Climate Change, Society and the Fossil Empire

This book has three chapters covering sequential aspects since I took on the role of understanding the physical climate system in 1976, nearly 50 years. This first chapter, the longest, is a review, based closely on [1], of the links between society and the changing climate system as the greenhouse gases increase from the burning of fossil fuels. It reviews the reluctance of industrial societies to deal with the drivers, before the future consequences become catastrophic, and discusses the criminally deceptive role of what I call the Fossil fuel Empire, who knew what was coming in 1978 but have bribed politicians not to intervene for 46 years. This initial overview describes how the energy balance of the Earth, oceans, land and Arctic sea ice are maintained, and how climate is warming and changing with increases in the three most important greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, water vapor from the evaporation of a warmer ocean, and methane from several sources. We discuss the Earth’s water cycle and the role of evaporation, latent heat and condensation in driving storms, transporting energy poleward and giving increasing precipitation extremes, floods, droughts and fires. We review the increasing challenge of meeting human demand for water as water tables are falling globally from increased pumping, and winter snowpack storage is shrinking. We discuss rising sea level, the challenges of long-term carbon storage and the lessons from the past four ice age cycles. The text is written for scientific and public audiences, both global and in the US, so metric and US units are given. The social, moral and ethical choices are mapped by contrasting the Earth-centered indigenous worldview needed for our survival with the industrial mindset that is willing to destroy a stable climate to keep the profits of the current economy growing. We review the long history of the misuse of human power, the rise of science and technology without a guiding moral framework, and how neoliberal capitalism by default makes choices that are driving rapid climate change. We outline how deceit by the matrix of corporations and fossil fuel interests that we call the Fossil Empire has prevented government regulation for decades and accelerated the climate crisis. The second and third chapters deal with my background and training and then discusses links to the creator, who has now taken over the system to reduce the destruction of species on Earth.