Before we started torching carbon stored in forests and then carbon stored underground as coal and oil, the carbon dioxide concentration of our atmosphere was about 280 parts per million (ppm).
FORBES: Global Warming: Hotheads, Flatliners and Lukewarmers, Part One
Our final table (Green Dividends, above) looks at an assortment of potential winners in an era of costly oil and penalized carbon.
The Senate is considering clean-energy and climate legislation that would put Americans back to work, reduce our reliance on foreign oil and cut carbon emissions.
CNN: Obama's China trip is high-stakes mission for environment
For all the hope and hype surrounding algae-based biofuels, producers like Solazyme are finding perhaps more success in selling their low-carbon oil for use in cosmetics, lubricants and food.
FORBES: Solazyme Taps Asia Market In Algae Oil Deal With Japanese Conglomerate
Also looming is a decision whether to grant a permit to the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would transport carbon-laden tar sands oil from Canada to Texas.
"Biofuels, like palm oil, produce more carbon emissions than they save, fuel land grabs and increase global food prices, " she said.
Now, the only long-term solution to high energy prices is reducing our dependence on foreign oil and lowering the carbon intensity of our economy.
CNN: Clinton's November 19, 2007, speech on economic challenges
Because of the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, carbon dioxide levels have gone up by that amount in just 55 years.
Last year a Dutch study found that draining Indonesian swamps to make way for oil-palm plantations resulted in 33 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions for each tonne of palm oil produced, by speeding up the decomposition of the peaty soil.
It is premised on the notion that Big Oil is pouring lots of carbon-drenched money into pockets of climate crisis skeptics.
FORBES: 'Greeny Lying Bastards' and Other Carbon Disinformation
While raising the tax is politically unpopular, theoretically, raising the gas tax would fix crumbling highways, lower oil imports, and reduce carbon emissions.
It is seen, therefore, as a bridge fuel, one that takes us from coal and oil to some mix of carbon-free energy in the future.
Natural gas emits 29% less carbon dioxide than oil and 45% less than coal, and it can be used in high-efficiency combined cycle power stations.
Sure, it would be cheaper (short term) to use carbon-spewing oil.
Indeed, the division with the highest return on investment in the Kinder empire (26% in 2011) provides carbon dioxide for oil companies and itself to inject into old fields to goose out stubborn oil.
Both agree that geology is a strong card: there is thought to be enough space to store billions of tonnes of carbon in empty oil and gas fields alone, and far more in subterranean salt caverns.
ECONOMIST: Carbon-capture technology offers a new use for old assets
Shell, Chevron and Marathon Oil announced today that they will build a carbon capture and sequestration mechanism into their 225, 000 barrels per day Athabasca Oil Sands Project.
The oil sands catch a lot of flack from the antis for being, among other things, more carbon intensive than other sources of oil.
Ecuador has also proposed that OPEC levy a carbon tax at the oil wellhead, a concept devised by environmental economist Herman Daly.
Most big oil companies have active hydrogen and carbon-sequestration efforts under way.
Extracting oil from tar sands causes more carbon emissions than traditional drilling.
Many industrialized nations are trying to use less coal, oil and natural gas to lower carbon dioxide levels, which is warming the atmosphere and changing the Earth's climate.
The increase in production of both coal and oil has raised concerns about meeting carbon dioxide emissions targets, designed to slow the rate of increase in global temperatures.
The prime minister urged the wealthy oil-producing Gulf nations to invest more in areas such as carbon capture and storage, as a way of diversifying beyond oil.
If we have less cheap oil and fuel to burn, our carbon emissions will necessarily fall.
Consider that numerous Big Oil chieftains have already endorsed such a carbon levy.
Siemens and Shell, for example, have just announced a new fuel-cell technology for oil rigs that will capture emissions of carbon dioxide and methane, generate power from them cleanly, and sequester the exhaust.
Put us on the path to the right kind of "peak oil" -- and peak carbon -- the peak that comes, not because we find less and less, but because we want less and less.
With the Copenhagen climate talks in the news, oil executives are watching the unsteady path of carbon dioxide regulation.
This would lessen the need to burn coal and oil, and lead to reduced emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.
BBC: Impact of global warming may be severe and wide-ranging
应用推荐