The Truth about CO2

Many are enlightened by my graphs disproving the fictional Hockey Stick. They are amazed when I cite peer-reviewed studies that prove Polar Bears aren’t drowning and that arctic sea ice and glaciers are actually increasing in size. They laugh in disbelief when I flash photos of official surface stations next to air conditioners and barbecue grills. And then there’s the icing on the cake: I bust out IPCC’s failed computer model plots that show world temperatures going up. The room goes quiet. “But notice,” I say to my audience, “how the actual temperatures over the last decade are going down!” I then crumple up a copy of of the IPCC’s 2001 Report and pitch it into the trash in dramatic triumph while shouting, “The Man-Made Global Warming Hypothesis is pure HOGWASH!”

Applause, applause, applause. Some shake their heads in disbelief. Many more, though, smile and say, “I thought so!”

Its a great feeling for me. Another seemingly successful presentation. Another positive attempt to correct the mis-information spread by the AGW alarmists.

Still, there is always at least one person in every group who raises a hand and asks that haunting question, “But shouldn’t we want to save the planet?”

“Hey,” I think to myself, “Weren’t you listening to me?” Maybe, this person wasn’t paying attention while I was showing off all of my pretty-coloured charts and graphs. Or maybe, I, as a scientist, am only seeing this issue through proxies, homogenized data and hand-picked correlations. Maybe, to the average, non-science person, Global Warming is a much simpler issue. Maybe the AGW boils down to a moral responsibility. As one middle school student told me last week, “If we are hurting the planet, then we should do something about it!”

As I have learned through conversation, other colleagues hear the same statement. This is an issue all of us in the scientific community need to address everytime we speak about Man-Made Global Warming. So lets, start now! I will begin the journey here:

Listen up, Folks: Reducing man-made CO2 emissions will NOT save the planet! The Man-Made Global Warming Theory that the UNIPCC hangs its hat on, states that increasing amounts of man-made carbon dioxide will trap more of the sun’s heat in the atmosphere. This will then increase the water vapor content of the atmosphere. According to the IPCC, the two greenhouse gases will combine their super powers to increase earth’s surface temperatures to dangerous levels.

But, my friends, carbon dioxide is NOT a pollutant. It is a naturally occurring trace gas essential to life on earth. Simply reducing CO2 levels does nothing to reduce real pollution. It does nothing to clean up our streams and rivers from dangerous mercury contamination. It does nothing to prevent sewage from polluting our drinking supplies. It doesn’t fix holes in the ozone layer, nor does it stop landfill chemicals from leaching into ground water. Even if CO2 levels plummeted in the next 20 years, we’d still have pollution problems.

My “Facebook” buddies are much more esteemed scientists than I. I asked them for their responses to such a question. Here’s what Geologist Don Easterbrook, of Western Washington University told me in a recent e-mail:

“CO2 is not a pollutant and reducing emission of it does nothing to abate the real pollutants (sulphur, particulates, metals, etc).” He adds emphatically, “We can’t afford to waste trillions of dollars needlessly chasing the CO2 fantasy.”

In 2001, Don predicted the start of a cooling cycle in or around the year 2007 (spot on, I must say!). “We are just starting several decades of global cooling, which directly kills twice as many people as warming and many times more indirectly, ” he adds. “If we needlessly blow trillions of dollars trying to reduce CO2, we will have significantly reduced our ability to deal with global cooling and all it’s attendant problems (crop failures, reduced food supply, increased energy costs, increased transportation costs and interruptions, etc), all during three decades when global population will increase by 50%!”

Professor Geoff Duffy, a Chemical Engineering expert from The University of Auckland in New Zealand adds this, “Caring for the environment is one very important issue, (but) it has little to do with climate change.” Excellent point, Dr. Duffy!

“Carbon dioxide is but a trace, and mankind’s CO2 footprint is a trace- of-a-trace.” He continues, ”CO2 is not a pollutant; it is a valuable feedstock for all plant and vegetable life on which we depend; and the bi-product is oxygen! The atmosphere and the sea buffer all changes. History alone shows that mankind can do virtually little to change climate: but we can keep our local environment clean!”

Atmospheric Scientist Tim Minnich holds a masters degree in meteorology and taught courses at Rutgers University and University of Michigan. He is passionate about the issue. “To accuse one of being unconcerned about the environment simply because they reject the AGW “pseudo-science” is not only illogical – it’s patently absurd.” He goes on, “It’s like suggesting the person who rejects capital punishment advocates murder!”

Tim specializes in issues like acid rain and ozone, “I firmly believe that each of us has a moral responsibility to be a vigilant steward of our planet and environment for future generations, and that the reckless spending of energy and resources on a scientifically unsubstantiated fad like AGW is deplorable.” Tim, I couldn’t agree more!

Professor Robert Carter runs the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia.

“A cleaner environment can be accomplished through technology, not command and control regulations. Saddling our economy with UN mandates and new layers of federal bureaucracy will only make us poorer and not solve the alleged climate crisis.”

by: Mark Johnson, Meteorologist AMS CBM/NWA

You can read more from Mark Johnson at his blog Power Of 5 Weather Blog