multiple processes and there are some counter processes that return that CO2 back into carbon and oxygen. The problem is that the rate of production has exceeded the rate of CO2 return resulting in increased concentrations in the atmosphere. It takes very little CO2 to capture more heat in the system.