If you ever feel bad about your own personal consumption, there are plenty of rich people that waste far more than you- If you want to make a difference, do something about them
I’m with you there, Fluttershy, except I must point out that respiration is carbon-neutral. The CO2 we exhale is formed from carbon that was already extant in the atmosphere and biosphere. These are typically balanced and slightly negative to equilibrium over the long-term as carbon weathering and oceanic uptake slowly remove them from the atmosphere.
Fossil fuel emissions are ultimately produced from geological stores of hydrocarbons, which have been removed by the above processes for thousands and millions of years; they don’t meaningfully exist in the current carbon cycle except when we dig them up and burn them.
The big picture is that natural carbon dioxide sources are slightly negative whereas anthropogenic sources from carbon-based fossil fuels represent somewhat more than the full amount of surplus CO2 accumulating in the atmosphere. This is why biogenic CO2 is, by and large, not problematic on the relevant timescales.
Eh. Lower population would result in lower fossil fuel consumption, I would think.
Fossil fuel emissions are ultimately produced from geological stores of hydrocarbons, which have been removed by the above processes for thousands and millions of years; they don’t meaningfully exist in the current carbon cycle except when we dig them up and burn them.
The big picture is that natural carbon dioxide sources are slightly negative whereas anthropogenic sources from carbon-based fossil fuels represent somewhat more than the full amount of surplus CO2 accumulating in the atmosphere. This is why biogenic CO2 is, by and large, not problematic on the relevant timescales.