[ RadSafe ] Re: Renewables

[Bernard L. Cohen]

howard long wrote:

> If coal is fossil fuel it is biomass, formed from plants that took up 
> CO2 from the atmosphere. Burning coal  (or corn ethanol or sugarcane 
> or waste paper) does not then add to atmospheric CO2 in the long run.  
> Correct?


       ---The coal took CO2 out of the atmosphere hundreds of millions 
of years ago and life on Earth has adapted to this reduced atmospheric 
CO2 since then. It would therefore be risky to return that CO2 to the 
atmosphere. However growing biomass is taking CO2 out of the atmosphere 
in the present era so returning it to the atmosphere now does not change 
the situation in the present era.