carbon dioxide level
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYB7LGDysCfZsEERFdsbHVQtkAM3wUdc8u8Z8FkkuxxNB/image.png)
is dangerously low
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The United States is needlessly penalizing itself and squandering its resource endowment, all because of the big lie that carbon dioxide is causing dangerous global warming. The Chinese, in contrast, merely pay lip service to that big lie. The only reason they are making a token effort on the “global warming” front is to encourage Western countries to continue hobbling their own economies. One can be forgiven for thinking that there must be some truth in the global warming notion given how much noise its advocates have made. But as with most causes promoted by leftist ideologues, the truth is exactly the opposite to their claim. The fact of the matter is the carbon dioxide level of the atmosphere remains dangerously low at four hundred parts per million. In fact the more carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere, the better for all forms of life on planet Earth
With atmospheric CO2 concentrations reaching the 400 ppm level, the media and a number of alarmist scientists have set off the mega-alarm bells, claiming “record high levels” of CO2 had been reached, and that the planet is on the verge of an overdose. This is based purely on ignorance of the Earth’s history.
Worrying that 400 ppm is too high is like worrying about your fuel tank overflowing when it reaches the 1/8 mark during filling.
From a historical perspective, an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 400 ppm is actually almost scraping the bottom of the barrel. Over the Earth’s history, atmospheric CO2 concentrations have ranged from 180 ppm to 7000 ppm, see Figure 1 below. On that scale we are in fact today barely above the Earth’s record lows.
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYWCjU2rhVXABR7nAJ6YxLGrgxjX1aeLsgNmR828M9kNJ/image.png)
I just have not been able to get away from the subject of global warming. Every time I turn around, I seem to learn yet more reasons why the popular picture of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is not to be believed. Now I have run across data indicating our current levels of atmospheric CO2 are actually dangerously low for life on Earth.
In fact, if you were to plot average global temperatures and atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the past 550 millennia, derivable from glacier ice cores and marine sediments, you would get the plot shown at the top of this post. From this plot you can see that approximately 540 million years ago, carbon dioxide in the air peaked at almost 7,000 parts per million! Given current hysteria over the paltry 400 ppm we presently have, these kinds of enormous CO2 concentrations must have caused tremendous atmospheric heating and been extremely detrimental to life at the time — Right?
Yet average temperatures at the time were only about 22°C (71.6°F), approximately 8°C above our current global average of around 14°C (57.2°F). Rather than being detrimental to life, this peak in atmospheric CO2 coincided with the greatest eruption of life the Earth has ever experienced: the Cambrian Explosion during the Cambrian period of the Paleozoic Era. During this time, almost all of the modern plant and animal phyla we know today arose. We could only hope for and dream of such a “detrimental” environment!
One very important lesson to take away from this graph, is that carbon dioxide concentrations have generally declined from the Cambrian to the present age. They reached almost modern levels in the Carboniferous and Permian periods of the Paleozoic (~375 million to 270 million years ago), only to rise slightly during the Triassic and Jurassic periods of the Mesozoic Era (~250 million to 175 million years ago). Since then, CO2 concentrations have followed almost a straight line downwards. Our current increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide are only a very short-term, unobservable blip on this very long-term record. What has caused the long-term decline in atmospheric CO2 should be fairly obvious. The cause is the sequestration of carbon dioxide by plant life into the fossil fuels of coal, oil, and natural gas, taking the carbon dioxide completely out of the atmospheric and biological systems of Earth. The rise of atmospheric CO2 in the Triassic and Jurassic periods is a mystery to me on which I will not hazard a guess.
From this past record we can conclude we have absolutely nothing to fear from increasing CO2 levels and much for which to hope with an increasing abundance of plant life. Yet, one tale you almost certainly have not heard is that we do have a great deal to fear if atmospheric carbon dioxide is allowed to decrease. Biologists have shown plant life begins to suffer greatly once CO2 levels fall below 500 ppm, the situation we suffer today. Consider the effects of increasing CO2 as shown in the plots below, taken from Ehleringer et al. (2005).
Just need to stop listening to the scare mongers.
Not to belabor the entire Political System here, I'll just take the short out and say that you seem to be playing the Rightist card: "If something is Democratic, it is wrong."
This is not true. Just because a Democrat says it, doesn't mean it's wrong. Conversely, just because a Republican says it, doesn't mean it's wrong either.
True knowledge is almost always somewhere in the middle, whether based on security or fear-mongering or protection or something else, the Truth is rarely so obscured or so blatant.
In regards to Global Warming specifically, as is detailed in this article, I find it hard to believe that we're not going through some sort of Global Warming event. Otherwise it wouldn't feel so hot compared to previous years. But, then again, I'm neither Politician nor Scientist and do not have all the data... besides, Statistics can always be maneuvered to suit personal needs.
Right is right and the Left is wrong.
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yeah...you understand.
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your logical fallacy is personal incredulity
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Complex subjects like biological evolution through natural selection require some amount of understanding before one is able to make an informed judgement about the subject at hand; this fallacy is usually used in place of that understanding.
Nope. I was making a statement on the personal hostility causing extremist reaction. Nothing more.
My comment on not having all the data was a fact that I don't have all the data.
I was neither saying you were right nor wrong, but how the wording and context seem to be anti-Democratic based and judgmental.
seem to be anti-Democratic based and judgmental.
Exactly right.
I'm at war (metaphorically) with the Dhmikrats.
You're damn right I'm judgmental
turn about is fair play.
Fair enough. I can definitely appreciate the honest perspective. The more I read and listen, the less Democratic I tend to be... I'm more Capitalist in nature anymore.
So would you say that Trump is doing a good job in office so far? and what brings you to that conclusion?
lookit the stock market.
lookit STEEM
lookit just about anything he has DONE...
ignore the babble of the entitlement class...or the elite.
Previous changes in CO2 concentration were more lower than current, so different species were more able to adapt. Furthermore, human constructions makes migration to colder areas more difficult for animals and plants.
In the past when CO2 concentration was higher the sun activity was lower.
https://www.skepticalscience.com/co2-higher-in-past.htm