CO2 levels do not drive temperature trends

June 23, 2009 by Walter Schneider.

The Blogosphere-section at http://icecap.us has an excellent commentary that illustrates that CO2 levels, in the long and short run, do not drive global temperature trends.  Instead, what the cited climatological research shows is that increases and decreases in atmospheric CO2 levels are a consequence of temperature changes.

When the global temperature increases, the CO2 level increases, and when the global temperature falls, then, without fail, the CO2 level will fall as well.

As Icecap explains in relation to the article, “CO2 Levels Highest in Two Million Years?” (Jun 23, 2009), “There is other evidence that CO2 is actually lower than most of historic times.” Icecap provides information indicating that “Today’s CO2 concentration is less than 400 ppm”, approximately 20 times lower than what it was 550 million years ago and lower than for most of the interval since about 1810 during which actual measurements of atmospheric CO2 concentrations were taken and recorded, and much lower than it was during most of the past six-hundred million years.

What neither the commentary by Icecap nor the article it refers to mention is that the current CO2 levels of around 380 parts per million in the atmosphere are not all that much higher than the level of 200 ppm where plant growth shuts down.

Human CO2 production is not a problem.  It has at worst an insignificant impact on global temperature trends.

In relation to carbon capture and burial (a.k.a. carbon capture and sequestration), carbon-cap-and-trade schemes and other schemes and efforts to “control” man-made global warming, Sir Christopher Monckton of Brenchley (the former science advisor of Margaret Thatcher) was absolutely correct when he stated to American legislators that,

If you wish to raise excessive revenue, be honest about it. Say that you intend to tax and tax and tax again. But desist from claiming that you are raising the revenue with the aim of preventing “climate crisis”. (Full Story)

All of that does not toe the party line, of course, which is why — even though it should be front-page news — it is with extremely few exceptions not covered in the politically-correct main-stream media.

Nevertheless, the Alberta Government alone, even though it is suffering from a serious revenue shortfall and had to cut back on many social programs, not the least of which are the large cutbacks on health-care provisioning, reserved $2 billion in its budget for carbon capture and sequestration.

After all, the politics in search of rationalizations for increasing taxation are more important than the welfare of Alberta residents.

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