(no subject)
You may remember my posting about the local rag owned by a climate sceptic and misused to promote his ill-informed views. From a different local rag (The Northern District Times, 4/3/09), another sceptic's letter, betraying much the same ignorance:I am distressed that the blame is placed on excessive carbon dioxide. How ridiculous. Carbon dioxide is used to promote plant growth naturally and artificially. Nurseries with glasshouses inject the gas to promote plant growth.
Great, mate. Water is also used to promote plant growth - in the right amounts. Try flooding your garden and see what happens. Come to think of it, carbon dioxide is crucial to human respiration, triggering our breathing reflex. That must mean high levels of CO2 are harmless! And of course we need oxygen to survive, so high levels of that must be harmless too! It's kind of boggling that both random members of the public and actual scientists make the same silly statement. (The letter writer goes on to expound a theory about mulch upon which I am not qualified to comment.)
Great, mate. Water is also used to promote plant growth - in the right amounts. Try flooding your garden and see what happens. Come to think of it, carbon dioxide is crucial to human respiration, triggering our breathing reflex. That must mean high levels of CO2 are harmless! And of course we need oxygen to survive, so high levels of that must be harmless too! It's kind of boggling that both random members of the public and actual scientists make the same silly statement. (The letter writer goes on to expound a theory about mulch upon which I am not qualified to comment.)