Carbon Dioxide is not Pollution

The Carbon Sense Coalition has accused those waging a war on carbon dioxide of being “anti-green”.

The Chairman of Carbon Sense, Mr Viv Forbes, said that carbon dioxide is the gas of life, feeding every green plant, producing food for every animal and in the process releasing oxygen, another gas of life, into the atmosphere.

A recent report on measuring global vegetation growth notes that data from remote sensing devices show significant increase in annual vegetation growth during the last three decades. They also report that CO2 fertilization is more important than climate variation in determining the magnitude of the vegetation growth. “The CO2 fertilization effect of the carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere by mankind’s burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, gas and oil, is beginning to assume its vaulted position of being a tremendous boon to the biosphere...”



Current levels of carbon dioxide are well below optimal levels for plants, so all true environmentalists should welcome any increase - all life would benefit if the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere was triple current levels. The biosphere always flourishes during the recurring but short warm eras on Earth. Ice ages are the times of extinctions. As oceans warm, carbon dioxide is expelled and water evaporates. Warmth, and more moisture and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere provide ideal growing conditions for the green world.

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is replenished mainly from warming oceans but also from termites, volcanoes and exhaling animals, assisted by about a 3% contribution from burning carbon fuels.  No rational person could define carbon dioxide as “pollution”. It is a harmless, non-toxic, colourless natural gas that is the essential food for all plants which then produce food and oxygen for all animals. Almost everything in coal was derived from plant material so burning it is no more dangerous than burning wood. Both will suffocate you if burnt in a confined space, but when dispersed in the vast atmosphere their emissions are beneficial plant fertilisers.

Naturally we should minimize real pollution of land, atmosphere and oceans. Everything that man does could be seen to create some “pollution”. But very little pollution comes from modern coal-burning power stations. Modern power stations have extensive filtration equipment which ensures that the exhaust gases are harmless natural gases already present in the atmosphere nitrogen, water vapour and carbon dioxide all essential to sustaining life on Earth.

The smogs of Asia are not caused by burning washed coal in modern power stations. They are caused by burning everything else, usually in dirty open fires. They burn cow dung, wood, cardboard, plastic, paper, recycled oil, tyres, dirty coal, kerosene, anything available that will cook food, provide warmth/light or deter mosquitoes. Forest fires in Indonesia, cremations in India and dust from the massive Gobi desert all add to Asian air pollution. As do old worn-out boilers, furnaces, engines and obsolete power stations which can spew unfiltered exhaust gases, ash, soot and unburnt fuel into the air.

These are what cause real air pollution. carbon dioxide does not.

Fifty years ago, the suffocating smogs of London and Pittsburgh were solved by:

* bans on open fires and dirty furnaces, plus
* clean coal-fired electricity, and
* clean-burning piped coal gas.

The same solution will banish most Asian smogs today.

Correlation, Causation or a Carbon Tax Con-Job?

If two things vary in parallel, that is a positive correlation. But it does not prove that one causes the other. For example, wet roads always occur when it rains. But wet roads do not cause rain. Three things are required to prove that rain always causes wet roads.

Firstly, no exceptions, roads must get wet every time it rains. They do.
Secondly, the cause must always come before the effect. Rain always comes before wet roads (apart from snow, floods, burst water-mains etc).
Thirdly, we need a credible explanation of the mechanism. We have it - rain is composed of falling drops of water, and the water wets the road.

The three conditions are satisfied - therefore rain does cause wet roads. The theory becomes a law.

Now, let’s look at the theory that carbon dioxide (CO2) controls global temperature.

Firstly, there is no consistent correlation - CO2 has risen consistently for the last century but global temperatures rise and fall, and the trend has been flat for over a decade. This absence of consistent correlation proves that CO2 is not the prime controller of global temperature.
Secondly, ice core data shows that temperature turning points occur long before reversals in atmospheric CO2 content. This evidence suggests that global temperature may control the CO2 carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, rather than the reverse. And there is a proven mechanism to explain that - warming oceans expel CO2 and cooling oceans absorb it.
Thirdly, although the mechanism of carbon dioxide warming exists, it is progressively less effective as CO2 levels rise.

It is clear that CO2 fails all tests as the controller of global temperatures. Other factors such as solar cycles, clouds and oceans have much bigger impact. Thus the carbon dioxide theory of global warming is a carbon tax con-job.

The Last Word

The Big Dollars are against us.
 In the last issue of Carbon Sense, we advised that our cartoonist had not been paid, and we appealed for funds. Admittedly it was in small print, but two weeks passed without a dollar. Then we received one subscription for $500. We paid a miserly $250 to our cartoonist and $374 to our internet mail server, leaving a deficit of at least $124 for the month. In the same period the sacked Climate Commissioner, Tim Flannery, set up a new Climate Council to carry on his climate scare campaign and raised $1,000,000. Then we hear that green councils are finding ways to soak ratepayers to support the discredited Climate Commissioner.  Soon we will find that all sorts of State and Local government bodies, Universities and other Qangos will be paying subscriptions to fund Flannery’s never-ending climate alarmism, thus frustrating the desire of the government and the voters that this waste of tax funds must stop.

Naturally national climate conferences will also be organised so that the Government Climate Industry can continue to have annual parties at our expense. We have a big job ahead. And the big dollars are against us.

See the full PDF newsletter with many hyperlinks to support the arguments here.