Is more CO2 beneficial for Earth's ecosystems?
We should emit as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as possible and oppose efforts to regulate CO2 emissions, because more CO2 is good for the Earth. That's the take-home message of an audacious TV ad that was run this fall by the advocacy group, CO2isgreen.com. "Higher CO2 levels than we have today would help the Earth's ecosystems, and support more plant and animal life", the ad proclaims.
It's the brainchild of H. Leighton Steward, a retired oil industry executive, and Corbin J. Robertson, Jr., chief executive and leading shareholder in Natural Resource Partners, a Houston-based owner of coal resources that lets other companies mine, in return for royalties. According to an article in the Washington Post, the ad ran this fall in New Mexico and Montana, which have key Congressmen that CO2isgreen.com hopes to sway. The ads form part of a major PR campaign being waged by the fossil fuel industry and its allies in advance of the crucial U.N. Climate Change Conference, which will be held December 7 - 18 in Copenhagen, Denmark. At that meeting, the leaders of the world will gather to negotiate an agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The new agreement will be the world's road map for dealing with climate change, and the stakes are huge.
Figure 1. Screen shot of the new ad by the advocacy group CO2isgreen.com.
Let's consider the scientific accuracy of the ad's three main points:
1) "Congress is considering a law that would classify CO2 as pollution. This will cost us jobs".
Well, this is a reasonable concern. Fossil fuels represent the foundation upon which modern civilization is built. The marvelous inventions of civilized life that have brought increased health, lifespan, and prosperity to billions of people are largely due to the use of fossil fuels. Regulating CO2 and moving to non-fossil fuel based energy sources won't be cheap or easy, and there is a potential for significant economic harm if our politicians bungle the job. The fossil fuel industry employs millions of people, and some of these jobs will no doubt be lost as new "green" energy sources are developed. However, the longer-term economic benefits of moving to a less fossil fuel-intensive economy, plus the jobs created as a result, must be weighed against the shorter term economic disruption that may occur.
2) "There is no scientific evidence that CO2 is a pollutant".
Webster's dictionary defines a pollutant as "man-made waste that contaminates an environment". Webster's defines "contaminate" as "to make inferior or impure". CO2 is man-made waste, and there is scientific evidence that added CO2 can make our atmosphere "inferior" to its present state, or else the EPA would not be considering regulations. As just one example, when CO2 is dissolved in the oceans, the water grows more acidic. Corals and other creatures that build shells out of calcium carbonate cannot form their shells if the acidity passes a critical level--their shells will dissolve. Thus, for these organisms, CO2 is definitely a pollutant. Several shell-building planktonic organisms, such as coccolithophorids, pteropods, and foraminifera, form an important basis of the food chain in cold ocean waters, and the continued increase in CO2 emissions have many scientists very concerned about a collapse of the oceanic food chain in these regions in coming decades. Presumably, CO2isgreen.com is taking the very narrow view that a pollutant is something that harms human health when breathed. The more important question is, how does CO2 emitted by fossil fuel generation, plus all the effects that come with it, impact human health and the health of Earth's ecosystems?
3) "Higher CO2 levels than we have today would help the Earth's ecosystems, and support more plant and animal life".
It is true that many plants grow faster under enhanced CO2--the so-called "CO2 fertilization effect". Just ask your neighborhood commercial indoor marijuana grower, who probably grows his or her plants in an enhanced CO2 environment. The 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report found that crop yields under unstressed conditions increased by 0 - 25% for a doubling of CO2, and that growth of young tree stands also increased. However, the IPCC noted that ground level ozone pollution will limit the CO2 fertilization effect. Ozone pollution is caused by emissions from fossil fuel burning, and will increase in a warmer world since the chemical reactions that create ozone act more efficiently at higher temperatures. Furthermore, the higher temperatures, increased drought, and increased insect pests that added CO2 is likely to bring to the atmosphere via greenhouse effect warming will induce major stresses to plants that will counteract the CO2 fertilization effect. A 2009 paper by Battisti and Naylor in Science titled, "Historical Warnings of Future Food Insecurity with Unprecedented Seasonal Heat", reported that the 2003 heat wave in Europe--featuring temperatures predicted to be the norm by the end of the century--reduced harvests of fruits and grains by 21 - 36%. The 2007 IPCC report noted, "even slight warming decreases yields in seasonally and low latitude regions". Most of the world's population at risk of starvation live in such regions (e.g., sub-Saharan Africa).
