CO₂ Entropy Illusion Theory — Civilization as a Heat Engine

This essay proposes a new hypothesis: that the rise in global temperatures is not solely due to CO₂ acting as a greenhouse gas, but rather reflects the cumulative release of entropy by human civilization. CO₂ serves as a proxy indicator of irreversible energy usage, and thus entropy emission. The imbalance between entropy from CO₂ and from radiative cooling suggests that humanity’s expansion itself generates a structural illusion of temperature rise. If true, it implies that even zero-emission policies would only delay — not prevent — planetary warming. Ultimately, halting global warming would require halting civilization itself.