El Reg: All CO2-spewing kit now in existence is OK for the planet

[Dead_Parrot]

That V8 Jag? Run it 'til it wears out, you're OK

All the carbon-spewing machinery the human race now possesses - powerplants, transportation, boilers, the lot - can be kept running for its entire designed life without any significant ill effects on the planetary ecosystem, according to new analysis. It is the new machinery to replace what we now have which will either push atmospheric carbon over the UN's red line - or not.

The new boffinry comes from Steven Davis and Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution. They've worked out how long all the current cars, trucks, buses, ships, airliners, coal-fired power stations, combi boilers etc will last before needing to be replaced and totted up all the resulting atmospheric carbon.



As the graph shows, all of the gear now existing can be run until it wears out, and CO2 will stay well below 450 parts per million (ppm) - the amount that the UN says we must stay below in order to avoid damaging levels of global warming.

Obviously if we only did that, we'd soon have fewer and fewer working power stations, vehicles, farms, lights etc and human civilisation would start going to the dogs*. So the likelihood is that in fact all this stuff will be replaced - and more than replaced. But it will be the carbon emissions of the replacements which bust - or fail to bust - the 450 ppm line. The game is still all to play for.

Interesting. Not sure how helpful it is, but it's interesting.