To get more CO2 in the air, we have to mine, transport, and burn fossil fuels, and potentially fight wars to protect them. This creates a host of effects highly detrimental to people and ecosystems:
1) Particle pollution, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides emitted as a result of burning coal and operating motor vehicles cause over $118 billion in health and other damages per year in the U.S., according to a Congressionally-ordered National Academy of Sciences study released last month. The study said this was a "substantial underestimate", as it did not consider climate change-related costs, or pollution emissions from a wide variety of other sources.
2) Oil and natural gas drilling and oil spills have had catastrophic effects on many ecosystems over the past century, and will continue to do so. Coal mining via mountaintop removal has laid waste to vast regions of the Appalachians, obliterating over 700 miles of rivers and streams. Failures of slurry ponds dams such as the one that failed in December 2008 in Tennessee have contaminated numerous ecosystems, and killed hundreds (the Buffalo Creek, WV dam failure of 1972 killed 125, and a 1966 slurry pond dam failure in Aberfan, Wales killed 144, including 126 schoolchildren). The Physicians for Social Responsibility put out a report this week called Coal's Assault on Human Health that details many more examples of how coal is bad for ecosystems and human health.
3) Coal mining accidents killed 65 miners in the U.S. in 2006, and kill tens of thousands of miners worldwide each year (China has averaged 6,000 deaths per year this decade). Tens of thousands of miners contract black lung disease each year, as well.
The Greening of Planet Earth
Fossil fuel industry-funded Public Relations campaigns focusing on the benefits of CO2 for life on Earth are nothing new. In 2006, I blogged about a TV ad run by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) that proclaimed, "as for carbon dioxide, it isn't smog or smoke, it's what we breathe out and plants breathe in. Carbon dioxide: they call it pollution, we call it life.". In 1991, coal giant Western Fuels founded an organization called "The Greening Earth Society" which spent $250,000 to produce the video, "The Greening of Planet Earth" (available on Youtube). The 30-minute movie features scientists who describe in glowing terms the tremendous increases in plant growth that will occur due to increased CO2. Set to appropriately stirring music, the movie concludes: "The future also holds great promise. And contributing to this promise is the positive effect that carbon dioxide has upon our world. Crop plants will continue to grow more productively, contributing to ever-greater supplies of food. Forests will extend their ranges. Grasses will grow where none grow now. And great tracts of barren land we be reclaimed. In fact, it is not inconceivable that the vitality of our biosphere could rise by a full order of magnitude over the next few centuries, to a new, greening Planet Earth". According to Boston Globe investigative reporter Ross Gelbspan in his book The Heat is On, the movie was shown extensively in Washington D.C. and in the capitals of OPEC nations, and was the favorite movie of President George H.W. Bush's chief of staff, John Sununu. It's interesting to note that The Greening Earth Society shares the same mailing address and fax number as the Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC), a fossil fuel industry front group that was given $35 million to fight climate change regulation in 2008. According to the creators of desmogblog.com, a website dedicated to "Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science", that money, plus an extra $5 million, was shuffled to a new industry front group called the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), and used to help fund the "Clean Coal" TV ads that dominated the airwaves during the November 2008 election. The details are in the excellent new book, Climate Cover-up, written by desmogblog.com co-founder James Hoggan and Richard Littlemore.
