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
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Tropical Cyclone Advisory #1
TROPICAL DEPRESSION "28"
15:00 PM JST November 22 2009
===========================================
At 6:00 AM UTC, Tropical Depression (1002 hPa) located at 7.1N 147.9E has 10 minute sustained winds of 30 knot with gusts of 45 knots. The depression is reported as almost stationary
RSMC Dvorak Intensity:
Forecast and Intensity
=====================
24 HRS: 7.7N 148.0E - 35 kts (CAT 1/Tropical Storm)
TROPICAL CYCLONE OUTLOOK
Forecast for area south of 10S between 90E-125E
2:00 PM WST November 22 2009
=====================================
A tropical low [1008hPa] lies near 08S 100E but is not expected to develop further.
A low is expected to form near the west Kimberley coast late on Monday or on Tuesday but is not expected to develop into a tropical cyclone.
Tropical Cyclone Formation Potential
======================================
Sunday: Very Low
Monday: Very Low
Tuesday: Very Low
is that the southern indian ocean storm? So it has its eye on mainland africa it seems...
MAURITIUS METEOROLOGICAL SERVICES
SATELLITE TROPICAL CYLONE ANALYSIS.
1 . A SATELLITE : METEOSAT 07
2. A ORBIT NUMBER : GEOSTATIONARY
3. A ORBIT DATE/TIME : 22.11.09 @ 0600 UTC
0. B CYCLONE SERIAL NUMBER : 02
1. B CYCLONE NAME : TROPICAL DEPRESSION
2. B LATITUDE : 9.2 DEGREES SOUTH
3. B LONGITUDE : 56.1 DEGREES EAST
4. B DEGREE OF CONFIDENCE : FAIR
5. B T. NUMBER / C.I NUMBER : 2.0/ 2.0 PLUS D 0.5 /12 HRS
6. B MOVEMENT : WEST-NORTH-WEST 12KT.
7. B OTHER INFORMATION: SYSTEM IS SHOWING SIGNS OF INTENSIFICATION.
T.O.O. : 22/11/09 @ 0600 UTC=
02 from Mauritius... looks like they sort of fixed the problem when they had ANJA numbered as 01 and 02
that island you see is Madagascar in the lower left
JTWC should have a TCFA soon 30kts (1 min)
Pretty swirl. A 954mb low dumping yet more rain on places pretty well saturated already (one town got 12 1/2 inches of rain in 24 hours on Thursday.)
Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert (1000z 22NOV)
=================================================
An area of convection (93W) located at 8.2N 128.2E or 380 NM west of Palau. Animated mutlispectral satellite imagery shows continued consolidation of deep convection near a well defined low level circulation center and a 0500z AMSRE Aqua microwave image shows multiple convective bands coverging into the system center. The 0035z ASCAT Pass also reveals a symmetric low level circulation center with 20 knot winds. Environmental analysis indicates the system is in an area of minimal vertical wind shear and has divergent flow aloft. An upstream mid latitude trough is also starting to provide outflow. A circle was used for the tropical cyclone formation alert area to convey near-term track of uncertainity due to the system being in a dual steering environment
Maximum sustained winds near the center is 17-22 knots with a minimum sea level pressure of 1006 MB
AS expected, Sydney sweltered through a scorching Sunday with the mercury soaring into the 40's but failing to smash the all-time November record.
In the CBD today, the temperature reached 40.4 degrees, just shy of the 1982 November record of 41.8.
Further west at Sydney airport, the mercury shot up to 42.5 degrees, almost nudging the 1982 record for that area of 43.4, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said.
"There were near-record temperatures right throughout Sydney today, which reached up to 40 degrees, so there was no escape from the heat for anyone," BoM forecaster Michael Logan said.
The movies, the beach ... and icecream anywhere ... were the preferred ways to beat the heat.
Around 25,000 people flocked to Bondi beach yet , lifeguards said they didn't have to log many rescues.
"We performed more rescues on Monday than we did today," one lifeguard told AAP.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
Anna Kennedy was one of many people who went to George Street cinema in Sydney city for respite.
"I should be used to it coming from Brisbane, but it is really hot," she said.
Paramedics were kept busy around midday as the mercury climbed steeply, attending four heat exposure cases in the three hours between 12pm (AEDT) and 3pm.
One case was at Taronga Zoo; the others were spread across Sydney from Windsor in the far west to the northern beaches suburb of Dee Why.
