Forever is a Long Time

I see that the latest Global Whining Warming news is that it may be with us “forever”. Apparently, some scientists are complaining that the elevation of levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may be, essentially, irreversible. “Forever”, in this case, means it may take 100,000 years to reverse, a mere blink of an eye to the planet, but a nasty shock to those of us who don’t look good in shorts.

Apparently, the oceans are no longer absorbing enough CO₂, having grown tired of the stuff, and the only way carbon dioxide will be removed (without man’s help, of course) is by the weathering of rocks. The temperature of the Earth will go up and stay up, even if we stop producing carbon dioxide NOW. 

The scientists in question propose an immediate ban on building coal-fired power stations (despite the fact that even New Zealand, the world leader in natural energy sources, is not able to generate sufficient power to do away with coal). 

It seems to me that there is a flaw in the logic used to form this argument. The oceans may indeed be less of a carbon sink than we thought, but they are not the only absorbers of CO₂. Increasing temperatures and carbon dioxide levels virtually guarantees an abundance of plant growth. I would have thought that this alone would restore the balance in a great deal less time than the weathering of rocks. 

Once again, this sounds like more alarmist warnings that make no scientific sense. This is just using pseudoscience to put political and social pressure on people to follow someone’s ideology. Much has been said about the dangers of mixing politics and religion. It would appear that mixing science and politics is considerably more dangerous and substantially less easy to spot.

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