CO2 is not carbon

July 7, 2014
In a speech on July 17, 2008, former US Vice-President Al Gore challenged the nation "to commit to producing 100% of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years."

In a speech on July 17, 2008, former US Vice-President Al Gore challenged the nation "to commit to producing 100% of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years." He said this goal "is achievable and affordable." Today, variable-output renewables are a small percent of our electric energy, and they have little near term hope of becoming a significant factor.

Later, on Dec. 13, 2008, Gore stated in a speech in Germany, "The entire north polar ice cap will be gone in 5 years." A check with the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) indicates that the north polar ice cap for May of 2014 averaged 12.78 million sq km (4.93 million square miles). That's greater than the combined area of the 50 states and India. NSIDC also reports that May 2014 Arctic ice coverage is similar to the May average for the past 5 years.

Recently, President Barack Obama urged support for his plan to cut coal plant carbon dioxide emissions through Environmental Protection Agency regulations. Speaking in his weekly radio address, the president said that "cuts to carbon pollution would reduce asthma attacks by 100,000 and heart attacks by 2,100 just in the first year." The problem here is that carbon dioxide is not the element carbon, and CO2 is an invisible, nontoxic gas which does not cause asthma, heart attacks, or any other disease. We inhale and exhale CO2 with every breath and drink it in our carbonated beverages. The average American harmlessly exhales about 900 lb of CO2 every year.

Those kinds of low-credibility statements, hyping CO2 and climate change dangers, can backfire with the American public. We can then understand the results of a 2014 Gallup poll which asked Americans their level of worry about 15 issues which confront the nation. The issues included the economy, budget deficit, employment, health care, crime, drug use, climate change, etc. Climate change ranked 14th in the poll, with just 24% of Americans expressing significant concern. This reduces the chances for expensive legislation aimed at global warming.

In history, humans tend to do better when it's warm, like the Roman Empire Era and the Medieval Warm Period, when the Vikings grew barley and wine grapes in Greenland. It was cold in the centuries between those two periods. We call that colder time the Dark Ages, when crops failed and lives were short and miserable.

So, if you want to visit the North Pole, you can either attempt a long cold trip on foot or by snowmobile, or you could try to get a ride aboard one of the US Navy's nuclear submarines. They can make the 1,900-mile trip under the big polar ice cap, powered solely by those reliable nuclear powered engines.

Rolf E. Westgard
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
University of Minnesota
St. Paul