The only good thing we have done for Nature is to create CO₂ burning fossil fuels. Plants love CO₂, both crops and wild plant life. Today there is an increase in growth rates from the CO₂ we have added. If we double or triple the CO₂, it can have a much greater benefit. The danger for Nature is not global warming and wastefulness; it is efficiency using fossil fuels. More miles per gallon means more rabbits, badgers, raccoons, coyotes, and skunks run over per gallon and less CO₂ to increase growth of food for these same creatures.
More efficient power plants make man thrive and Nature wilt. Why pretend we fight side by side with Nature? We are part of Nature, and the nature of Nature is we fight against the rest of it. Our efficiency is the inefficiency of the rest; our green is the remainders’ black. Cities spread across the globe; once wild creatures change sides and become our synanthropes; migrating ducks now feed on tractor cultivated grain. Humming birds skip flowers and look for sugar water in plastic flowers; birds on an oil diet. We are scolded for burning oil and told to use renewable energy, but the desire for renewable energy is like that of the insomniac for sleep. We don’t need to give up fossil fuels or we would. The insomniac doesn’t need sleep or he would.
The campaign against CO₂ and against global warming isn’t a campaign for anything. It is a mystery how it ever got started. Americans keep moving from cold states to warm states. Why would they campaign against warmth? Maybe it is just a mistake, one that feeds on itself. Someone set the thing going in the wrong direction and they can’t stop it!
Did one of our environmentalist movie stars think, “Hey, if the ice caps melt the oceans will rise and I'll have to move my towel on the beach...and I’m so comfortable here.”? The gale of propaganda about global warming and CO₂ should be questioned. Anyone who takes global average temperature changes seriously should try measuring ambient temperatures for himself. It isn’t easy. The outside is a crossfire of thermal radiation affecting everything that emits and absorbs it. At night surfaces drop to 10° or 20°F below air temperature. In the day they rise as much as 100°F above. Cities form heat islands. Quick thermometer response times find higher highs and lower lows than slow. Comparing temperatures over a century; are the shelters the same? The thermometer? The paint? Unfortunately more effort goes into amplifying news than examining it.
As an example, my colleagues at the Energy Foundation (supported by the Rockefeller, and MacArthur Foundations and the Pew Trust), whose goal is replacement of fossil fuels, and who harp on CO₂ and global warming, concentrate entirely on advocacy (propaganda), omitting funds for research, demonstrations, prototypes, etc. This is alarming, like a tow truck that has no tow chain, just a bigger horn to increase alarm.
Perhaps those who spread the confusion about what is good and what is bad for the lower life forms we all depend on are merely ignorant, but it may be calculated. The elite of attorneys, government functionaries, and non-profit cause people and their fans are typical of an influential part of society that doesn’t actually do anything except tell you what you should do. Why in the world would they ever want us lower life forms to come to our senses? What better way to keep us confused than by crossing signals about CO₂?
Steve Baer
PO Box 422
Corrales, NM 87040
Phone/Fax: (505) 898-2366
June 2000
Source: Steve Baer. Text extracted by OCR from scanned image.
Image: 2000-06-co2-and-global-warming-baer.tiff