Carbon dioxide levels aren’t the big offender

I feel very strongly about protecting the environment. I always have. I agree the Earth has warmed. Just look at how the glaciers have shrunk over the past 60 years. Some basic info is required to have a starting point, however. Nitrogen is 78.08% of the Earth’s atmosphere, oxygen is 20.95%, argon is .93%. The remainder — .04% — is carbon dioxide, neon, helium, krypton. Carbon dioxide is the major portion of the .04%.

In 1959, carbon dioxide was 315.98 parts per 1 million parts of the atmosphere, or .00031598, or .031598%. In 1979, carbon dioxide was 336.84 ppm. In 1999, it was 368.54 and 411.66 ppm in 2019, according to https://www.statista.com/statistics/1091926/atmospheric-concentrationof-co2-historic. The graph shows a steady increase in carbon dioxide. However, since we are dealing in parts per million, the increase is 95.68 parts per million in 60 years, or .00009568 if expressed as a ratio.

If a person were to put 411.66 liters of black paint in a tub of 1 million liters of white paint (less than one one-thousandth of 1 percent), I would be willing to bet an electronic spectrometer would be unable to see the difference. However, we are really only talking about 95.68 parts, not the full 411.66. To put it into something we might relate to, think of it this way: You would have 4.12 tablespoons (approx. ¼ cup) of black paint in 39 gallons (about 10,000 tablespoons) of white paint. If you are only concerned with the increase, you would have approximately 1 tablespoon (.9568) of black in the 39 gallons of white paint.

I ran across this experiment on the web by the Royal Society (https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.192075). It points out carbon dioxide does retain heat. However, the experiment was based upon using 100% carbon dioxide in the balloons, not .04% (0.0004) or .05% (0,0005) or even .10% (0.0010). Even with massive amounts of carbon dioxide, the change was not overwhelming. Look at the charts.

What the governments never want you to know is carbon dioxide is a trace element in the atmosphere, and I mean trace element!

A more plausible explanation of the Earth’s warming would be desertification. Desertification is reported to be one of the top contributors to a warming planet. Have you ever heard of this? The more we strip our lands of grass and vegetation, the warmer things get. Pavement and concrete are the worst. Permaculture is the answer to desertification. Let’s talk about re-forestation with a bio-diverse array of trees and other perennials on degraded lands. It would also provide business opportunities and food security for our families and communities, all while restoring soil, air, water and wildlife. There is a map showing the desertification of the globe at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertification#/media/File:Desertification_map.png

Please don’t fall for the carbon dioxide hoax. Remember, Goebbel, head of the Nazi propaganda machine, is often attributed with saying “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.” Like Sarah Palin saying “I can see Russia from here,” which she never said.

MIKE CLIFFORD

Bentonville