Some interesting (and inconvenient) CO2 facts from well known geologist Ian Plimer:
- Five of the six major ice ages occurred when the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) content was up to 1,000
times higher than at present.
- One big volcanic eruption can add as much CO2 to the atmosphere in a day as humans do in a year.
- Once fossil fuel is burned, the released CO2 does not remain permanently in the atmosphere, but over a few years is sequestered into the oceans, living organisms and sediments.
- If all of the world’s fossils fuels were burned, atmospheric CO2 would not even rise to twice the current level.
- At present, the Earth’s atmosphere is starved of CO2, and should atmospheric CO2 drop from the current 385 parts per million (ppm) to less than 200 ppm, plant life will cease.
- On all time scales, then, there is no correlation between temperature and CO2. If there is no correlation, then there can be no causation.
The article with even more facts is
here.
Kramer