Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is a LIFE GAS

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is a LIFE GAS

Foreword: Climate Change is the leading global topic and concerns humankind. How much are we at fault, and what can be done? According to the newest research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Earth can regulate its own temperature and has been doing this for millions of years. The newest study provides evidence that the Earth regulates its temperature and adjusts it every 100’000 years.
Does that mean man-made climate change is a hoax? Not affirmative. Are you at fault? Absolutely not. It is safe to say that mankind has severely damaged the Earth in the past 10’000 years.

Is CO2 (carbon dioxide) a greenhouse gas and, therefore, a promoter of climate change? No, CO2 is a life gas necessary for all life to exist on this blue planet. Furthermore, studies provide evidence that an increase in CO2 level follows an increase by the temperate rise and not the other way around.

I owe you an explanation. Over millennials, the CO2 amount varies. Currently, there is 0.04% CO2 in the atmosphere. Shortly before the industrial revolution, roughly 200 years ago, the CO2 amount was 0.028%. That makes an increase of around 0.012%. Compare this to around 20.9% of oxygen. 500 million years ago, the CO2 level was 9%, and the Earth was at least 25° Celsius warmer than today.

You might have heard of the runaway hothouse earth scenario and wonder why it didn’t happen then. The reason is that the sun was much cooler than today. Roughly 23 million years ago, the Earth cooled, and the CO2 level dropped dramatically to about 1% CO2 level and about 10° Celsius warmer. The reason is unknown. However, higher CO2 levels meant much larger trees. And larger trees mean they use the life gas CO2 to produce oxygen. And then, the oxygen level was around 6% more than today.

This explains larger animals like the dinosaurs and trees that reached over 1000 feet high. More oxygen levels also meant larger brains; if humans had lived around that time, it would have meant smarter people. This was the beginning of a new, long-lasting small ice age, and the world is still in that phase. About 1’000’000 years ago, the temperature of this planet spiked and fell almost every 100’000 years. Comparing this to today’s temperature, the climate is at least 5° to 8° Celsius warmer.
 
Humans cannot influence how hot the sun is. We can also not influence the Earth’s pole shifts, volcanic activities or other activities. Earth is one giant living organism. Between 20’000 to 50’000 years ago, another massive unexplainable drop in CO2 and temperate has been recorded. The CO2 level dropped dangerously low. There was less oxygen production, and large animals have all gone extinct or shrank in size, just like Elephants were four times larger a few thousand years ago.

And 10’000 years ago, mankind started accelerating the drop in temperature by cutting down forests. 10’000 years ago, the planet had over 57% Forest and 42% wild grasslands and shrubs. Then, 5’000 years ago, mankind started planting crops. By that time, mankind had deforested 2% of the world already. And by the year 1700, mankind planted 3% crops and 6% grazing grass for livestock. By 1900 we managed to deforest another massive number of forests and left the world with only 48% forests, 8% crops, 16% grazing and only 27% wild grassland and shrubs left. Fast forward to today, and we are at around 37% forests, 15% crops, 31% grazing land, 14% wild grassland and shrubs and 1% plastered through urban and built-up land. Meaning that humankind has destroyed 1/3 of all forests on this planet and repurposed the new land for agriculture and living spaces.

This meant that less CO2 was absorbed by trees, and even though grassland and shrubs also consume CO2, the amount is far less than a birch, needle, or any other tree absorbs and produces oxygen. Hence explaining why the oxygen level also dropped.

What happened with the excess CO2? Massive amounts of CO2 were absorbed by algae in rivers, lakes, and oceans. Algae bound the CO2, sank to the ocean floor, and the tectonic plates transported this life gas inside the magma layers of the Earth. One thesis state that if humankind didn’t start the Industrial Revolution, the CO2 levels would have dropped below the sustainable level of promoting life, and all life would have ended about 100 years ago.

What can we conclude from these facts? CO2 is not a greenhouse gas, as warmer periods are a natural phenomenon and after an increase in moderate, CO2 increases. Humankind might or might not have accelerated climate change in the past 10’000 years by cutting down 1/3 of the world’s forests. And there is no denying that agriculture, mainly livestock, is a factor in emitting methane, which is a greenhouse gas. Is burning coal or fossil fuel a genuine factor? After all, these energy sources release captured CO2, and the cycle starts again. And if electric vehicles need lithium and cobalt in their batteries, the problem is just being made worse because millions of acres of forests must make space for lithium mining. And processing lithium consumes hundreds of millions of fresh water daily, turning whole countries like Chile into a wasteland and desert.
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All this carbon zero talk, electrifying the world, is not stopping the fact that we continue deforesting large areas. But we cannot stop humankind from growing. So instead of interfering with nature and trying to play God, instead of milking the climate change fear by taxing a life gas such as CO2, we should find other solutions instead of protesting politics and demonizing humankind’s growth.

The climate change hysteria, from sea levels that aren’t actually rising, and from natural changes like the North Pole’s ice melting but the South Pole’s ice growing, from tectonic shifts, volcano eruptions, earthquakes, pole shifts, increase in temperature, and massive weather conditions is not going to change the fact that humans can do something to give back to mother earth. ​

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Sources:
https://earth.org/data_visualization/a-brief-history-of-co2/ by Owen Mulhern
By Glen Fergus – Own work; data sources are cited below, CC BY-SA 3.0,https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1240577
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth%27s_atmosphere