Does CO2 cause warming or not?

An Associated Press article on Fox News this morning proclaims that CO2 has reached the “highest levels ever.”

GENEVA — Greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere reached record highs in 2008, with carbon dioxide levels increasing faster than previously, the U.N. weather agency said Monday.

Levels of greenhouse gases, believed to be responsible for global warming, have been rising every year since detailed records started being kept in 1998, the World Meteorological Organization said.

It follows a trend of rising emissions that began with the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century, the agency said.

The report by the World Meteorological Organization comes as the European Union urged the United States and China on Monday to set targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions at next month’s climate conference in Copenhagen. The European Union said delays by those countries were hindering global efforts to curb climate change.

I find this very funny! Last week I came across an article that talked about how “some climate scientists are unsure of what is causing the cooling seen for the last several years.”

Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years. Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.

At least the weather in Copenhagen is likely to be cooperating. The Danish Meteorological Institute predicts that temperatures in December, when the city will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, will be one degree above the long-term average.

Otherwise, however, not much is happening with global warming at the moment. The Earth’s average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year.

Temperatures have gone up and temperatures have gone down globally … for millions of years, and we are not yet capable of causing either. If CO2 is up, and CO2 is the thing that CAUSES the global temperature to rise … WHY ARE TEMPERATURES NOT GOING UP?????

Radicals Kidnap EPA, Declare Ransom Demands

Yesterday the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) bowed to environmentalist and Democratic politicians and declared CO2 a “dangerous pollutant.” For those of you that can recall your fifth grade science class, CO2 is part of the natural cycle of life … remember? … animals take in oxygen (O2), exhale carbon dioxide (CO2), then plants take in CO2 and turn it into O2.

I follow a great science blog called Watts Up With That, edited by Anthony Watts. He posted on this very important development last night here. Anthony begins by providing the background on where this disastrous ruling came from:

On April 2, 2007, in Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), the Supreme Court found that greenhouse gases are air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act. The Court held that the Administrator must determine whether or not emissions of greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles cause or contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare, or whether the science is too uncertain to make a reasoned decision. In making these decisions, the Administrator is required to follow the language of section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act. The Supreme Court decision resulted from a petition for rulemaking under section 202(a) filed by more than a dozen environmental, renewable energy, and other organizations.

While the initial focus is supposed to be on automobiles, when do you remember a government agency limiting their reach to their initial charge? Not that limiting regulations on automobile emissions of CO2 won’t be harmful enough … the auto industry is just getting back up on to its knees from the finance market crash and is not likely to recover for the next two or three years if then. I predict the EPA will immediately start developing regulations for stationary sources of CO2 emissions … like electric generating plants. Recall Obama’s campaign promise to destroy the coal industry?

While we don’t all own or drive a car, I don’t know anyone that doesn’t use electricity. The majority of electrical generation in the US is based on fossil fuel; coal and natural gas (very little oil is used today to generate electricity). Burning fossil fuel produces CO2. The most viable alternative to fossil fuel generation is nuclear powered generation. The tree huggers want us to generate all our power needs using solar and wind power sources. I’ll write a seperate post on these “alternative” energy sources in the near future.

In the meanwhile, I strongly recommend you click on the link to Anthony’s post and read what to do to send comments to the EPA, asking (respectfully!) that they not take their planned steps to implement regulations to try to control CO2 (more on the insanity of the US trying to control CO2 later).

Numbers are important, even to the EPA (we are still a democratic republic and the EPA is still required to follow procedures and read every comment), so the greater the number of opponents the more likely the chance of derailing this madness. The public comment period is open for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register. Please note that official comments on the proposed finding cannot be submitted until the Federal Register publication. I’ll track this and let you know when they are published.

If you are already familiar with submitting comments to a regulatory body, you can download a .pdf file with instructions here. When providing comments, please submit them with reference to Docket ID No.  EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0171.

Please … submit your comments!