Other cases that paramedics attended across Sydney may have been heat-related but it was impossible to say how many, an ambulance spokeswoman said.
"FRIDAY AND THROUGH THE WEEKEND...WE COULD FINALLY SEE A FEW
LOCATIONS TOUCH THE FREEZING POINT FRI AND SAT MORNINGS(BEST CHANCE
WILL BE SAT MORNING). THE DEEP ERN CONUS TROUGH WILL KEEP THE AREA
UNDER NWRLY FLOW ALOFT THIS WILL CONTINUE TO DRIVE THAT COLDER AIR
MASS FROM WRN CANADA THROUGH THE PLAINS AND INTO THE LOWER MS
VALLEY. THU NIGHT WE WILL BE UNDER A STRONG CAA REGIME AND THIS WILL
HELP TEMPS DROP NICELY THROUGH THE NIGHT. NOW DUE TO CENTER OF THE
SFC HIGH BEING OFF TO OUR WEST AND THE STRONG CAA...WINDS WILL
ACTUALLY REMAIN UP THROUGH THE NIGHT WHICH WOULDN`T PROMOTE TEMPS
BOTTOMING OUT BUT WITH A PURELY CAA SCENARIO SETTING UP WE COULD
OVERACHIEVE AND SEE TEMPS APPROACH THE DEWPOINTS IN A FEW LOCATIONS
ACROSS THE NRN 3RD OF THE CWA WHICH WOULD BE IN THE LOWER TO MID
30S. DUE TO THAT I HAVE GONE CLOSER TO THE ENSEMBLE MEAN WHICH IS
ANYWHERE FROM 1-3 DEGREES BELOW MEX FRI MORNING BUT KEEPS EVERYONE
ABV FREEZING STILL. NOW ON FRI NIGHT THINGS WILL BE A TAD DIFFERENT.
FIRST OFF HIGHS FRI WILL BE ABOUT 5 DEGREES COOLER THAN ON
THANKSGIVING DAY. THIS WILL GIVE US A LITTLE OF A HEAD START AS WE
HEAD INTO THE NIGHT. SECOND THE SFC HIGH WILL BE DIRECTLY OVER THE
REGION THUS PROVIDING CALM WINDS. COMBINE THAT WITH THE DRY AIRMASS
AND CLEAR SKIES AND RAD COOLING CONDITIONS WILL BE OPTIMAL. IF ALL
OF THIS DEVELOPS AS THE MDLS ARE CURRENTLY INDICATING THEN IT SHOULD
SET THE STAGE FOR A FEW LOCATIONS TO APPROACH THE FREEZING MARK.
SINCE THIS IS ACTUALLY DAY 6 THE MEX LOOKS LIKE IT IS HIGHLY
UNDERESTIMATING AND TRYING TO GO CLOSER TO CLIMO. DUE TO THAT AND
RATHER GOOD AGREEMENT BY THE MEDIUM RANGE MDLS AND THE GFES I HAVE
GONE ABOUT 3-5 DEGREES BELOW GUI AND THIS MAY STILL NOT BE NEARLY
ENOUGH. AT THIS TIME I DON`T HAVE ANYONE AT FREEZING YET BUT IF THE
MDLS CONTINUE TO SHOW THIS THEN WE SHOULD SEE A FEW LOCATIONS DROP
TO OR JUST BELOW THE FREEZING POINT. DURING THE DAY SAT THE SFC HIGH
WILL SHIFT EAST AND A SFC LOW WILL BEGIN TO DEVELOP IN THE SRN
PLAINS AND THIS SHOULD START TO MODERATE OUR AIRMASS. /CAB"
and it's officially over...
TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
700 AM EST SUN NOV 22 2009
FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...
TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.
$$
FORECASTER BROWN
It would not be my nature to deny the reality of a satellite image of today's sea ice compared to those of past years. I tend to believe what I see, not what I hear.
The same applies to the hacked emails. Time will tell. Along with many, I will see what becomes of it.
I do not view Dr Masters nor Dr Rood as elitist snobs. However, I would beg patience from them as some of us try to digest what appears to be a slap in the face to the Science Community. Talk to me like I'm 3 years old. Bring me out of this rabbit hole.
One of the dangers of being an elitist snob is that you think you know everything.
Many will think that because the emails were hacked that they have no legal consequence. If you believe that, then here's yer rope.
There is a principle of Law that escapes most.