Commentary
The CO2isgreen.com ad is beautifully produced, with multiple windows depicting flowing pictures of flowers blooming, animals grazing, crops growing, and the sun shining over these grand scenes of nature's bounty, all set to the soothing sound track of some slick New Age music. Who wouldn't want to live in such a world? Unfortunately, this is a fantasy world created by fossil fuel industry Public Relations people, and we live in the real world where physics and science rule. Oil is not clean, coal is worse, and the extraction, transportation, and burning of fossil fuels that accompany the enhanced-CO2 world we live in are already causing massive environmental destruction. Add in the immense environmental damage likely to occur as a result of the coming climate change storm, and the fantasy that more CO2 will be good for the world dissolves into a nightmare for a huge proportion of Earth's ecosystems--and the people who depend upon them for life.
Hacked emails purport to show climate scientists' cover-up
A hacker broke into an email server at the Climate Research Unit of the UK's University of East Anglia this week and posted ten years worth of private email exchanges between leading scientists who've published research linking humans to climate change. Realclimate.org has an interesting response to the debacle, saying the emails are a "presumably careful selection of (possibly edited?) correspondence dating back to 1996 and as recently as Nov 12)". They show one example of a "cherry-picked" distortion of one of the emails that global warming contrarians are using to try to discredit the science of climate change, and successfully refute the distortion, in my mind. The realclimate groups adds:
"More interesting is what is not contained in the emails. There is no evidence of any worldwide conspiracy, no mention of George Soros nefariously funding climate research, no grand plan to "get rid of the Medieval Warm Period", no admission that global warming is a hoax, no evidence of the falsifying of data, and no "marching orders" from our socialist/communist/vegetarian overlords. But if cherry-picked out-of-context phrases from stolen personal emails is the only response to the weight of the scientific evidence for the human influence on climate change, then there probably isn't much to it".
There's not a person alive who would not look bad if their private emails made public, taken out of context, and subjected to attack. The reputations of all the scientists involved will suffer, as will understanding of the science of climate change. Global warming contrarians have not been able to effectively dispute the reality of human-caused climate change by publishing peer-reviewed scientific articles, so they've done what any effective (and unethical) politician would do--resort to personal attacks of dubious merit on their opponents, in an attempt to muddy the waters and distract people from the facts. That's politics, and it's not too surprising to see this sort of ugly episode in a game where the stakes are so high.
None of the so-called "smoking gun" emails the contrarians are excited about change what I pointed out in in my previous post: Arctic sea ice was at a new record low this month, human-emitted greenhouse gases are largely to blame, and the polar ice cap is expected to melt by 2030, throwing the climate into a dangerous new unstable mode.
I'll have a new post on Monday.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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It's stall tactics. Now someone will have to go back and redo the research to prove lead is toxic. Stalls and appeals may buy them another 5 years. That's an awful lot of time and money to someone trying to pad their pockets before the ship goes down.
Yea, but with all those planes with hot engines at the airport and all those big buildings downtown and gas emitting cars, I bet it was -3 somewhere in Atlanta.
That would make for one heck of a tailgate party...GO GATORS
Plausible!
(Maybe a little too far off the mark, really. Not all that many planes in 1950, relative to the last 30 years. But I can see you've been paying attention.)
Hardly normal. Drought seems slack in the lower peninsula, below Lake O, right now because the stocked watersheds are footing the bill. In due time when/if those run out the the drought monitor will swing 180. North of Lake O (East Coast) feeds off the Great Floridian Aquifer which portrays the true drought situation. Thank the Army Core for the band aid.
Good. Shouldn't have been paraded about for all to see in the first place. Led to exactly what one should expect...
If you think about it, there are not many in people in the world. However, the space we take is huge.
at, Poor attempt at a little levity. Don't you know me by now. You know bad puns and all! Come on, I drop them just like you! lol
Yes, I thought maybe.
But there is some truth to what you said. Ask anyone that lives in the suburbs that has a PWS that almost always reads a little below the local airport's, regardless of direction N-S, E-W.
