On Wednesday, 24 August 2016 12:16:52 UTC+1, Alastair wrote:
On Wednesday, August 24, 2016 at 11:40:34 AM UTC+1, Alan LeHun wrote:
In article ,
says...
You can have too much of a good thing. We had the perfect amount of CO2. Things can only get worse.


How do you know it was the /perfect/ amount? In terms of both bio-mass
and bio-diversity, life on planet Earth has always faired better during
periods of high CO2 concentration.

Almost all the fossil fuels which we are consuming just now were laid
down during the Carboniferous. An epoch of higher CO2 concentrations
that is marked in the fossil record as being one of the most productive
epochs the planet has ever seen.

As long as CO2 levels are stable, just about any level is good. Further,
within limits, higher is probably better. The worst case is when CO2
levels are not stable, and unfortunately that is the path on which we
appear to have taken our first steps.


--
Alan LeHun

We had the perfect amount of CO2 for the emergence of civilisation, and we have adapted our agriculture to match the current level of CO2 and the environment (weather) it produces. By increasing CO2 we are moving into uncharted territory. Actually it is not uncharted. It is the type which was perfectly adapted to the dinosaurs.

Cheers, Alastair.


Alastair I think you have a very distorted view of the human condition. During the last period of glaciation the c02 levels were down to 180ppm and then pre industrial revolution from the end of that last period of glaciation about 270ppm. In that ten thousand odd years life hasn't been exactly picture perfect for humanity has it. Ironically for you the lofty comfortable lifestyle level from which you bemoan the passing of the idea co2 level was only afforded and made possible precisely because of the use of fossil fuels and looking at some of the thread contents today we have plenty of old fossils well fuelled up using this group.