Posted by
reasonmclucus on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 3:33:01 PM
Contrary to a popular myth Al Gore and his followers are among the
biggest enemies of the environment. Contrary to their lies carbon
dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant. CO2 is essential to biological
life.
The CO2 cycle is the basis of carbon based biological life. Plants are
carbon structures and CO2 provides the carbon they need. Carbon
is the
second
most common element in the human body. Humans and other animals
get their energy from the complex carbon compounds plants
produce. For example, each molecule of table sugar contains
12 carbon atoms.
Plants are the original solar energy collectors.
Plants store solar energy as the chemical bonds of carbon
molecules. The ability of plants to grow depends upon the available
sunlight and the amount of CO2 in the air.
The global warming crowd claims that the atmosphere has too much CO2,
but fast growing young plants benefit from higher concentrations
. Some
greenhouses
use twice the concentration of CO2 to encourage faster, sturdier
growth, in young plants.
Plants use CO2 to produce food for animals which return part of the CO2
to the atmosphere for plants to reuse. Unfortunately, humans
don't return all plant carbon to the environment. Humans
use plant carbon for building materials, clothing and long
lasting paper products such as books. Humans also put carbon
containing food materials along with other carbon materials into
landfills where it is unavailable for plants.
If it weren't for the combustion of carbon containing fossil fuels we
might already be facing a shortage of atmospheric CO2 that could
significantly reduce food production.
Production of biofuels depends upon ample supplies of CO2. The
most productive biofuel plants would benefit from higher
concentrations of CO2 because more carbon would be available for
conversion to fuel.
CO2 provides the best way to return carbon to the environment for
plants to reuse. Animals exhale CO2 as their bodies use carbon
molecules for energy. The wind moves it from where it is
produced to where plants are growing.
The CO2 molecule is one of the simplest carbon molecules and is easy
for plants to take apart for construction of complex molecules.
The cell is a microscopic factory. Its genes are programmed to
process CO2 into other molecules. Taking carbon from the air is
more efficient for plants because the carbon is available where it is
needed.
Contrary to the lies of Gore and others, increasing the
amount of CO2 in the atmosphere will not increase temperatures.
Niels
Bohr disproved the claim that the atmosphere was heated by
absorbing infrared radiation (IR) with research that indicated the
process of absorbing specific wavelengths of light changed the energy
state of the electrons in gas molecules instead of increasing their
temperature. Physicist
R. W. Wood
demonstrated in a 1909 experiment that trapping IR did not heat
greenhouses as many in the 19th Century had believed and thus the
process could not heat the atmosphere either.
It would be easier to make a case that increasing the amount of CO2 in
the atmosphere would reduce temperatures. Plants use CO2 to store
solar energy in the form of chemical fonds of carbon molecules rather
than converting it into heat. Plant covered areas do not
become as hot as nearby areas that lack plant cover. Bare
ground converts solar radiation to heat.
Increasing the availability of CO2 means that plants can store more
solar energy than is possible with current levels of CO2.
Storing more solar energy would reduce the amount of solar energy
converted to heat.