Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
ARTHUR B. ROBINSON, NOAH E. ROBINSON, AND WILLIE SOON
Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, 2251 Dick George Road, Cave Junction, Oregon 97523 [artr@oism.org]
ABSTRACT A review of the research literature concerning the environmental consequences of increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to the conclusion that increases during the 20th and early 21st centuries have produced no deleterious effects upon Earth’s weather and climate. Increased carbon dioxide has, however, markedly increased plant growth. Predictions of harmful climatic effects due to future increases in hydrocarbon use and minor greenhouse gases like CO2 do not conform to current experimental knowledge. The environmental effects of rapid expansion of the nuclear and hydrocarbon energy industries are discussed.
Here is an animated video produced by FirstEnergy available from Mining Connection (http://www.miningconnection.com/). It shows how we make electricity from coal. It also shows that the cooling towers so loved by TV to illustrate power plant pollution in fact emit only warm air and moisture – not even the demonised but harmless carbon dioxide. The invisible carbon dioxide exits via the less photogenic chimneys. So what TV usually shows to illustrate “carbon pollution” is no more polluting than what comes out of the spout of your kettle. So much for truth on TV.
Here is a time lapse video showing the effect of increased carbon dioxide on plant growth.
The current level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is about 386 ppm. In this experiment, one plant-growing chamber had 450 ppm carbon dioxide, the level at which we are told will cause the world to tip into runaway global warming. The other chamber had carbon dioxide at 1270 ppm, a level most nurseries would prefer to have, and the level at which much life on earth evolved it.
See for yourself the dramatic increase in plant growth we could expect from a carbon-rich atmosphere. The well fed plant weighed 44% more than the starved one, with greater height, more leaves and far more roots. This plant not only grew faster and better, its better root system would make it more drought and heat tolerant.
Yet Penny Wong and the alarmists want us to believe carbon dioxide is a pollutant, and more of it would be a disaster!
Why are CSIRO and our many Departments of Agriculture so silent on this fundamental issue?
Are they all cowed, or are their well paid jobs more important than revealing the truth?
“The Sierra Club is bolstering its long-standing campaign to block the construction of power plants across the country, assembling a team of 100 full-time employees to focus on the issue in 45 states.”
“This is where the environmental movement will make the most progress in the next five years,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune.
The story of how a combination of green missionaries and vested interests have distorted and crippled the Australian electricity industry.
Evans and Quirk conclude:
“By 2020 annual electricity consumption in eastern Australia is estimated from NEMMCO data to be 347 Twh. If renewables are to provide 20 per cent, and no new hydro is to be permitted, electricity production from wind farms (or other renewable sources) must provide 53 TWh. Ignoring for the moment the insuperable problem of unpredictability, and assuming a Load Factor of 25 per cent, this will require a total of 27,000 MW of windmill capacity. Every bit of coastline, every mountain ridge, and much else that can be secured for windmills will have to be pressed into service to meet this target.
“The capital cost of wind power is considered to be $2000 per kW, and so an extra 26,000 MW will cost $52 billion. And back-up will be required. So in addition to new coal plant required to provide an additional 60 TWh, back-up generation of at least 23,400 MW will be required. All of this will have to be paid for by the electricity consumer. These numbers could not appear in any Commonwealth budget; no government could justify that sort of expenditure.
“On top of all this we have system stability problems created by widely dispersed power sources, spread over tens of thousands of square kilometres; whose output can vary dramatically as the wind gusts and dies down; that are connected to the main grid by long, weak transmission lines—a system operator’s nightmare. Such a transmission network, weak and unreliable as it will be, will cost at least $30 billion.”
“Well, the thing is we’re dealing with an incomplete understanding of the
way the earth’s system works…”
“When we come to the last few years, where we haven’t seen a continuation
of that warming trend, we don’t understand all of the factors that
create earth’s climate, so there are some things we don’t understand,
that’s what the scientists were emailing each other about, you know, we
just don’t understand the way the whole system works, and we’re trying
to find out.”
“These people work with models, computer modelling, when the computer
modelling and the real world data disagrees you’ve got a very
interesting problem, that’s when science really gets engaged. What Kevin
Trenberth, one of the most respected climate scientists in the world, is
saying is, ‘Guys, we have to get on our horses and find out what we
don’t know about the system, we have to actually understand why the
cooling is occurring, because the current modelling doesn’t reflect it.'”
“…sure for the last few years we have gone through a slight cooling
trend…”
More than 1,000 dissenting scientists (updates previous 700 scientist report) from around the globe have now challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. This new 2010 321-page Climate Depot Special Report — updated from the 2007 groundbreaking U.S. Senate Report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus” — features the skeptical voices of over 1,000 international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC. This updated 2010 report includes a dramatic increase of over 300 additional (and growing) scientists and climate researchers since the last update in March 2009. This report’s release coincides with the 2010 UN global warming summit in being held in Cancun.
Predicting the weather — especially a decade or more in advance — is unbelievably challenging. What’s the track record of those most worried about global warming? Decades ago, what did prominent scientists think the environment would be like in 2010? FoxNews.com has compiled eight of the most egregiously mistaken predictions, and asked the predictors to reflect on what really happened.
Read Eight Botched Environmental Forecasts at FoxNews:
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has told German businessmen that they may have to rely on Russian firewood for heating if they do not want to construct new nuclear power plants or bring in Russian gas supplies. At a business conference organized in Berlin by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Putin recognised that “the German public does not like the nuclear power industry for some reason.” He continued: “But I cannot understand what fuel you will take for heating. You do not want gas, you do not develop the nuclear power industry, so you will heat with firewood?” Putin then noted, “You will have to go to Siberia to buy the firewood there,” as Europeans “do not even have firewood.”
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
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