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The idea that anthropogenic CO2 release may affect the climate of the earth for hundreds of thousands of years has not reached general public awareness. Goodstein ²⁰⁰⁴ reports that fossil fuel CO2 will disappear after a millennium. This misconception is widespread in scientific and public discussion. It certainly makes sense to focus our attention on the century timescale within which we live out our lives, and within which most of the CO2 will be absorbed by the natural carbon cycle. According to economic theory, application of a discount rate largely eliminates our concern about an effect that is projected tens of thousands of years in the future [Grossman and Krueger, 1995]. However, the long-term
consequences of fossil fuel CO2 release have never reached the same level of public awareness and concern as does the production of long-lived nuclear wastes, for example.