"The Long Arm of the Law"
Though indeed hacking is illegal, the hackers were not operating within the Long Arm of the Law. They were independent of any Law Enforcement Authority and therefore a "Warrantless Search" strategy may fall on deaf ears.
In other words: If a burglar broke into a murder's home and stole a gun that ballistics later proved was indeed a murder weapon, then the murderer is in deep poo poo. The burglar was not operating within the Long Arm of the Law and therefore Search and Seizure guidelines would not apply.
Already some of our esteemed pundits for AGW are quick to shoot the messenger in an attempt to wash their face and hands. Though most are simply trying to wash their face as they were only plowing the mule they were handed. If I were them, I think I would sit down and shut up. I would concentrate on the deminishing thickness of sea ice instead of the increasing thickness of my skull. I would start thinking out of the box. The box that now seems sullied by the Fruits of the Poisoned Tree.
Thursday and Friday nights....Mostly clear. Lows 36 to 39.
It may be even colder then that.
Good morning.
Floodman still recouping in the hospital?
I don't know. I think so but haven't seen anything new in LST's blog.
From everything I have seen, our next "big nor'easter" is not gonna amount to all that much. Our locals are calling for some rain and a little breezy for Monday and Tuesday and that is about it. You see anything different?
I looked for her blog and it's dropped off the blog page...no posts in awhile.
You didn't ask me, but I don't see anything different. It was overhyped by a few on here(and no, P451, I'm not talking about you).
Look beyond this low and look to the one next weekend. It may be a more significant system.
Glad to hear it...thanks.
Oh, right. Because we'll lose all those benefits from the added CO2.
Got a little warm down there eh? Looked at some temp charts for Sydney and they sure seemed to spike yeaterday.
I thought someone forgot to turn the oven down it got that hot here. my bowl of ice-cream melted in 2 mins, i sat it down to get a drink, when i got back it had turned into a milk shake.
Sydney wind doppler Radar
Well stated.
Cap and Trade is an aristocracy based ploy to steal from those less fortunate so that the aristocracy can line their pockets with more money.
How is that possible.
Take a look.
We have land preservation and habitat protection and what happens when someone wants to build a high rise building on that spot? Easy, the law allows for swapping of credits from another less valuable piece of property elsewhere.
Here in Florida, for example, there is a species of tree snail called Liggus and it is protected by federal law. You cannot remove it from a tree - dead or alive -, or pick it up 'dead' from the ground. This applies to both private and public land. Nice idea, right?
Well, if you own the property and want to build a home, guess what. Send in the bulldozer and crush those trees and the resident tree snails all you want because its okay. Want to have someone come in and remove those snails before destroying the trees? No can do, federal law prohibits the removal...period...end of story.
Same thing is slated to happen with Cap and Trade. Reduce your emissions to below that required by law and you will earn a credit that you can 'SELL'. Sell to who? To someone who does not reduce their emissions, that's who.
Instead of demanding that the emissions be reduced across the board, you can buy your way out of the responsibility by purchasing the credits that the other company has stashed away for just this occasion. Of course the is a broker fee involved.
Were you aware that the main spokesman for AGW, Al Gore, is hip deep in bed with a company that brokers just such hypocrisy?
Do we need to conserve?
Yes, indeed.
Should the Al Gores of the world get rich as the process moves forward??
Absolutely not!!
EDIT: the reason i ask is that the 10-day forecasts aren't really showing anything unusual in the way of temperatures.
Based in satellite information, my house is at 22 feet above sea level.
I am designing the west side of my property for the day it becomes beachfront. Goodness gracious its going to be great.
Imagine...GOM beachfront property in South Florida. Life is grand.
And it's all happening in less than twenty years!! Yahoo!!!
Not!!!
The only thing that will be happening in twenty years is that Al Gore and his AGW followers will be sitting around with egg on their faces. Unfortunately, they will be rich beyond their dreams from the fraud they perpetrated on the rest of the world.
Both, but more so for the eastern USA.
That is one really cool RADAR you got there Aussie! Man, I really like that!
22/11/09 03:00pm 39.8C(103.6F)
23/11/09 12:00am 30.6C(87.1F)
23/11/09 12:30am 29.9C(85.8F)
23/11/09 01:00am 22.9C(73.2F)
23/11/09 01:30am 21.5C(70.7F)
i could be wrong, but i'm starting to believe that you guys really are meteorologists! LOL
thanks for all the help :)
Yeah it brand new. only been online like 6 weeks.
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