It isn't a calibration issue...
Just joking with you Guy, I know what Atlanta was like then. It is like the night I asked the question on here a few weeks ago.
"Why is it that the Northeast is the only place that get a Nor'easter." Two people actually tried to answer. I shall try to hold my little attempts at humor to a minimum lest people think they are real. Actually, very interesting piece of information. See I do read everything. Good show!
It would be about time for our second annual snowstorm here, in SE Louisiana...
Like I said before, there is more to you than meets the eye. By the way did you catch my little compliment to you earlier. Just want to make sure you didn't miss it.
Yes, caught that. Thanks.
*atmo is bad at handling compliments*
G'Nite, all.
Palm Beach KBDI 11/20/2006 531
Palm Beach KBDI 11/20/2009 530
Yet, with all of the water that surrounds us, Florida is still susceptible to drought. Records show 2006-2007 were the driest back-to-back calendar years Florida has experienced, based on data dating back to 1932.
This is for Surfmom
and this is my local pool
My local beach
Sunset
Rainbow
ScienceDaily (Nov. 19, 2009) — The MIRAS instrument on ESA's SMOS satellite, launched earlier this month, has been switched on and is operating normally. MIRAS will map soil moisture and ocean salinity to improve our understanding of the role these two key variables play in regulating Earth's water cycle.
Aragonite undersaturation in the Arctic Ocean: Effects of ocean acidification and sea ice melt
Michiyo Yamamoto-Kawai*, Fiona A. McLaughlin, Eddy C. Carmack (Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Institute of Ocean Sciences, 9860 West Saanich Road, Sidney, BC V8L 4B2, Canada), Shigeto Nishino (Research Institute for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 2-15 Natsushima, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 237-0061, Japan) and Koji Shimada (Research Institute for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 2-15 Natsushima, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 237-0061, and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, 4-5-7, Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8477, Japan)
Abstract
The increase in anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and attendant increase in ocean acidification and sea ice melt act together to decrease the saturation state of calcium carbonate in the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean. In 2008, surface waters were undersaturated with respect to aragonite, a relatively soluble form of calcium carbonate found in plankton and invertebrates. Undersaturation was found to be a direct consequence of the recent extensive melting of sea ice in the Canada Basin. In addition, the retreat of the ice edge well past the shelf-break has produced conditions favorable to enhanced upwelling of subsurface, aragonite-undersaturated water onto the Arctic continental shelf. Undersaturation will affect both planktonic and benthic calcifying biota and therefore the composition of the Arctic ecosystem.
I don't know, temps don't look like they will go anywhere near freezing next week down there.
and here
Check this out:
"Dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people every year. Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there. Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage.
Symptoms of DHMO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who have become dependent, DHMO withdrawal means certain death.
Dihydrogen monoxide:
is also known as hydroxl acid, and is the major component of acid rain; contributes to the "greenhouse effect"; may cause severe burns; contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape; accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals; may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes; has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.
Quantities of dihydrogen monoxide have been found in almost every stream, lake, and reservoir in America today. But the pollution is global, and the contaminant has even been found in Antarctic ice. DHMO has caused millions of dollars of property damage in the Midwest, and recently California.
Despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is often used:
as an industrial solvent and coolant.
in nuclear power plants.
in the production of styrofoam.
as a fire retardant.
in many forms of cruel animal research.
in the distribution of pesticides. Even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical.
as an additive in certain "junk-foods" and other food products.
Companies dump waste DHMO into rivers and the ocean, and nothing can be done to stop them because this practice is still legal. The impact on wildlife is extreme, and we cannot afford to ignore it any longer!
The American government has refused to ban the production, distribution, or use of this damaging chemical due to its "importance to the economic health of this nation." In fact, the navy and other military organizations are conducting experiments with DHMO, and designing multi-billion dollar devices to control and utilize it during warfare situations. Hundreds of military research facilities receive tons of it through a highly sophisticated underground distribution network. Many store large quantities for later use."
