The Canadian federal government has now declared a national “climate emergency”, which may end the world in 12 years. With somber faces, they tell us that a carbon tax will save the planet from a CO2-induced, climate catastrophe.
Are you prepared to give the government more money, allegedly to prevent a climate catastrophe? Before accepting such a preposterous assertion, skeptical Canadians may wish to examine the facts that relate to the vilification of carbon dioxide (“CO2”) and its hydrocarbon sources; coal, oil, and natural gas.
If a trace gas can cause worldwide, catastrophic warming, then why are we not harnessing this phenomenal source of renewable, solar energy? The following indisputable facts will allow anyone, with a minimum of some common sense, to determine the authenticity of the government-declared, climate emergency and the validity of CO2’s alleged heat-trapping capacity.
Fact 1 – CO2 is a colourless, odourless, trace gas that is as important as water and oxygen in sustaining life on the planet as part of the carbon cycle.
Fact 2 – The planet’s store of bioavailable CO2 has been severely depleted by the ongoing sedimentation process to form carbonate rocks such as limestone on the ocean floor.
Fact 3 – The residual store of CO2 is found primarily in the oceans (98 per cent). It represents less than 0.1 per cent of the original store and currently provides us with a CO2-starved atmosphere (0.04 per cent).
Fact 4 – The consumption of all known reserves of hydrocarbon fuels will produce a quantity of CO2 sufficient to increase our meager store by 25 per cent; that is, the augmented store will still be less than 0.1 per cent of the original store and the atmosphere will remain CO2 starved (0.05 per cent).
A grasp of the foregoing facts reaffirms the verdict that our CO2 emissions are innocent of the charge of being responsible for a climate emergency. The dinosaurs, with five times as much CO2, certainly did not experience a climate emergency.
In other words, it is impossible to generate too much CO2. Life on Earth will cease to exist when the Green Period ends; that is, when sedimentation reduces our CO2 level below 0.015 per cent or, earlier, if some fool develops a process to extract significant quantities of CO2 from our bioavailable store. This would then be a true environmental emergency!
How do we explain the incredible traction of what appears to be climate-change groupthink? Many of the explanations are found in books describing the frailties of the human mind.
However, one specific explanation suggests that we are victims of an Orwellian thought-control strategy. This strategy is suppressing the truth about CO2 and climate change. Consequently, climate fearmongering is encouraging us to accept higher taxes and bigger government.
Will the Canadian electorate be able to follow the Australian electorate this October and reject the climate-change hysteria? Unfortunately, it appears we are being denied such a choice.
Thorpe Watson, PhD
Warfield