More deadly than asteroids

Nature Bats Last: "I’m often told Earth can’t possibly be responsive enough to climate change to make any difference to us. But, as the 27 May 2014 headline at Skeptical Science points out, “Rapid climate changes more deadly than asteroid impacts in Earth’s past.” That’s correct: climate change is more deadly than asteroids."

Cars kill

One of only 80 Amur leopards left in the wild survives being hit by car: https://t.co/vSCQMDQWUY pic.twitter.com/raKFnTB54Z

— Extinction Symbol (@extinctsymbol) December 17, 2017

Civilization is a heat engine

Heat vs Emissions

The earth receives energy from the sun. The energy not reflected away is stored, or converted to heat and sent back out. There is a top limit to how fast energy can be sent back out -- a fixed amount based on area of the surface and the rate of heat transfer.

Carbon in the atmosphere reduces the amount reflected, so more energy has to be stored or sent back out.

Even if humans add no carbon to the blanket, the earth will still get warmer if animal life turns energy into heat faster than the rate of sending out.

If humans can reduce carbon in the atmosphere, more energy will be reflected instead of trapped. But reducing emissions is not exactly the same as reducing carbon. To reduce carbon, emissions must be negative. Negative means that more carbon must be taken out than added. Reducing emissions to any rate greater than or equal to zero does not reduce trapping. And if the process of reducing those emissions requires increased use of energy, that energy generates heat which must be subtracted from the supposed benefits of reducing trapping.