{"id":243574,"date":"2025-09-26T01:05:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=243574"},"modified":"2025-10-02T03:46:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T22:16:16","slug":"understanding-the-pitfalls-in-marketing-carbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/understanding-the-pitfalls-in-marketing-carbon\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding The Pitfalls In Marketing Carbon"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ranil Senanayake<\/a> –<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Dr. Ranil Senanayake<\/p><\/div>\n

It is a tragedy that we still follow the line expounded by the carbon emitters and polluters of the environment. We have accepted a high debt and fossil dependency scenario as the indicator of \u2018Economic Development\u2019. Our concerns with adaptation to the ongoing climate changes brought about by our own actions, seem to be minimal. The current disasters of fishermen getting caught in an sudden, random, wind events, are a foretaste of things to come. Sudden violent downpours that strip and erode the soil or delays in rain bearing winds that create harsh drought conditions, will become more frequent. The \u2018climate affected\u2019 population will grow with every event. We are witnessing the thin edge of the wedge.<\/p>\n

These tragic planetary changes have been brought about by us humans, through the agency of a human created value system that glorifies consumption. The modern notion of economic development assumes that consumption and the turnover of money, powers growth and is therefore good. But it is this very activity that affects the global climate and produces profound suffering for much of humanity, so can it really be called good ?<\/p>\n

To understand this apparent dichotomy we have to understand that, the source of power to propel \u2018Economic Growth\u2019, is firmly anchored in the consumption of fossil energy. Oil and coal were seen as substances with untold promise the development of the industrial revolution. However, this was not a universally shared view. Others, with no vested interest in profit in the promotion of oil saw it differently,<\/p>\n

The Shuar peoples of Amazonian Ecuador, under whose territories lie huge reserves of oil, have rejected oil exploration and extraction, they do not want to get rich on selling oil.\u00a0 <\/span>They have a saying; \u201cOil\u2019 represents the sprits of a long dead world, that we use to satisfy our greed for power and sacrifice and our children in return<\/i>.\u201d (CESR 1996).<\/p>\n

Here lies a truth that cannot be escaped when looking at climate change. This statement reflects a wisdom, a truth, which if appreciated will clarify the actions needed to address the spectre of climate change. The wisdom is that, there is a great difference between the spirits of the living world and the spirits of the dead world. They know that, asking for power from the spirits of the dead world has a great price, often seeking the lives of our own children. Development diseases, like cancer and autism extend their tentacles to ever younger age groups confirming this fear.<\/p>\n

To appreciate the indigenous view one has to look at the elements in fossil fuels that contribute to the current crisis. One of worst culprits is carbon in the form of Carbon Dioxide. We are told that Carbon Dioxide is a common gas , that is emitted by all living things so their \u2018contribution\u2019 is natural. This brings up the question \u201cdoes all carbon entering the atmosphere have the same value ?\u201d. The resolution to this question can put humanity on a path to real sustainable development and could avert a cataclysmic future. Thus, it is useful to study this question in the light of scientific evidence.<\/p>\n

Carbon<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Carbon (C), the fourth most abundant element in the Universe, after hydrogen (H), helium (He), and oxygen (O), is the<\/i> building block of life. It\u2019s the basic element that anchors all organic substances, from fossil fuels to DNA. On Earth, carbon cycles through the land, ocean, atmosphere, and the Earth\u2019s interior in a major biogeochemical cycle (the circulation of chemical components through the biosphere from or to the lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere). The global carbon cycle can be divided into two categories: the geological\/ancient, which operates over large time scales (millions of years), and the biological\/modern, which operates at shorter time scales (days to thousands of years).<\/p>\n

The Global Carbon Stock<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Global Carbon Stock began Billions of years ago, as planetesimals (small bodies that formed from the solar nebula) and carbon-containing meteorites bombarded our planet\u2019s surface, steadily increasing the planets Carbon content. Today such increments to the planet\u2019s Carbon stock have ceased, but the stock has become more compartmentalized.<\/p>\n

Since those times, carbonic acid (a weak acid derived from the reaction between atmospheric carbon dioxide [CO2] and water) has slowly but continuously combined with calcium and magnesium in the Earth\u2019s crust to form insoluble carbonates (carbon-containing chemical compounds) through a process called weathering. Then, through the process of erosion, the carbonates are washed into the ocean and eventually settle to the bottom. The cycle continues as these materials are drawn into Earth\u2019s mantle by subduction (a process in which one lithospheric plate descends beneath another, often as a result of folding or faulting of the mantle) at the edges of continental plates. The carbon is then returned to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide during volcanic eruptions.<\/p>\n

