Energy and mass balances related to climate change and remediation

The goal of this paper is to provide a forum for a broad interdisciplinary group of scientists and engineers to see how concepts of climate change, energy, and carbon remediation strategies are related to quite basic scientific principles. A secondary goal is to show relationships between general concepts in traditional science and engineering fields and to show how they are relevant to broader environmental concepts. This paper revisits Fourier's early mathematical derivation of the average temperature of the Earth from first principles, i.e. an energy balance common to chemical and environmental engineering. The work then uses the concept of mass balance to critically discuss various carbon remediation strategies. The work is of interest to traditional scientists/engineers, but also it is potentially useful as an educational document in advanced undergraduate science or engineering classes. - Highlights: • A historical development of one-parameter climate models is reviewed and developed. • A basic explanation of the greenhouse gas effect is provided. • The relative quantity of carbon in various environmental reservoirs and fluxes is reviewed. • Various carbon remediation strategies are prioritized based on the relative carbon mass fluxes.