CO2 benefits are never publicised

THE widespread belief in a climate crisis is a testament to the power of propaganda.

Politically-motivated green activists have succeeded in persuading the ruling class, the corporate media and many members of the general public that we have a very short time in which to save the planet from climate disaster resulting from the use of fossil fuels.

Rarely mentioned are the beneficial effects of increased atmospheric

CO2 and of the mild warming that has taken place since the end of the “little ice age” in the mid-19th Century.

CO2 is essential plant food. Higher temperatures and increased CO2 bring higher growth rates and a decrease in water loss through the leaves, meaning that plants can survive in drier conditions.

The result is the greening of the planet. This CO2 fertilisation correlates, for example, with an 11 per cent increase in foliage cover from 1982-2010 across many arid regions of the world, reducing hunger, disease and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.

Crop yields are increasing thanks to longer growing seasons, fewer frosts, more rain and the fertilising effect of increased carbon dioxide.

Climate alarmism has a long history of incorrect climate forecasts.

None of the predictions of disaster based on inadequate computer models have come true. Yet we are still being given arbitrary deadlines by which it will be too late to save the planet from catastrophe.

The Pacific islands are not sinking beneath the waves; there has been no increase in the frequency or severity of extreme weather events; polar bears are doing just fine.

Why, then, are schoolchildren being frightened by being told the planet will become uninhabitable during their lifetimes because of human greed and stupidity? The reason is that climate alarmism is not really about the climate, but is driven by globalist ideology.

The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, a consultant organisation to the UN, gives us a major clue when it states: “If we are to address the climate crisis, we need to challenge the structural causes of the crisis which lie in unequal distribution of wealth, of carbon, and of power.”

The redistribution of wealth, an idea central to the thinking of Karl Marx.

In practice, this means a levelling down of wealth and resources until everyone is poor except, of course, the global elites who will still enjoy their air conditioning, private jets and prime beef steaks while the rest of us eat mealworms.

This process is already underway, as shown in our rising energy bills.

Mark Allaby, Ashbourne