Comments on: Rep. Shimkus: Too LITTLE Global Warming Pollution?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 04:05:00 +0000

First, let’s stick to the truth.

Plants are made up mainly of water, like humans. Yes, CO2 encourages plant growth, but just as you don’t need 35 hamburgers a day to get by, neither will plants “die off” when we reduce carbon dioxide levels to pre-industrialization levels. And you can bet the acidification of the oceans caused by CO2 isn’t good for underwater plant life and plankton.

Climate myths: Higher CO2 levels will boost plant growth and food production

What was implied in the discussion was that taking away “plant food” might be a “bad thing”, therefore reducing CO2 emissions (which are NOT part of the natural carbon cycle) would not be a “bad idea”.

Hence, we should all bow to the oil industry and capitalist greed and continue to burn fossil fuels in massive quantities, deplete our energy reserves and catastrophically alter our climate, without a care in the world, because it’s all “plant food”.

It’s stupidity meets deception, because many of these memes are merely parroted from the right wing extremist anti-science fringe, or, in fact, from lobbyists paid to lie. This is not a game, Preston, it’s dead serious, and you are, like so many, proliferating dangerous energy industry propaganda.

By: lydia poe

lydia poe — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:45:09 +0000

well people are stupid we get mad for animals being on roads and in our yards but we keep gettin in their way so they can ours

By: lydia poe

lydia poe — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:45:00 +0000

well people are stupid we get mad for animals being on roads and in our yards but we keep gettin in their way so they can ours

By: Miles

Miles — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:07:12 +0000

I love that you put my name in scare quotes! Let me tell you something, “Miles” … if that is your real name! Good times.

By: Miles

Miles — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:07:00 +0000

I love that you put my name in scare quotes! Let me tell you something, “Miles” … if that is your real name! Good times.

By: Preston L. Bannister

Preston L. Bannister — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:55:25 +0000

I am not sure that Shimkus is especially clueful, but …
First, stick to the science.
Plants are made up mainly of carbon compounds. Most of that carbon comes from CO2 extracted from the air. Not surprisingly, there are very well known experiments that show plants grow better with higher levels of CO2 in the air.
In a very real sense, CO2 is indeed plant food!
Also, I did not hear anyone in the video clip say that limiting man-made CO2 emissions would kill plants (as Miles suggests). Strictly speaking, everything said in the video clip is correct.
Which makes the article on this site by “Miles” slightly less clueful than the exchange in the video.

By: Preston L. Bannister

Preston L. Bannister — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:55:00 +0000

By: The Biologista

The Biologista — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:27:00 +0000

Wow. Someone needs to explain to Shimkus that we’re not plants. A world in which there are loads of plants and our all our coastal cities are flooded doesn’t sound that great to me.

By: The Biologista

The Biologista — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:27:00 +0000

Wow. Someone needs to explain to Shimkus that we’re not plants. A world in which there are loads of plants and our all our coastal cities are flooded doesn’t sound that great to me.

By: georgesdelatour

georgesdelatour — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:02:35 +0000

It’s true that land plants had not yet evolved during the Cambrian era. They first evolved during the Silurian era, when CO2 levels were, as in the Cambrian era, 16 times higher than today. Such a high level of CO2 in the atmosphere was almost certainly a precondition for their evolution.
In Ward & Brownlee’s “The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World”, it is stated that the long term trend is for Earth to lose its CO2. Whatever humans do, within half a billion years, CO2 levels will drop below the level at which plant photosynthesis can take place, and all plant life will die.
The role CO2 plays in the climate is a very important question. However, it is wrong to describe CO2 as a pollutant, in the same sense that, say radioactive waste, lead in petrol or raw sewage is.