While climate change has brought CO2 to the forefront, CO2 emissions from fossil fuel energy sources have always been the common denominator in a broad variety of social, environmental, and economic issues. Some of these issues are briefly summarized below:
The Carbon Denominator
• Energy costs paid by the community, exposure to inflationary pressures induced by a finite resource, and energy intensity of economic output
• Reliance on finite, often imported, fossil fuel energy sources that consume large amounts of fresh water
• Smog, particulates, and other local community pollution levels, in addition to numerous other toxic pollutants
• Costly social impacts, such as to public health, that occur during the extraction, refining, and ultimate consumption of fossil fuels
• Ocean acidification, fossil fuel extraction in sensitive environments leading to ecosystem disruption, and other serious environmental issues such as climate change