JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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When I first heard of CO2 building up in the atmosphere, I checked. It isn’t. C14 answered that question in 1958.
However the shape shifting promoters came up with things like CO2 sequestration and Australian Agricultural Carbon Credits. In England hundreds of ‘tree farms’ as investments. Not chopping things down or harvesting earns cash because it is sequestration.
But NASA proved that wrong with satellite measurements. From 1988 to 2014 tree coverage world wide showed forestation, not deforestation. A 14% increase in tree coverage and a 14% increase in CO2. So more CO2 means more trees, not the reverse. Of course in typical fashion NASA called it ‘fertilization’, which is ridiculous. Trees are made from CO2, like all living things.
The CSIRO pulled the same stunt when they had to comment on the rapid ocean absorption of bushfire CO2 and a phytoplankton bloom. These geniuses blamed it on Iron ‘fertilization’ from the ash. Anything but admit plants are hungry for CO2.
But one of the ideas was that a mythical shallow ‘surface’ ocean was ‘full’ of CO2. Now 98% of CO2 is in the ocean as it is extremely soluble, 30x more than O2 and all things breathe O2. And there are 36 papers which agree that CO2 changes completely roughly every ten years. (Table 1 here)
So what limits are there to dissolving CO2? Firstly CO2 gas we see as a solid, dry ice. But with over 5 atmospheres/276K/3C it is a liquid, like water. And that’s only 50 metres in an ocean on average 3500 metres deep. So there’s no real limit to CO2 because largely it’s not a gas in water. Even more dramatic is that unlike oxygen, CO2 dissociates H2O+CO2 becomes HCO3 and H+. Carbonic acid, a very weak acid. But it is also not easily predicted by Henry’s Law of dissolved gases. Henry’s Law works at the surface of course, but not with the values developed in laboratories as CO2 exchange goes as the fourth power of wind speed and you don’t get that in a laboratory. No waves and droplets.
This is relevant because the people who argue that fossil fuel CO2 is stuck in the atmosphere are forced to claim that the water is full of CO2, saturated. But that’s not possible. You can release the gas in Coke Cola or Lemonade with a rough surface as with menthos. So here is a fun experiment which shows just how much CO2 gas is in water even at air pressure. This is NOT a chemical reaction, just the rough surface providing a catalytic surface to form the gas instantly.
The whole fantasy of fossil fuel CO2 building up in the atmosphere is as busted as it can be. But still sequestration is fundamental to Australia’s CO2 laws as we legislate the amount of CO2 we are allowed to release and fining our biggest ‘polluters’. Fantasy science and fantasy laws, crippling the country. Why? Is it just the cash? Or the centralization of (electric) power in Canberra? Or a scare to enable crazy science laws to enslave and rob everyone? Or just a United Nations which does nothing to resolve the Ukraine war but now demands $40Bn a year from international shipping?
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That’s before you even get to Prof Will Happer’s certainty that even doubling CO2 would have a tiny 1% effect on CO2 retention.
It’s all busted. So why is CO2 driven Global Warming/Climate Change/Nett Zero continuing? Why has it never been debated? Why are there thousands upon thousands of Australian public servants collecting cash for CO2?
We Australians should be rich. But we are becoming Argentina. And the PM has bought his retirement house on the beach to go with his perpetual salary. That’s the thing with communists. How to get to the top without knowing anything except how to get to the top. Or caring.
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“Lest We Forget”
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