The last time I was here was just days after the disaster, flying into Gonaives, all I could see was water. This time things were different. The town was covered in towering piles of mud which the morning sun burned off into choking dust.
Just a little article a year on from the storms of '08 devastating Haiti.
Tropical Cyclone Disturbane (0600z 21NOV)
===========================================
At 15:00 PM JST, Tropical Depression (1004 hPa) located at 8.0N 129.0E has 10 minute sustained winds of 25 knot with gusts of 40 knots. The depression is reported as almost stationary
Joint Typhoon Warning Center
Tropical Disturbance Summary (0600z 21NOV)
===============================================
An area of convection (93W) located at 6.9N 128.8E or 350 NM west of Palau. Animated multispectral satellite imagery shows improved consolidation of the deep convection over an increasingly symmetric low level circulation center, as seen in the 2138z Quikscat Pass. Additionally, the 0038z TRMM Microwave image reveals multiple low level bands starting to converge into the low level circulation center. However, it appears the system still lacks good outflow and the deep convection is being sheared slightly to the west.
Maximum sustained winds near the center is 15-20 knots with a minimum sea level pressure of 1005 MB. The potential for this disturbance to form into a significant tropical cyclone within the next 24 hours is UPGRADED TO FAIR.
Japan Meteorological Agency
Tropical Cyclone Disturbane (0600z 21NOV)
===========================================
At 15:00 PM JST, A low pressure area (1004 hPa) located at 6.0N 148.0E is reported as moving west has sustained winds of near 15-20 knots.
Joint Typhoon Warning Center
System #2
---------
An area of convection (94W) located at 5.9N 146.9E or 475 NM south-southeast of Guam. Animated multispectral satellite imagery shows increasing convective consolidation over a broad low level circulation center. A 1958z Quikscat Pass depicts an elongated low level circulation center and a 2315z ASCAT Pass indicates 20 knot winds converging into a low level circulation center from the west-southwest. Addionally, the sea level pressure at Chuuk has been around 1005 MB over the last 24 hours. The system is under the subtropical ridge axis in an area of minimal vertical wind shear and has sufficient radial outflow.
Maximum sustained winds near the center is 15-20 knots with a minimum sea level pressure of 1004 MB. The potential for this disturbance to form into a significant tropical cyclone within the next 24 hours is FAIR.
Special Weather Statement
Statement as of 4:19 AM EST on November 21, 2009
... Potential for heavy rain Sunday across north and central
Georgia...
An upper low continues to intensify across south Texas this
morning... with an associated surface low along the Upper Texas
coast. The upper low will continue to strengthen and move east-
northeast through Sunday... pushing the surface low eastward along
the Gulf Coast. Rain associated with this system is expected to
begin across portions of west and central Georgia tonight and
spread north and east through the day tomorrow. Rainfall with
this system across north and central Georgia is expected to be
1 to 2 inches. However... there is the potential for locally heavy
rain... especially across central Georgia.
With the ground already saturated across north and central Georgia
from repeated heavy rainfall in recent weeks... even the projected
rainfall amounts could result in minor river flooding. If rainfall
is greater than currently expected... flooding problems could
become more of a concern and a Flood Watch may need to be issued.
Residents of north and central Georgia should stay abreast of
weather developments and the latest forecasts through the weekend
by monitoring NOAA Weather Radio or commercial radio and
television.
Statement as of 2:25 am CST on November 21, 2009
... Record daily maximum rainfall set at Galveston...
A record rainfall of 2.45 inch(es) was set at Galveston yesterday.
This breaks the old record of 2.34 set in 1899.
not really all that noteworthy except for the date the original record was set :)
I googled that name and I think everyone else should too.
He, Dr. Wieslaw Maslowski, is quoted as saying that there would be a summer Ice Free Arctic by 2013???
Quack Quack??? Sniff...sniff...bias anyone?
