Carbon dioxide?

Question

why is carbon dioxide bad for the environment? Are there any other reasons besides climate change?

Answer 1

Human use of coal, oil, and natural gas has not harmfully warmed the Earth, and the extrapolation of current trends shows that it will not do so in the foreseeable future. The CO2 produced does, however, accelerate the growth rates of plants and also permits plants to grow in drier regions. Animal life, which depends upon plants, also flourishes, and the diversity of plant and animal life is increased.

Here is some of the positive argument for CO2

Human activities are producing part of the rise in CO2 in the atmosphere. Mankind is moving the carbon in coal, oil, and natural gas from below ground to the atmosphere, where it is available for conversion into living things. We are living in an increasingly lush environment of plants and animals as a result of this CO2 increase. Our children will therefore enjoy an Earth with far more plant and animal life than that with which we now are blessed.

Answer 2

It isn't bad for the environment. Plants take it in during the day and breathe it out at night. Carbon dioxide isn't causing climate change and it isn't hurting us.

Answer 3

CO2 is needed for any plant to live. Without the plants there will be nothing to recycle  our oxygen. Check photosynthesis...

Answer 4

I use a lot of it at our restaurants-- makes the soft drinks taste a lot better!

Answer 5

I have discussed the subject of Co2 with several local companies that bottle gases for industrial use and when you mention extracting Co2 from the atmosphere to bury it the laugh a lot. Why, the concentration of the gas in the atmosphere is not sufficient to be able to extract it except at very high cost. So I asked where does the Co2 gas come from that you sell for use in carbonated (coke) drink dispensers and dry ice. Answer they get it from stack scrubbers at oil refineries, power plants and other manufacturing sources that produce Co2 as a part of their operation cycle. How long has this been going on I then asked, their answer was at least a hundred years since it became practical to do so.

So once again we find the truth is different than the AGW promoters would have us believe, industry in general is not at fault for AGW and Co2 is such a rare gas in the atmosphere that it is not economically feasible to extract it for industrial or commercial uses. So where does so much of the Co2 come from, carbonated soft drinks (those pretty bubbles), dry ice and people and animals breathing. Easiest and cheapest way to reduce Co2 in the atmosphere is to plant a couple of trees they extract the one carbon atom and release the two oxygen atoms into the air for us to breath. When you bury Co2 as the AGW people want us to do, for every single carbon atom you put in the ground you also put down there two oxygen atoms, so eventually if the AGW people have their way we will certainly run out of oxygen atoms for us to breath and live off of.

Answer 6

It is a greenhouse gas and is the second most important according to wikipedia.

Answer 7

See, that's a good question!

1.  Every plant in the world "breathes" Carbon Dioxide.  Then they make Oxygen, we breath O2 and put out CO2, they breath CO2 and put out O2... its a cycle

2.  Global Warming is a joke.... the earth goes through this climate change all the time... its like the earth's period... and we're just in the hot flash stage

Answer 8

Like everything, it is a matter of scale. Too much money or fame can be harmful (ask Britney!). Too much aspirin can kill you, but just enough is very useful when you have a headache.

CO2 is a natural part of our environment.

Life on this planet contributed to the composition of the atmosphere and evolved to adapt to the composition of the atmosphere:

When photosynthetic plants evolved, they started releasing O2 into the air (it wasn't there before) which killed off life that couldn't live in an O2 rich atmosphere. In their place other life evolved including O2 breathing animals.

Our environment is an equilibrium that gently 'breathes'; for example, planetary temperatures go slowly up and down over the millenia. It is a slow and gentle process.

CO2 (at 200ppm) is what our current environment - including all plants and animlas in it - have adjusted to and are comfortable with.

Then suddenly - for 300 years is less than a blink of an eye in planetary terms - the concentration of CO2 doubles from 200ppm to 380ppm. The equilbrium is disturbed - the sl;ow breathing is interrupted; some say we should be going into a "breathing out" period (an ice age) instead, we are warming up - take a deep breath and then, instead of breathing out, try taking another breath in - that's kind of what is happening.

As the equilibirum has been disturbed, adjustments must happen - sure, some plants may benefit from increased CO2, increased growing seasons, more rain but some won't. And some growing seasons won't be longer and some places will see less rain.

Whatever actually happens, change is in the air and it is happening much faster than is usual. Whenever that has happened in the past, massive amounts of life died out.

Life needs time to adjust to changing conditions - AGW is happening too fast.

CO2 isn't bad for the environment.

It's bad for OUR environment!

If increased levels of CO2 were, for example, to wipe out the human race, I'm sure there are many existing and new species that would find that quite advantageous - depends on your perspective.

Answer 9

Carbon Dioxide is not bad for the planet. It is an essential gas for all life on the planet. Plants thrive in higher CO2 levels. as for teh greenhouse stuff, yes CO2 is a greenhouse gas, but it has yet to be shown to do anything to increase temps (our emissions are so low that they are overshadowed by the other natural green house gases).

As for ocean acidification because of higher CO2, I do not buy it. It is well known that the oceans naturally absorb CO2. It is also well known that higher temps cause the oceans to give up some of this gas. So if our CO2 emissions caused higher temps, this would not cause the oceans to absorb the CO2 as tehy would be emitting Co2 due to higher temps.

Answer 10

its not bad just bad in high amounts to anlmals, but its good to plants and algea.

Answer 11

The increase in the greenhouse effect that it causes (if you look around you'll find the arguments of those who deny that to be very flimsy) is the only significant one.

On a local scale it can be pretty devastating should it be released in quantity as happened with Lake Nyos although that's pretty rare.

Answer 12

From the link below:

"At a carbon dioxide concentration of 600 ppm in an indoor atmosphere, the occupants become aware of deterioration in the atmosphere. At and above this level, some occupants began to display one or more of the classic symptoms of carbon dioxide poisoning, e.g. difficulty in breathing, rapid pulse rate, headache, hearing loss, hyperventilation, sweating and fatigue. At 1000 ppm, nearly all the occupants were affected."

The article is titled "Health effects of increase in concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," and is only 3 pages.  Reading anything that helps us understand the nature of CO2 is time well spent, I believe.

Answer 13

Ocean acidification is the second largest environmental impact of rising levels of atmospheric CO2.