The Unintended Experiment! Are Fossil Fuels Affecting CO2 Levels?

There is a stunning side-effect to the shutting down of the world’s economic engines.

Simply put, we are living through an historic experiment to see what the elimination of fossil fuel would actually accomplish in terms of CO2 levels. 

The global coronavirus-shutdown of civilization as we know it has caused a sudden and massive decrease in human CO2 production from the burning of fossil fuels—Coal, Oil, and Natural Gas. This massive decrease in usage is the fundamental cause of the collapse of oil prices in recent days, even reaching NEGATIVE pricing per barrel in the past few days.

IF humans’ use of fossil fuels is responsible for increasing levels of CO2 in our atmosphere, this should ALREADY be obvious in the data. China, one of the largest users of fossil fuel, shut down effectively in January. The rest of the world followed. No country, including China, has resumed their former usage levels. In short, we have an unplanned experiment testing the very heart of the Green New Deal as to whether or not we mortals are responsible for CO2 increase. Data through April 21, 2020 clearly show that trends evident since we’ve been recording measurements are unaffected by the global shutdown of civilization. In the nearby graph, [i]^,[ii]  the peaks and valleys are annual, and are caused by natural phenomenon such as plant growth being higher some months of the year, and other natural effects.  The overall trend increasing is also due to natural effects.

We would have NEVER condoned an experiment to test whether AOC and her followers are right about anything scientific. We believe the various national and state shut-downs are causing much more harm than good. However, our unintended experiment should put a Proverbial nail in the coffin of the hypothesis that burning natural fossil fuels increases atmospheric CO2.

Happy Earth Day!