The complex politics of global warming results from numerous cofactors arising from the global economy’s dependence on carbon dioxide emitting fossil fuels; and because greenhouse gases such as CO methane and N2O (mostly from agriculture) cause global warming.
Traditional environmental challenges generally involve behavior by a small group of industries which create products or services for a limited set of consumers in a manner that causes some form of damage to the environment which is clear. As an example, a gold mine might release a dangerous chemical byproduct into a waterway that kills the fish there: a clear environmental damage.By contrast, CO2 is a naturally occurring colorless odorless trace gas that is essential to the biosphere. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is produced by all animals and utilized by plants and algae to build their body structures. Plant structures buried for tens of millions of years sequester carbon to form coal, oil and gas which modern industrial societies find essential to economic vitality. Over 80% of world energy consumption is derived from CO2 emitting fossil fuels. Scientists attribute the increases of CO2 in the atmosphere to industrial emissions and scientists agree the increase in CO2 causes global warming. The dependence of many countries on fossil fuels combined with the complexity of the science and the interests of countless interested parties make climate change a non-traditional environmental challenge.
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