Carbon

US CO2 emissions are now at the same level they were in 1988 in spite of the fact that the US population has increased from 244 million to 335 million during that time period. This is primarily the result of moving from coal to natural gas in power plants. Coal usage in US power plants has gone from 1000 million tons 25 years ago to 300 million tons this year. Meanwhile the world's coal usage has remained steady at 8,000 million tons. While the US has been cutting back on coal the rest of the world has been increasing the use of coal with China leading the pack using 4,000 million tons or half the world's usage. During this time the world's CO2 emissions have doubled. During this same time period the world oil production has increased from 55 million barrels per day to 100 million barrels. Since 1988 world natural gas production has increased from 2,000 billion cubic feet to 4,000 billion. What this boils down to is that in spite of the fact that wind and solar have received billions in subsidies the growth in coal has remained constant an oil and natural gas have doubled. It is time for people to understand that wind and solar cannot replace fossil fuels and that the only answer is nuclear power.