The balance between weathering, subduction, and volcanism controls atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over time periods of hundreds of millions of years. The oldest geologic sediments suggest that, before life evolved, the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide may have been one-hundred times that of the present, providing a very different atmosphere and substantial greenhouse effect.<\/p>\n

Fossil Carbon<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The operation of life has been clearly demonstrated to change the chemistry of earth\u2019s atmosphere to what it is today. One of the most active agents of this change were\/are the oceanic plankton, photosynthetic microscopic phytoplankton that produce prodigious quantities of oxygen and biomass over time. Oxygen is released to the atmosphere and the biomass is consumed by respiring zooplankton (microscopic marine animals) within a matter of days or weeks. Only small amounts of residual carbon from these plankton settle out to the ocean bottom at any given time, but over long periods of time this process represents a significant removal of carbon from the atmosphere. This slow removal of Carbon from the primary or living atmosphere into the fossil reservoir, while at the same time adding to the atmospheric reservoir of oxygen, had a major effect on the maintenance of biotic homeostasis or \u2018global eco equilibrium\u2019.<\/p>\n

A similar process was repeated on the land especially at Devonian times with the huge vegetation mass that covered the earth absorbing Carbon Dioxide and then being mineralized in the lithosphere into coal, effectively removing a huge volume of carbon from Earth\u2019s atmosphere, the Oxygen released by these early prodigious forests was released into the atmosphere and contributed greatly to the chemistry of the current\u00a0 <\/span>atmosphere.<\/p>\n

These processes, are still active today, Carbon that enters the Lithosphere (fossil Carbon) is removed completely from the biological cycle and becomes mineralized into reservoirs with ages of 100\u2019s of millions of years.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The biological or \u2018living\u2019 carbon cycle<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In the living world, the major exchange of carbon with the atmosphere results from photosynthesis and respiration. During the daytime in the growing season, leaves absorb sunlight and take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In the oceans the planktonic cycle have a similar photosynthetic cycle. Both create biomass. In parallel, plants, animals and substrate microbes consume this carbon as organic matter and return carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The amounts of carbon that move from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, respiration, and back to the atmosphere are large and produce oscillations in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. This \u2018living\u2019 Carbon has a very significant chemical signature of carbon isotopes,\u00a0 <\/span>it has a quantity of the rare unstable isotope 14C and 13C to 12C ratio is constant. All fossil carbon emitted into the atmosphere that lacks 14 C and has a lower 13C\/12C ratio, it is very different chemically to biotic carbon, it is not a part of the modern or biotic cycle.<\/p>\n

The Fossil subsidy<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

It is now clear that fossil Carbon and biotic Carbon have extremely different sinks and need to be valued differentially when considering the impact on the global biosphere. While the carbon balance of the planet has been greatly modified by the post-industrial human activity of clearing the forests of this planet, it is the \u2018fossil trigger\u2019 that introduces an increasing increment of \u2018new\u2019 carbon into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

A clear distinction between fossil and biotic energy and a placing of differential values on the two sources, will go a long way to expose these addicted economies and assist \u2018developing nations \u2018to avoid the pitfalls. The \u2018fossil subsidy\u2019 required for the creation and operation of future \u2018development\u2019 projects should become cost criteria for acceptance or rejection of future \u2018development\u2019 projects.<\/p>\n

There is a great danger of accepting consumption of fossil fuels as a tool for \u2018development\u2019. Once a nation or economy has become \u2018fossil addicted\u2019, they are willing to sacrifice their own well being and the well being of others to feed their addiction.<\/p>\n

However, the reticence of some Governments to face up to their global obligations, underscores the great danger of accepting the consumption on fossil fuels as a tool for \u2018development\u2019. Once a nation or economy has become \u2018fossil addicted\u2019, they are willing to sacrifice their own well being and the well being of others to feed their addiction.\u00a0 <\/span>Witness the destruction wrought on the health of its own citizens in the process of facilitating oil extraction through \u2018fracking\u2019 in the US, or the rush to protect the agrotoxins of the \u2018Green Revolution\u2019 in Sri Lanka ,in the face of a growing public health cost. As seen today politicians have become the agents promoting fossil addiction and are actively working to promote their agendas.<\/p>\n

Development without a clear vision of where we are heading towards, can only spell disaster for the future. Having \u2018leaders\u2019 and their \u2018advisors\u2019 without the slightest ability to comprehend the words above will ensure our demise into fossil dependency and will accelerate those climate changes that we are already facing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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