Let’s have no more of this carbon pollution nonsense

There is an excellent editorial, aka Publishers Letter, by Leo Simpson in this month’s Silicon Chip Magazine about the mistaken assumptions and CULT like behaviors of the masses and those promoting irresponsible fear mongering with the scary moniker Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW).

Maybe in a year or so, the seemingly universal panic about global warming will abate somewhat. Maybe the “science on global warming” will not seem so “settled”. Sure, there will always be a proportion of hard-core fanatics who think we are headed for disaster and will always call for ever more drastic action to reduce “carbon pollution”, the prime suspect for global warming. Well, I sincerely hope that these sentiments will eventually come to be regarded as fanatic belief rather than sensible concern based on real science.

Wow, some actual sane statements by a man of science. Each paragraph in this editorial packs a potent punch.

For a start, let’s consider this highly emotive term “carbon pollution” which is constantly being bandied about. It only takes a moment’s thought to realise that there is no “carbon pollution” problem. It did exist 50 years ago, when we had steam trains and diesels with smoky exhausts and coal-burning power stations which had less than complete combustion. It used to be called soot. But it is not a problem now, in most countries. Now I know that some people use “carbon” as shorthand for carbon dioxide but it is sloppy thinking and generates worry in the unthinking masses that we are spewing all this carbon into the air. We’re not.

As we eliminated the “soot” we’ll eliminate the false science regarding Climate Change using the best tools in our arsenal of thought, the scientific method. See this ground breaking Climate Change Report for details of why the AGW assumptions are wrong.

The point is that both water vapour and carbon dioxide are normal components of the air that we breathe. They are not pollution. They are both necessary for life to exist on the planet. If there was no carbon dioxide, plants would not grow (more high-school chemistry – it’s called photosynthesis). Without plants, no animals, including us, can live. It’s a simple as that. If there is more carbon dioxide in the air, plants grow more profusely. In fact, it is common practice to increase the carbon dioxide in greenhouses and aquariums to make the plants grow more vigorously.

Water and C02 are our friends.

It is time that we called a halt on all this fear-mongering about global warming and greenhouse gases. The fact is that no matter how many so-called experts forecast that the polar icecaps will melt completely (they might) [as of the beginning of summer 2009 the arctic water temp is still below the freezing point of water and likely to see a very large recovery in ice area] and sea levels will rise, we just don’t know if this will happen or how rapidly it might happen. Nor do we really know if global warming is wholly or partially caused by human activity.

By all means let us stop wasting fossil fuels, particularly oil. We need to conserve oil for the future. And by all means let us accelerate moves to use more solar power, nuclear power, geothermal power or whatever. But let us not be panicked into enormously expensive moves to reduce carbon dioxide when we don’t really know if it’s a problem or not.

Wow that hits the hammer on the nail!