Carbon Dioxide, Villain or Savior? 

          The most maligned gas in history is totally misrepresented for one reason:  It can be taxed.   Most fuels are based on the chemistry of carbon and these fuels make a lot of carbon dioxide.  Every gallon of gasoline weighs about six pounds and makes over 18.5 pounds of carbon dioxide which will turn any “green” red, their true color.

          Are you committing a crime against nature with every gallon of gasoline you burn?  Are you stunned to learn that all the motor vehicles of America produce about 555 million tons of carbon dioxide?  But, would you feel better to learn that this amount is small compared to what Mother Nature does on her favorite planet, the only one known to have intelligent life, including at least a billion dummies.

          According to the Scientific American publication “Energy and Environment,” page 117, the atmosphere contains 700 billion tons of carbon dioxide so our contribution to world CO2 is but 0.0793% annually and carbon 14 studies show that at least half of it is absorbed by growing plants.  Thus, our contribution and what of it persists are statistically insignificant.  Carbon dioxide is as much a threat as one unarmed man could be to a crowd of 1261 like persons and to that degree only should we be concerned about carbon dioxide contributed by burning of fossil fuel.  Rotting tree stumps are far greater producers of carbon dioxide according to Scientific American.

          It is easy for scientists to differentiate between natural and man-made carbon dioxide because the natural kind contains a small percentage of carbon 14, the radioactive isotope.  That from fossil fuels contains none.  Thus, an increasing percentage of non-radioactive carbon in plant matter indicates more carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.

          Ironically, radiation paranoid “greens” should seek food grown exclusively in exhaust fumes, but don’t expect to see a “Diesel tomato” in your health food store soon.  Such foods don’t fit the “green’s” template.

          At the turn of the century corn harvests were not much more than 30 bushels per acre and now they are pushing 300 thanks to genetically improved plants, fertilizers and a 35% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

          Carbon dioxide is a limiting factor for plant life.  The plants would be far better off if it were increased by a factor of 100 and we would not notice the difference in the atmosphere other than it would be cooler.  Carbon dioxide boils at -108 F and water at 212 F thus CO2 has a much greater vapor pressure or tendency to be a gas.  Increasing carbon dioxide in air causes water vapor to precipitate and reduce IR capture cooling the gas.  The increases we see will cool the atmosphere instead of heating it.

          The effect the greens all fear is actually the opposite of what they claim. Molecule for molecule water vapor is a far better absorber of heat energy, IR radiation, than carbon dioxide by a factor of 12.3. 

          But again, what effect can man-made carbon dioxide have when our net contribution is 0.0397% an amount that is difficult to detect and with no effect. This is the mass of a mouse compared to an average man.  Is one mouse a threat of any kind to a man?

To cut our use of fossil fuels per the greens, Al Gore and the Kyoto Treaty would chop our energy supply to about half what it is today and he would do it with a very high carbon tax such as he proposed during his term in the Clinton Administration.  The greatest threat to mankind is not the internal combustion engine.  It is Al Gore.

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