Hows about us all getting back to being scientific instead of biased pseudo-scientific/politico's. Scientists don't call each other denialists or bedwetters.
Years ago, if a person said the world was round, the flat landers would have likely burned them at the stake...figuratively, if not literally...much like the AGW crowd of today. Disagree with them and they respond in the most vile of ways with little, if any, consideration for their, the non-AGW folks, views.
Repeating the call...
Can we please go back to being scientists and check our political biases at the door?
NWS HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL PREDICTION CENTER CAMP SPRINGS MD
807 AM EST SAT NOV 21 2009
VALID 12Z WED NOV 25 2009 - 12Z SAT NOV 28 2009
THE PRELIMINARY FRONTS AND PRESSURES FOR DAYS 3 THROUGH 7 REFLECT
A BLEND OF THE 00Z/21 ECMWF AND THE 12Z/21 EC ENSEMBLE MEAN. THIS
NOISY SPLIT FLOW IS LEADING THE MODELS A MERRY CHASE...WITH THE
ECMWF MORE STEADILY NAVIGATING THE VICISSITUDES THAN THE OTHER
GLOBAL NUMERICAL MODELS...INCLUDING THE GFS...GEM GLOBAL...AND
UKMET. THE GFS AND GEM GLOBAL ARE SUSPICIOUSLY WELL PHASED WITH
THE PLAINS SYSTEM RIGHT AT THE GET GO DAY 3...CASTING DOUBT ON
THEIR SOLUTIONS THEREAFTER. THE IMPULSE RIPPLING ALONG THE
ATLANTIC SEABOARD AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PERIOD IS LIKELY TO BE
MORE DAMPED THAN THE GEM GLOBAL OR DETERMINISTIC ECMWF ARE
INDICATING OVER NEW ENGLAND...SO A MODEST BLEND WITH THE FLATTER
EC MEAN EVEN THEN SEEMS PRUDENT.
UPDATED PRELIMS ARE BASICALLY A BLEND OF THE 00Z ECMWF AND 00Z
ECMWF ENS MEAN WITH AN ADDITION OF 00Z UKMET AT DAY 5. THIS RESULT
HAS LITTLE DIFFERENCE AT THE SURFACE THAN EARLIER PRELIMS BUT THE
DEEPER UKMET H500 CLOSED LOW IS PREFERRED AT DAY 5 AND INTO DAY 6
WITH ITS STRONGEST OF ALL MODEL SOLUTIONS. THIS HAS BEEN THE
RECENT TREND OVER CONUS.
VAST MODEL DIFFERENCES SHOWING UP AT THE END OF THE PERIOD AS
CMC/ECMWF DIG A STRONG SHORTWAVE TROF INTO THE LOWER GREAT BASIN
RERSULTING IN A CLOSED SWRN CONUS LOW AND ERN U.S. RIDGE WHILE GFS
IS MORE EWD AND PROGRESSIVE WITH THIS SHORTWAVE AND ALSO DROPS A
POLAR VORTEX INTO THE GREAT LAKES REGION RESULTING IN A VERY LARGE
COLD VORTEX COVERING CONUS EAST OF THE ROCKIES WITH A POSITIVE PNA
AND NEG NAO PATTERN. MJO GUIDANCE FORECASTS INDICATE A PROLONGED
PERIOD OF A WEAK NON DETERMINENT MJO DURING THIS PERIOD AND
BEYOND. D+10-11 HT ANOMALIES OVR NRN CANADA DIFFER IN THESE TWO
MODELS BUT TELECONNECTIONS BASED UPON AN AGREED UPON AREA OF
POSITIVE HT ANOMALIES INDICATE A PATTERN CLOSER TO THE GFS SERIES
D+8-11 MEANS OF POSITIVE PNA/NEG NAO LEADING INTO DECEMBER. SEE
CPC LONGER TERM DISCUSSIONS/FORECASTS.
CISCO/ROSENSTEIN
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