Even less are we aware, most of us, of the threat which our insatiable demand for energy may pose for the orderly function of the global climate system, for the very fabric of life on earth. Our modern industrial economy depends on fossil fuel - coal, oil and natural gas. It provides heating and cooling, electricity to light our homes and work places, fuel to drive cars, trucks, trains, ships and aeroplanes, fertiliser and mechanisation for farmers and a host of other goods and services. The problem is that when we burn fossil fuel, we release large quantities of carbon dioxide. And the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has the potential to alter climate.
Carbon dioxide is the largest single waste product of modern society.
Emissions to the atmosphere globally in 1997 amounted to more than six thousand million tons - more than a ton for every human being on the planet. It is expected to climb to near 600 ppmv during the next century, more than twice the level that persisted for 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age. Within the lifetime of most people now alive, it is likely to approach values not seen since dinosaurs roamed the earth 60 million years ago. Moreover, vestiges of carbon added to the atmosphere by mining and burning fossil fuel since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution will persist for hundreds of thousands of years in the future. After almost 5,000 million years of earth history, our species has evolved as a unique force for global change.