CO2 Pollution – More Thoughts

8/18/13: 

From 10/12/13: “We try to keep CO2 levels in our U.S. Navy submarines no higher than 8,000 parts per million, about 20 time current atmospheric levels. Few adverse effects are observed at even higher levels.”

On WUWT

6/7/13:

• On CO2 and lung damage: Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the lungs can heal lungs and prevent complications due to these conditions
• CO2 is crucial for vasodilation and the Bohr effect.

5/31/13: Elevated carbon dioxide making arid regions greener

Update 5/7/13:

• Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations At 400 PPM Are Still Dangerously Low For Life On Earth
• In defense of CO2
• Carbon Dioxide In Greenhouses – a fact sheet for co2 supplementation in greenhouses, with recommended levels and appropriate warnings.
• And, just for fun, this.

Update 2/25/13: Principia beats up on the CO2 argument. It makes sense. If we run the CO2 argument through the IPCC statement, ” …we should recognise that we are dealing with a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore that the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible…” then the results of added CO2 are also not predictble.

Update: More on CO2 as plant (and human) food.

Saw something in my stats. Someone found this site under the term co2 pollution (#10 in Google for that term) so I figure, what the heck, I’ll toss in some more thoughts on CO2.

Also see my other post on the subject: DOOM From CO2 Pollution

Briefly, CO2 is not, in any way, shape, or form, a pollutant in the generally understood meaning of the term. It’s a primary leg of the entire eco-system. CO2, water, sunlight. Personally, I think any “greens” who believe that CO2 is a pollutant should have their I’m a green card removed.

So why would anyone call CO2 a pollutant?

Agenda. Power and money. Any Government that controls CO2 controls most of our energy production, transportation, and any other industry that relies on those two things. And that’s pretty much all of them. Pretty sweet deal if you’re  a big gov type, socialist, communist, dictator… wait… that’s almost every government on the planet. Hmm… Makes one think that the greens might have something other than “saving the ecosystem” on their minds, doesn’t it?

Carbon trading might become a trillion dollar business. Not a bad game since nothing real is being traded and Gov gets to collect taxes from the deal. That’s why all the banks are in on the game. And many of the Oil companies.

Back to CO2…

1. IF CO2 is driving global warming and
2. IF people are responsible for enough CO2 to have a global effect and
3. IF warming is a bad thing then

CO2 might be a bad thing.

However… #1 looks to be wrong, #2 is iffy by itself and dead if #1 is wrong, and #3 has been shown to be wrong given the historical & geological record.

So given that the CO2 is a supporting leg of the entire ecosystem of this planet the only possible conclusion is that CO2 is a very good thing and more of it would also be a good thing. The ecosystem will thank us.

Someone told me that thousands of peer-reviewed papers stated that CO2 is a pollutant, in the standard use of that word. I don’t believe that. I don’t think there’s one PR paper that shows that, though there might behundreds that that link CO2 to warming.

More on CO2 benefits.

CO2 science has a ton of great info and a number of these links are from that site.

Double CO2 increases crops 33% – So if over population is an issue (increasing tech decreases population growth) then increasing food supplies might be seen as a good idea by some.

Update:

CO2 is a Pollutant? Objectivist Individualist: “…So, if CO2 is a pollutant because it is a greenhouse gas, then so is water. We should next expect to see the EPA drawing up restrictions on the human use of water which may add to the water vapor concentration in the atmosphere…”

Update:

CO2 depletion
“Plant photosynthetic activity can reduce the CO2 within the plant canopy to between 200 and 250 ppm… I observed a 50 ppm drop in within a tomato plant canopy just a few minutes after direct sunlight at dawn entered a green house (Harper et al 1979) … photosynthesis can be halted when CO2 concentration approaches 200 ppm… (Morgan 2003) Carbon dioxide is heavier than air and does not easily mix into the greenhouse atmosphere by diffusion… “

CO2 and Wheat
“The CO2 concentration at 2 m above the crop was found to be fairly constant during the daylight hours on single days or from day-to-day throughout the growing season ranging from about 310 to 320 p.p.m. Nocturnal values were more variable and were between 10 and 200 p.p.m. higher than the daytime values. “

Surprise: Earths’ Biosphere is Booming, Satellite Data Suggests CO2 the Cause

Planet Earth is on a roll! GPP is way up. NPP is way up. To the surprise of those who have been bearish on the planet, the data shows global production has been steadily climbing to record levels, ones not seen since these measurements began.

GPP is Gross Primary Production, a measure of the daily output of the global biosphere –the amount of new plant matter on land. NPP is Net Primary Production, an annual tally of the globe’s production. Biomass is booming. The planet is the greenest it’s been in decades, perhaps in centuries.

Isolated for 42 days in chambers of ambient and elevated CO2 concentrations, we periodically document the growth of cowpea plants (Vigna unguiculata) via time-lapse photography. From CO2 Science: