PINDER: The dangerous myth of carbon dioxide

The persistent notion that carbon dioxide is a dangerous “pollutant” is dividing the Western world and our country. This inaccuracy highlights the need for all of us to be better informed and sort through “progressive narratives”, influential but not supported by facts.

For example, in the past few months, as part of two discussion groups of informed business leaders interested in the world and its issues, none of the 30 people knew the level of CO2 in the atmosphere. 

Before you read further, do you know the answer?

It is astonishing, given its condemnation, that this colourless and odorless gas comprises only 0.04% of the atmosphere. From a Frontier Centre for Public Policy paper in 2013 entitled CARBON DIOXIDE, the ‘GAS OF LIFE’: “tiny amounts of this miracle molecule make life on Earth possible … the equivalent of $0.40 out of $1,000, or 1.4 inches on a football field.” In my words, 4 hundredths of 1%. Whatever the metric, CO2 is a very scarce gas.

There are many variables that influence both short-term weather and long-term climate. This is an area of great scientific challenge, especially regarding the wide array of variables which often interact, and the incredible variations in the climate, from blanketing the hemisphere with ice to lush verdancy in the Arctic. While historical data can be problematic, there are facts that science has endorsed. 

A geologist of a highly respected energy company explained to me that planet Earth, formed about 4.5 billion years ago, was blessed with water and carbon dioxide. The latter, as any high school student has learned, is absorbed by plants in a process called photosynthesis. This also creates oxygen, a byproduct, and the third essential element for animal and human life. 

The Sun is responsible for virtually all of the Earth's energy, directly or indirectly. There are many other contributing variables that create great complexity. More than 70% of Earth is covered by oceans, which store carbon dioxide, at different times absorbing or releasing it. Clouds can both reflect sunshine, reducing solar radiation, but also hold in warmth. Dynamics which influence in opposite directions — complexity indeed.

Long-term cycles feature lengthy periods of glaciation, with warming interludes. The ongoing Quaternary Ice Age began 2.7 million years ago and periodically features warmer interglacial interludes of 10,000 to 15,000 years. The current warming period, the Holocene, is now 11,700 years old. The Little Ice Age wreaked cold for more than 250 years, only a few centuries ago. We can only hope that the Sun does not deliver us the devastating cold of another “quiet phase.”

While much is still unknown, scientists have also observed the Milankovitch Cycles, which, says Wikipedia, “are long-term, natural variations in the Earth’s orbit and axial tilt that affect the amount of solar energy reaching the planet surface, influencing climate and driving Ice Age cycles.” The three main components are changes in the Earth's orbital shape (it is neither circular nor consistent), axial tilt, and wobble of the Earth’s axis. Over thousands of years, cycles alter the intensity and distribution of sunlight, leading to cyclical periods of glaciation and warming.

Given that the Earth is the only planet with a warm atmosphere conducive to life, we should be highly grateful for carbon dioxide, a powerful radiant which has an impact on water vapour, the largest component of the atmosphere and the major determinant of its temperature. 

Various models illustrate the levels of carbon dioxide over time. An experienced geology professor at USask, also a friend who periodically edits my columns, provided several graphic examples of models of CO2 levels, reaching 8,000 ppm 600 million years ago — TWENTY TIMES current levels of 420 ppm!  

From Wikipedia, which supports the anthropogenic narrative, levels in the Cambrian period (about 500 million years ago) of 4,000 ppm — TEN TIMES today. This exposes the absurd and repeated fearmongering that today’s levels of CO2 are “burning up the planet” and the world is “on fire.”  What science supports that political assertion, and how did the Earth survive 10 or 20 times current levels of CO2?

Current levels are the highest in 14 million years, but historically low, and only increasing recently at 2 ppm per year. Rather than attributing imaginary dangers, the moderate increases have mitigated the risk that, at 150 ppm, life on Earth ENDS. Recent increases may be responsible for avoiding a real catastrophe. Some pollutant!

Back to the Frontier paper which also points out the “extra 120 ppm” (from the low) has made a big difference “for plants, animals, and humans that depend on them.” Emulated by greenhouses which pump in high levels of CO2, “modern agricultural methods steadily and dramatically improved crop yields per acre between 1930 and today.”

With population growth and ever more focus on improved nutrition, we can only hope that levels of carbon dioxide, human-induced or otherwise, continue to INCREASE. The purveyors of catastrophe, especially their focus on fossil fuels critical to human progress, should be embarrassed and apologize to fellow citizens for their deception in gaining broad acceptance that CO2 is a “pollutant.” 

The Frontier paper is also a meaningful reminder that we need to be better informed and aware of manipulative institutions and people who advance their own agendas. Maybe the federal government, the United Nations, and Mark Carney (who has leadership roles in both) could explain how the Earth (which survived CO2 levels of 4,000 ppm, or maybe even 8,000 ppm) is at risk at our current level of 420 ppm. 

Are they scientific experts, or peddlers of a fanciful narrative to gain more control and direct our lives by attacking fossil fuel production? Do they not know, or just ignore, the fact that burning fossil fuels is responsible for 80% of emissions, production only 10%? The solution to this imaginary problem is in Ontario, Quebec, and the Lower Mainland, where people live and burn fossil fuels.

The successful selling of a false problem allows governments to limit freedom and direct our lives. Fanciful, you say? Consider mandating electric vehicles, banning pipelines and tankers (but not on the East Coast or in the St. Lawrence River), emission caps, plastic straws, and so much more top-down authority. 

Essential to plant, animal, and human life, and for the warmth of our atmosphere, the purported “pollutant” CO2 is a gift to mankind. How this misleading, dangerous, and divisive narrative has been orchestrated by the United Nations is the topic of a future column.