The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Lot of hot air about world levels of CO2
Sir, – Nick Cole (June 20) rightly states that burning fossil fuels for energy releases much carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Then he declares that global overpopulation threatens the planet and us all.
Eco-activists have regarded increases of CO2 as the main cause of adverse, accelerating climate changes but what is the evidence for its “guilt”?
CO2 gets the blame because of mistakes in computer programmes designed deliberately or by accident to implicate it as the villain.
These programmes do not take proper account of the very major influence of the sun or of the tiny proportion of CO2 in the air, 0.04%, and with very weak effects as a greenhouse gas (GHG). GHGs, by acting like a blanket around the planet, warm up the atmosphere and the land.
Water vapour is the main GHG, at more than 95% of the total. It is solar-controlled, and so dependent on the sun’s activity. That is at present waning, bringing cooler temperatures. These will soon be falling during many decades to come – a “Grand Solar Minimum”.
We cannot influence water vapour or the sun, and only now can solar activity be accurately assessed.
It was grossly underestimated in designing the climate-predictive computer programmes.
CO2, at well under 1% of the GHGs, is virtually “innocent” of causing significant climate changes. Therefore, decarbonisation – intended to give net-zero CO2 output – cannot usefully influence the Earth’s temperature.
However, CO2 is essential for the growth of all plant life. Without that, we die.
Thus CO2, not a pollutant but a life-force, as exemplified by the deliberate raising of its concentration in greenhouses to promote crop growth, is a vital friend to humanity.
Overpopulation there may be, but people need both food and energy for their existence.
Despite all these truths, the UK authorities are planning expenditures of at least £3 trillion to try to “cut carbon”. That means to reduce the CO2 output.
Rethinking of that wholly wrong policy is vital for our finances and for the Earth’s people.
Dr Charles Wardrop. Viewlands Road West, Perth.