Carbon is forever: Fossil CO2 impacts will outlast Stonehenge and nuclear waste

[RedEarth]

Every few years, people need to be reminded that carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion lasts a long, long, long time. How long?

A 2005 study by Geophysicist David Archer, “Fate of fossil fuel CO2 in geologic time,” (subs. req’d.) concluded that a large fraction of the CO2 emitted by humans last well in excess of 1000 years:

The mean lifetime of anthropogenic CO2 is dominated by the long tail, resulting in a range of 30–35 kyr.

That’s why we need to stop and reverse the growth of fossil fuel emissions immediately (see “Dr. Hansen to Dr. Merkel: Carbon is forever — so ban new traditional coal plants now“). That’s why we can’t have climate regulations that let companies keep burning coal while they buy rip-offsets.

In the interest of reminding people of this central fact of climate science, Nature online has published, “Carbon is forever.” Turns out Archer has a book out, The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing the Next 100,000 Years of Earth’s Climate, which has this useful figure:



http://climateprogress.org/2008/12/01/carbon-is-forever-fossil-carbon-dioxide-co2-impacts-outlast-stonehenge-nuclear-waste/

[quidam56]

1. Third world Appalachia, come see the prosperity thanks to MTR

http://www.wisecountyissues.com Wise County, Virginia is turning into a toxic waste dump, not to mention that brand new coal fired power plant they are building in Virgina City, Virginia. Thanks, Rick Boucher and Tim Kaine !

[AlecBGreen]

2. this assumes

that we have no say in the matter, when in fact we do. Humans have a powerful tool at our disposal when it comes to sequestering carbon: good agricultural practices.

By using proven techniques such as crop rotation, conservation tillage, and the use of cover crops and green manures, we can BUILD soil organic matter content, which, in the form of humus and humic acid, is quite stable. Not only can we sequester billions of tons of atmospheric CO2, we can increase food production and protect ourselves from the changing climate. WIN-WIN situation.

The intentional addition of charcoal to create terra preta is another idea that has been explored here on DU and should be given further consideration.

[bananas]

3. Nuclear waste lasts a lot longer than that

Based on a court order to follow the National Academy of Sciences recomendations,
the EPA requires Yucca Mountain to contain the nuclear waste for a million years.

http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/yucca/2008factsheet.html

EPA is announcing final public health and safety standards for the proposed facility for spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The standards will protect public health and the environment for 1 million years, are consistent with the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and provide a reasonable test of the disposal system for an unprecedented time frame.

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1. Retain the dose limit of 15 millirem per year (150 microsieverts per year) for the first 10,000 years after disposal;
2. Establish a dose limit of 100 millirem per year (1 millisievert per year) between 10,000 years and 1 million years;
3. Require the Department of Energy (DOE) to consider the effects of climate change, earthquakes, volcanoes, and corrosion of the waste packages to contain safely the waste during the 1 million-year period; and
4. Be consistent with the recommendations of the NAS by establishing a radiological protection standard for this facility at the time of peak dose up to 1 million years after disposal.

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