We are constantly bombarded with information – much of it inaccurate, misleading, even deliberately so.
We are frequently told we must reduce carbon emissions, support “carbon disclosure” and invest in “carbon trusts” – to prevent catastrophic global warming, global climate change or global climate “disruption.” News stories, advocacy and lobbying activities, and corporate “ethics” promotions frequently use “carbon” and “carbon dioxide” almost interchangeably; some occasionally talk about “dangerous carbon monoxide emissions.”
Torn by misplaced hydrocarbon guilt, wanting to do right ecologically, and often scientifically challenged, people are naturally confused. Because so much is at stake – for our energy supplies and prices, jobs, economies, living standards, budget deficits and environment – clearing up that confusion is a high priority. (more…)
Cuddly carbon keeps koalas & all animals, including us, alive.
CO2 is essential for life. More CO2 will do much good and no harm. If it is allowed to increase at the current rate it will feed the world’s coming peak population with NO more land, seed, cultivation or water.
By John Robertson 2010
Mount Tamborine, Queensland, Australia
John Robertson was born in Scotland. He was an Open Scholar at Cambridge and has a Masters degree in Engineering. He has spent his life in farming, as a fighter pilot and is now an Australian citizen living at Mount Tamborine. He and his wife are active in many community volunteer organisations.
He says “The note on CO2 is an extension of volunteering and my response to the ridiculous attacks on carbon dioxide by those who should know better. Pollutant indeed!
“This is all my own work (except where otherwise acknowledged in the text) with my own funds. I have no connection whatsoever with fossil fuel or other outside interests.” JR
Pollute: To make foul or unclean (Macquarie Dictionary).
Carbon dioxide is a trace gas in the atmosphere without which all plants would suffocate. It is odorless and invisible, and plant life flourishes around coal-fired power stations which use scrubbers to remove particulate matter and other nasties from the chimneys to allow sunlight and carbon dioxide to work the miracle of photosynthesis. By no stretch of the imagination can it be deemed a pollutant.
CO2 in the atmosphere is at historically low levels. It is driven by ocean temperatures – warm water expels CO2; cold water takes up CO2.
“The fundamental reason why carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is critically important to biology is that there is so little of it. A field of corn growing in full sunlight in the middle of the day uses up all of the carbon dioxide within a metre of the ground in about five minutes.”
POLLUTER is surely a title of shame Obnoxious, like those who misuse it Labeling something quite clean with this name Looks a devious way to accuse it Unless this is challenged, man’s friend CO2 The scapegoat for other agendas Economically speaking will hurt me and you Rewarding the lying pretenders.Jock McPoet
April 2011
John McRobert BE (Civ)
Managing Director
CopyRight Publishing Co P/L
William Street, Brisbane
Qld Australia www.copyright.net.au
There is nothing unusual about current climate and today’s warming is not significantly different from past warming eras.
Earth and its oceans have be coping with prodigious quantities of carbon dioxide from volcanoes since the world began. Oceans are not threatened by carbon dioxide – they are very efficient at removing excess carbon dioxide into massive deposits of limestone and other carbonate rocks.
Earth has about 1,000 active volcanoes above the sea and far more beneath the sea. Most measuring stations for carbon dioxide on land are sited near volcanoes, which makes calculations of figures on average atmospheric content suspect. It is likely to be lower than reported.
Even earthquakes release large quantities of carbon dioxide, and all of this carbon dioxide is identical to the small amount generated by puny humans burning coal, oil and gas.
Because these volcanic and earthquake releases of CO2 are not monitored and are identical to carbon dioxide formed by burning of hydrocarbons, there is thus no basis for estimating the proportion of CO2 attributable to humans. It is likely to be far lower than the computer models have assumed.
For a summary of these matters by Professor Plimer see his presentation to the European Institute for Climate and Energy, December, 2010:
Dr David Evans’ address to the Anti-Carbon-Tax rally, Perth Australia, 23 March 2011.
Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen.
