Climatebot
Carbon dioxide is good
Fred Hutchison Fred Hutchison
February 2, 2007
Letter to the Editor, The Columbus Dispatch
Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant or a greenhouse gas. It is a wholesome, naturally occurring, colorless
and odorless gas. In fact, if carbon dioxide suddenly disappeared, at least 99% of the species on earth,
including man, would die. Without carbon dioxide, there would be no photosynthesis of green plants,
and without photosynthesis, we would have no oxygen to breathe and no food to eat.
Chemists tell us that carbon dioxide molecules retain heat a bit longer than does the nitrogen and
oxygen molecules in the air. Chemists also tell us that if you combine gasses of different temperature,
convection currents will equalize the temperature of the gas molecules. As the air cools during the night,
the temperature of the nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules equalize. Therefore, the amount
of heat released from the atmosphere into outer space during a twenty four hour cycle would be the
same for nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide. Affect on global warming — zero.
Where does carbon dioxide gas in the air come from? 1) Oxidation of living and dead plant and animal
life, 2) Volcanoes, and 3) Forest fires. The amount of carbon dioxide coming from industry is immaterial
in comparison to these three sources.
Is the earth warming? Yes, the earth is recovering from the "Little Ice Age." We have enjoyed two
centuries of intermittent recovery from the bitter cold which the American Founding Fathers suffered
through. However, the warming earth has not yet reached the temperatures of the Medieval Warm
Period or the Roman Warm Period. Northern Europe enjoyed bumper crops during the Medieval Warm
Period, the population tripled and European civilization revived. Europe had suffering a Dark Age during
a time of cooling but civilization revived late in the subsequent warming phase. When a new cycle of
global cooling began in the fourteenth century, the mild, relatively stable weather of Europe during the
Medieval Warm Period gave way to fierce storms, flooding and famine.