This article examines the anthropogenic contribution to the planet’s climate system due to thermal pollution. Despite the quantitative predominance of solar and geothermal energy in the Earth’s heat balance, anthropogenic heat impacts the planet’s most sensitive shell – the biosphere. Thermal pollution in various countries has been assessed based on specific (per unit area) energy consumption, as all energy consumed by humanity is ultimately converted into heat and released into the biosphere. Specific carbon dioxide emissions also serve as an indirect indicator (marker) of thermal pollution, as fossil fuels remain the primary energy source. Calculated correlation coefficients between thermal pollution indicators (specific energy consumption and CO2 emissions) and climate warming in various regions have revealed a low positive correlation between these indicators (0.17–0.13, respectively), which indicates thermal pollution’s contribution to global warming to be still insignificant. Thus, the current contribution of anthropogenic heat to the climate system is primarily regional, which is undoubtedly important to consider in environmental policy to prevent the negative impact of this factor on the functioning of natural ecosystems. This is especially important in the context of global warming, primarily caused by natural factors.

The problem of global climate warming and attempts to solve it, including using low-carbon power engineering, are analyzed. The success of solving this problem depends on the degree of understanding of the processes which cause it. As more and more data speak about natural causes of climate fluctuations, and of anthropogenic factors the greatest contribution to the warming is made by thermal pollution rather than the anthropogenic growth of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, low-carbon power, with all its positive qualities, is unable to solve the problem of climate warming.

Based on V.I. Vernadsky’s teaching of the biosphere and modern scientific data, an attempt was made to analyze the mechanisms of the dynamics of modern global processes using the example of climate changes. Possible causes of the warming, both natural and anthropogenic, observed in the last century are considered. It is shown that it is the increase in temperature that causes the increase in the concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere, and not vice versa, as follows from the greenhouse effect hypothesis. This seems to be the main cause for the low effectiveness of any international efforts to stabilize the climate. The course of natural processes, as well as the evolution of the biosphere as a whole, has an unstable, cyclical nature, running according to its own laws. Particular attention is paid to V.I. Vernadsky’s doctrine of the biosphere, his views on the role of reason and scientific research in solving problems inevitably arisen in the course of evolution on Earth, caused by the rapidly developing, from a historical standpoint, humanity. Scientific research is a reliable defender of both the interests of mankind and the biosphere as a whole. This was V.I. Vernadsky’s basis of his positive outlook on the future of our civilization and the biosphere.

The public perception of global natural processes in the climate change context plays an important role in modern political decision-making; and the country’s future depends on the younger generation. This survey was aimed at revealing public attitude to changes in global natural processes among the participants and organizers of the Thirteenth All-Russia Competition of children’s environmental projects “Man on Earth”. An online questionnaire “Biospheric processes, their understanding and consideration in your own research and environmental activities” was offered for completion in February–March 2023. We received 1173 voluntarily completed questionnaires from the respondents aged 6 to 60 and older. More than 70 % of respondents consider human activity to be the cause of global climate changes, with the majority of respondents having a negative attitude to climate warming. However, be there a possibility of climate management, the majority of respondents would like climate warning at a local level. With age, the number of those wishing for climate stabilization (return to the climatic norm) increases. Approximately 50 % of the respondents consider that global natural processes directly affect the status of the environment. At the same time, only 10 % attribute the unfavorable state of the environment to global factors. People aged over 60 are most concerned about global environmental problems.

A new multi-level model for calculating the carbon footprint of agroecosystem products is proposed. The concept of “final carbon footprint” is introduced, which includes both direct CO₂ emissions from the operation of tractors, combines, oxidation of soil humus, CO₂-eq. during the transformation of nitrogen fertilizers in the soil, and indirect CO₂ emissions – carbon dioxide release into the atmosphere during the production of tractors, combines, tillage equipment, mineral fertilizers etc.
Based on the results of field experiments on gray forest soils in the Southern Moscow region, it is shown that when applying average doses of mineral fertilizers to field crops, the indirect CO₂ emissions are comparable to the CO₂ input from organic fuel oxidation when machinery is operating in the field. At higher doses of fertilizers, the indirect emissions are significantly greater than the CO₂ emissions from machinery operation. In order of increasing CO₂ emissions per 1 ha of sowing, crops on gray forest soils are arranged as follows: corn for silage > barley > winter wheat > clover.
Clover is a carbon-negative crop (−1.7 t/ha CO₂), i.e., CO₂ sequestration in the soil exceeds all CO₂ emissions from hay crop production. The final carbon footprint for grain crops, calculated using the standard method, was as follows: for winter wheat (with a fertilizer dose of N40P40K40) – 116 kg CO₂ per 1 centner of grain, for barley (with a dose of N60P40K40) – 104 kg CO₂ per 1 centner of grain. The final carbon footprint, taking into account the aftereffects of predecessors, was: for winter wheat (predecessor: two-year clover) – 48 kg CO₂ per 1 centner of grain; for barley (predecessor: silage corn) – 113 kg CO₂ per 1 centner of grain.

Based on our previously performed calculations of irradiation with high spatial and temporal resolutions, using data from high-precision astronomical ephemerides, changes in the intensity of summer irradiation in the polar and equatorial 5-degree latitude zones of the Northern Hemisphere were analyzed. Over the period of 1900–2050 AD, a decrease in the intensity of summer irradiation in the polar region and its increase in the equatorial region were observed. The consequences of this phenomenon are an increase in the meridional gradient of insolation and an increase in the intensity of the meridional transfer of radiative heat associated with the rise of land surface air temperature and ocean surface temperature in the Arctic.

The faster temperature increase in the Arctic compared to other regions can be explained by the fact that energy (heat) is transferred from a larger area (heat source) to a smaller one (heat sink). In the summer half-year, the source area of radiative heat is 4.5 times greater than the sink area. As a result, the relative values of thermal energy (temperature) increase.

It is shown that based on the relationships between the patterns of the natural environment in the Arctic and the characteristics of its irradiation, it is possible to predict climate changes and the natural environment state in the Arctic on the basis of the characteristics of irradiation calculated for future time periods.

The groundlessness of the Paris Agreement (2015) is proven, which asserts the culpability of carbon energy in the sharp increase of the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. The carbon energy’s share of this gas in the atmosphere is shown not to exceed 1 %. The influence of the Earth's albedo and the energy used by mankind on the increase in atmospheric temperature is compared. The thermal “pollution” of the atmosphere from carbon energy is shown to be much less than that from hydrogen, solar or wind energy. The absence of a deserving alternative to carbon energy is proven. Processes affecting the state of the atmosphere and its corresponding climate are analyzed on the basis of general laws of the evolution of nonequilibrium thermodynamic systems. The causes of the alternation of glacial and interglacial periods with different time durations in the history of the Earth are explained. The transitions between these periods are shown to proceed through chaotically changing states and demonstrate hysteresis. It is noted that the currently observed chaotic climate change corresponds to chaotic transitions of any nonequilibrium thermodynamic system from one quasi-stationary state to another.