Fossil fuel users can pollute in secret
All life on the surface of our planet shares a common atmosphere. Long lived pollutants injected into our atmosphere are shared with flora and fauna on the Earth’s surface, and potentially with water dwelling life. At this point in our planet’s history, the most important long lived pollutant is carbon dioxide, which not only stays in the biosphere for many many human generations, it also dissolves in oceans where it interferes with the chemistry of natural processes. Carbon dioxide is of course the primary driver of global heating.
Almost all the carbon dioxide added to our atmosphere in the last century has come from the burning of fossil fuels, and hence we all have an interest in knowing who the big polluters are, and how their pollution is changing. For some of the larger polluters we are simply not allowed to know these things; emissions can be declared to be “confidential” under national greenhouse gas reporting rules. The rules are essentially a “right to pollute”.
What was the fossil fuel industry’s involvement in this legislation?
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