Like everything that is alive on earth, we humans are a carbon life form!
Without an adequate store of bioavailable carbon (“carbon dioxide”, “CO2”), all carbon life forms (plants and animals) would perish.
The primary store of bioavailable carbon is the oceans.
Any man-made CO2 emissions will cause a redistribution of this non-polluting trace gas in order to restore the ratio of CO2 in the oceans (98%) to that in the atmosphere (2%), all in accordance with a known scientific principle, Henry’s Law.
Plants acquire the necessary carbon for growth by breathing in CO2 from the atmosphere.
In so doing they also produce all of the oxygen necessary for animal life.
Animals acquire carbon by eating and digesting plants or other animals. In so doing they exhale CO2 which is the life blood of plants. Carbon’s journey from the atmosphere through plants and animals is best described as the carbon cycle of life.
The store of bioavailable CO2 has been severely depleted by ongoing natural processes to form carbonate rocks such as limestone.
The current CO2 content of the atmosphere (0.04%) is only a fraction of the CO2 content of ancient atmospheres. We live in a CO2-starved atmosphere!
According to Henry’s Law and confirmed by the COVID lockdown, our carbon emissions due to the consumption of hydrocarbons are relatively immaterial in determining the CO2 content of the atmosphere.
In fact, the carbon content of the most optimistic estimate of hydrocarbon reserves (aka “fossil fuels”) is only 25% of the carbon in our store of bioavailable CO2.
Consequently, man-made emissions will increase the atmospheric CO2 content by 25%; that is, from 0.04% to 0.05% (or 4 parts per 10 thousand to 5 parts per 10 thousand) over 1,000 years at current consumption rates.
The UN-IPCC reports claim that the climate models are predicting temperature increases as much as 4.5 degrees Celsius for a doubling of the atmospheric CO2 content (worst-case scenario).
This claim is based on a belief in the mythical, heat-trapping properties of CO2, something that has never been proven.
Try to imagine how much energy that four additional gas molecules (increasing from 4 to 8 per 10,000) would have to trap to cause the temperature of the 9,992 adjacent gas molecules, with no heat-trapping capability, to rise in temperature by 4.5 degrees Celsius.
It is an absurd thought actually.
Without magic, any temperature rise could scientifically be nothing more than an inconsequential fraction of 4.5 degrees Celsius.
Even if the alarmists’ worst-case scenario were true (4.5 degree Celsius rise for an additional four molecules of CO2 for every 10,000 molecules of atmospheric gas), this translates into a 0.001125 degree rise each year that would be attributable to mankind’s consumption of hydrocarbons ………… hardly a climate emergency.
Canada produces less than 2% of the world’s carbon emissions.
The Throne Speech (September 23, 2020) sets a target of “zero emissions”, which would bankrupt the economy for a maximum temperature reduction of 0.0225 degrees Celsius.
Actually, the temperature decrease would be non-detectable.
Furthermore, Canada’s net emissions are already less than zero because of our forests.
Please tell your children that the Climate-Emergency hobgoblin is just another fairy tale.
In their mindful search for reality and their mindful quest for a meaningful life, and now having to deal with a world-wide pandemic, they have enough to worry about today.
Thorpe Watson, PhD, Warfield
Russ Babcock, BSc, Genelle
Warren Watson, MASc, Warfield