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Urban Air Pollutants Can Damage IQs before Baby's First Breath

scientificamerican.com

11–14 of 14 posts

Re: Urban Air Pollutants Can Damage IQs before Baby's First Breath

#11
post #2

Why do they call them fossil fuels? They are hydrocarbons. If I burn plant derived ethanol the same hazards exist. The term "fossil fuel" should be made obsolete.

They are called "fossil fuels" to distinguish whether their combustion increases the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere (on timescales less than tens of thousands of years). That's a pretty important distinction to keep track of...

Re: Urban Air Pollutants Can Damage IQs before Baby's First Breath

#12
post #11
post #2

Why do they call them fossil fuels? They are hydrocarbons. If I burn plant derived ethanol the same hazards exist. The term "fossil fuel" should be made obsolete.

They are called "fossil fuels" to distinguish whether their combustion increases the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere (on timescales less than tens of thousands of years). That's a pretty important distinction to keep track of...

Except that this article is about pollution, not CO2.

And if you are talking about CO2 there are better ways.

Re: Urban Air Pollutants Can Damage IQs before Baby's First Breath

#13
post #12
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are called "fossil fuels" to distinguish whether their combustion increases the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere (on timescales less than tens of thousands of years). That's a pretty important distinction to keep track of...

Except that this article is about pollution, not CO2. And if you are talking about CO2 there are better ways.

[deleted]

Re: Urban Air Pollutants Can Damage IQs before Baby's First Breath

#14
post #2

Why do they call them fossil fuels? They are hydrocarbons. If I burn plant derived ethanol the same hazards exist. The term "fossil fuel" should be made obsolete.

We use fossil to mean old regarding water too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_water

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