{"id":266404,"date":"2023-07-09T17:38:53","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T15:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=266404"},"modified":"2023-07-09T17:38:55","modified_gmt":"2023-07-09T15:38:55","slug":"how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-carbon-dioxide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=266404","title":{"rendered":"How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Carbon Dioxide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CO2<\/sub>\u00a0Coalition<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Ron Barmby<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political tunnel vision on global warming has resulted in declaring increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide an existential threat. But the United Nations\u2019 resolve to reduce carbon dioxide levels runs counter to its goals to end world hunger, promote world peace and protect global ecosystems. It fails to address the key question relating to those three goals: Which pathway creates the greatest good to the greatest multitude\u2014reducing or increasing CO2<\/sub>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers since the year 2000 provide convincing evidence that increasing carbon dioxide has positive impacts and reducing carbon emissions entails dire consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World Hunger<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pre-industrial (circa 1850) atmospheric CO2<\/sub>\u00a0concentration of 280 ppm (parts per million) compares to today\u2019s 420 ppm, a 50% increase. Meanwhile, the global population has risen 560%, from 1.2 billion to 8 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those extra 6.8 billion people are mostly being fed, and it\u2019s not all because of human agricultural productivity, pest control and plant genetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Observations of Earth\u2019s vegetative cover since the year 2000 by NASA\u2019s Terra satellite show a 10% increase in vegetation in the first 20 years of the century. Clearly, something other than agriculture is helping to improve overall plant growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a\u00a0recent study<\/a>\u00a0supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Dr. Charles Taylor and Dr. Wolfram Schlenker quantified how much of that extra greening resulted in food for human consumption since 2000. Using satellite imagery of U.S. cropland, they estimated that a 1 ppm increase in CO2<\/sub>\u00a0led to an increase of 0.4%, 0.6% and 1% in yield for corn, soybeans and wheat, respectively. They also extrapolated back to 1940 and suggested that the 500% increased yield of corn and 200% increased yield of soybeans and winter wheat are largely attributable to the 100 ppm increase in CO2<\/sub>\u00a0since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CO2<\/sub>\u00a0fertilization is not only greening the Earth, it\u2019s feeding the very fertile human race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World Peace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though adding CO2<\/sub>\u00a0to the atmosphere does not promote world peace, attempts to stop CO2<\/sub>\u00a0emissions in the western democracies have increased the CO2<\/sub>\u00a0emissions, wealth and influence of totalitarian Russia and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eurostat,\u00a0<\/em>the statistical office of the European Union (EU), reports that the EU\u2019s reliance on imported natural gas increased from 15.5% of its energy needs in 2000 to 22.5% by 2020. Russia was the main supplier of Europe\u2019s natural gas. Holding Europe\u2019s energy security in its pipelines not only helped finance Russia\u2019s 2021 invasion of Ukraine, but it also limited the economic sanctions Europe could impose in retaliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the scientific online publication\u00a0Our World in Data,\u00a0<\/em>between 2000 and 2020 the G7 nations lost 13.8% of the world share of GDP and China picked up 12%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The West (the EU plus the UK, U.S., Canada and Japan) transferred GDP growth to China and energy security to Russia and was able to reduce CO2<\/sub>\u00a0emissions from 45% of the global total in 2000 to 25% in 2020. In the same period China\u2019s CO2<\/sub>\u00a0emissions grew from 14% of the total to 31%, leading to an increase of 39% in total CO2<\/sub>\u00a0global emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unintended consequence of the West\u2019s attempts to reduce CO2<\/sub>\u00a0emissions has been to shore up Chinese and Russian dictatorships\u2014and in Russia\u2019s case, to partly fund the invasion of a sovereign and democratic neighbor, Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World Ecology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the human footprint on Earth is where the products we consume originate: We either grow them on the planet\u2019s surface or extract them from within its crust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\u00a0testimony<\/a>\u00a0to the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce\u00a0in 2021, Mark Mills, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, estimated that replacing each unit of hydrocarbon energy by \u201cclean tech\u201d energy would on average result in the extraction of five to 10 times more materials from the Earth than does hydrocarbon production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mills also pointed out that Chinese firms dominate the production and processing of many critical rare earth elements and that nearly all the growth in mining is expected to be abroad, increasingly in fragile, biodiverse wilderness areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decarbonization will impose the heavy environmental cost of an unprecedented increase in mining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Last Number<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since El Nino induced a modern peak global average temperature in 1998, global warming has been essentially zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers don\u2019t lie. Allowing more CO2<\/sub>\u00a0emissions is better for ending world hunger, promoting world peace, and protecting global ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This commentary was first published at\u00a0Real Clear Energy<\/a>, July 6, 2023, and\u00a0can be accessed\u00a0here<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ron Barmby<\/em><\/a>, a Professional Engineer with a master\u2019s degree in geosciences, had a 40-year career in the energy industry that covered 40 countries and five continents. He is author of \u201c<\/em>Sunlight on Climate Change: A Heretic\u2019s Guide to Global Climate Hysteria<\/em><\/a>\u201d and is a proud member of the\u00a0<\/em>CO2<\/sub>\u00a0Coalition<\/em><\/a>, Arlington, Virginia.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The numbers since the year 2000 provide convincing evidence that increasing carbon dioxide has positive impacts and reducing carbon emissions entails dire consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":266412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818076,691820949,691818154],"class_list":{"0":"post-266404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-co2","9":"tag-co2-fertilization","10":"tag-net-zero","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-254.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-17iQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":338503,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=338503","url_meta":{"origin":266404,"position":0},"title":"Repeal of Washington State\u2019s Climate Commitment Act won\u2019t hurt the climate","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/08\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cThe Climate Commitment Act will have a negligible effect on the climate, but if not repealed, it will continue to significantly raise fuel, food, and utility prices in Washington State.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO2)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO2)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0Washington-Mount-Rainier.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0Washington-Mount-Rainier.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0Washington-Mount-Rainier.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0Washington-Mount-Rainier.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0Washington-Mount-Rainier.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":338193,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=338193","url_meta":{"origin":266404,"position":1},"title":"No Gov. 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