Is our climate sick?

Industrialisation was possible only thanks to the energy obtained from coal, oil and natural gas. Combustion of these fossil energies returns carbon, which was deposited in the earth over millions of years, to the atmosphere within a very short time. This process endangers the earth’s climate balance.

Health is a precious balance. If we lose it, we get sick. A similar thing happens with the climate, even if it takes much longer for the first symptoms to become visible.

The earth’s CO₂ budget was in balance until 250 years ago. Plants, animals and human beings produced CO₂, which was decomposed again in a natural cycle. For example, plants absorb CO₂ from the air and convert it into biomass and oxygen, which they return to the air. When leaves and wood from trees decay, the CO₂ gradually returns to the air. The same thing happens when human beings or animals burn food in their bodies. The amount of CO₂ released by a decomposing tree corresponds exactly to that absorbed from the air by a growing sapling. For many years, man’s energy supply was also embedded in this cycle. Wood, water power and wind were renewable energy sources fed by the sun. A naturally healthy cycle.

Industrialisation disturbed this balance. Man began to build machines. Ever more goods were produced, ever greater distances were overcome and in general everyday life became easier. This rapid development was possible only thanks to new energy sources: coal, oil and natural gas covered the energy needs of the industrial revolution. Today we are depleting this reservoir at a rapid rate.

So what’s so bad about that? These fossil energies were produced in a slow process lasting millions of years, so slow that the earth’s climate was able to adapt itself continuously. Today, burning these energy reserves returns the CO₂ to the atmosphere. The earth will need several centuries to remove it. But we are not giving it so much time. Accordingly, the proportion of CO₂ in the atmosphere has increased continuously over the last 250 years.

Before industrialisation, each cubic metre of air contained less than 280 cubic centimetres of CO₂. (Experts call this value 280 parts per million (ppm) of CO₂.) It corresponds to almost a 3 dl glass filled with CO₂ gas. This value had already reached 3.85 dl CO₂ per cubic metre of air in 2008. The thermostat had already been turned up really high. Each additional kilogram of CO₂ that reaches the atmosphere turns the earth’s thermostat and thus its heating a bit higher. But decades and even centuries will pass before it gets warmer. Later, however, it will not be quite so easy to turn the thermostat down again.

Additional topics:

• Switzerland and CO₂
• What exactly is CO₂?
• How will we live in future?