The debate about global warming has reached ridiculous proportions and is full of micro thin half-truths and misunderstandings. I am a scientist who was on the carbon gravy train, understands the evidence, was once an alarmist, but am now a skeptic. Watching this issue unfold has been amusing but, lately, worrying. This issue is tearing society apart, making fools and liars out of our politicians.
Let’s set a few things straight.
The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s. But the gravy train was too big, with too many jobs, industries, trading profits, political careers, and the possibility of world government and total control riding on the outcome. So rather than admit they were wrong, the governments, and their tame climate scientists, now cheat and lie outrageously to maintain the fiction that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant.
Let’s be perfectly clear. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, and other things being equal, the more carbon dioxide in the air, the warmer the planet. Every bit of carbon dioxide that we emit warms the planet. But the issue is not whether carbon dioxide warms the planet, but how much.
Most scientists, on both sides, also agree on how much a given increase in the level of carbon dioxide raises the planet’s temperature, if just the extra carbon dioxide is considered. These calculations come from laboratory experiments; the basic physics have been well known for a century. (more…)
Children are having nightmares about their carbon footprint. What a pretty pass modern man has brought himself to! Frightening children with scary stories about hell fire is the way our ancestors drilled society into conformity. It might have been hoped that the age of science would bring all that to an end, but now we have entered the post-scientific age, in which a new class of high priest returns to the traditional methods of enforcement.
In order to establish the essential fear-provoking scenario they have nominated in the role of original sin one particular element, one atom out of the whole gamut.
It is a choice that is bizarre to the rational mind, yet one that conforms to the long established principles of the founding of authoritarian religions. Why is it bizarre? If you are of a mind to seek out magic and miracles, look no further than the sixth member of the periodic table of elements. Carbon is the source of all of our food, the founding fire of civilisation, provides much of our energy and is the key element in the cycle of life.
If it is in your nature to give thanks for anything, spare a thought for the much maligned atom that is your primal ancestor and the provider of everything that you are, that you have and that keeps you alive.
What do you know about carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?
Every day we hear about the dangers of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But most people spreading the scares do not know or do not tell how significant this gas is in the atmosphere.
Here is a 6 question quiz. Take the quiz and see how well you compare to sampling carried out by Gregg Thompson.
Those who do not know the answers to these questions should not be voicing opinions on the role of carbon dioxide in affecting earth’s temperature.
I keep hearing about the “pollutant CO2,” or about “poisoning the atmosphere” with CO2, or about minimizing our “carbon footprint.” This brings to mind another Orwellian pronouncement that is worth pondering: “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
CO2 is not a pollutant and it is not a poison and we should not corrupt the English language by depriving “pollutant” and “poison” of their original meaning.
Our exhaled breath contains about 4% CO2. That is 40,000 parts per million, or about 100 times the current atmospheric concentration. CO2 is absolutely essential for life on earth. Commercial greenhouse operators often use CO2 as a fertilizer to improve the health and growth rate of their plants. Plants, and our own primate ancestors evolved when the levels of atmospheric CO2 were about 1000 ppm, a level that we will probably not reach by burning fossil fuels, and far above our current level of about 380 ppm. We try to keep CO2 levels in our US Navy submarines no higher than 8,000 parts per million, about 20 times current atmospheric levels. Few adverse effects are observed at even higher levels.
By William Happer, Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, Princeton University
An extract from his submission to U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
The role of methane in the atmosphere has been emphasized by the IPCC to the point that many governments regard methane as almost as important as carbon dioxide amongst the greenhouse gases. The result is that emissions from natural gas pipelines, coal seams and agricultural livestock have been included in schemes to limit the growth of greenhouse gas concentrations. Analysis of changes to atmospheric methane within the last one hundred years suggests that the annual increases from 1930 to 1990 were due to losses from the production, transmission and distribution of natural gas that have now been reduced. Measurements over the last fifteen years show only natural variability. The data provide no justification for any attempts to reduce methane from industrial or agricultural activity.
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