Carbon, as we all know, is the central building block of organic life here on Earth. Carbon dioxide is an animal byproduct of the process of living: forming within cells during metabolism, moving via the bloodstream to the lungs, then being exhaled. Plants inhale CO2 to live and grow. What a wonderful symbiosis covering our world! Other sources of CO2 include volcanic eruptions and the byproducts of human communities—burning various fuels for heating, cooking, transport, and industry.
A little less than 0.03% (3 parts in 10,000) of the Earth’s atmosphere is made of CO2, classified as a trace gas. NOAA has this to say “…global average atmospheric carbon dioxide was 414.72 parts per million (‘ppm’ for short) in 2021, setting a new record high…” NOAA’s records only go back 60 years—or 3 parts in 225 million of the Earth’s 4.5 billion years. Perhaps our nation’s premiere atmospheric sciences institution can be forgiven for missing a few facts. But I don’t think they should be.
Evidence exists that CO2 in the atmosphere appears to have no correlation at all with global temperature, although rejiggering timescales can make it look that way. A clear chart shows that, at one time, there were 10,000 ppm (22 times today’s amount) and the Earth was colder than it is today. The climate changes mostly due to the sun and its various cycles and not because of carbon in the air.
Nevertheless, there are those who believe that atmospheric carbon will doom us all. ...Swiss company Climeworks is building a facility designed to pull 36,000 tons of carbon annually from the atmosphere and sink it underground. That’s 0.0001% of the estimated 36 billion tons that human activity emitted last year. As human inputs account for an estimated 22% of atmospheric carbon, that’s not a lot of mitigation. ....So why do this now? Follow the money. Microsoft just invested part of its $1 billion Climate Innovation Fund into Climeworks."
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