Why do global warming advocates say that essential CO2 is bad for us and don't focus on CO which is deadly?

Question

CO2 is essential to our survival and was always believed (until the 90s when the government began to say CO2 was actually pollution) to be the product of "perfect combustion." That means that "perfect" cars would produce no pollution but would produce CO2 instead. Isn't it strange how long-held scientific facts can suddenly change completely and no one notices?

"Gasoline and diesel fuels are mixtures of hydrocarbons, compounds which contain hydrogen and carbon atoms. >>In a "perfect" engine, oxygen in the air would convert all the hydrogen in the fuel to water and all the carbon in the fuel to carbon dioxide.<< Nitrogen in the air would remain unaffected. In reality, the combustion process cannot be "perfect," and automotive engines emit several types of pollutants."

http://www.epa.gov/region5/air/mobile/auto_emis.htm

Carbon monoxide is what's poisonous and what kills. Yet global warming advocates like Al Gore and Rothschild talk about CO2, not CO. Planting trees won't do anything about carbon monoxide.

Answer 1

There&#039;s a theory dedicated to this notion called the Converse Ideology. Meaning basically man&#039;s believe systems to science. It describes how politics, judicial, and science are co-mingled to give appropriated responses to the public. Yes it is a mystery as to why a friendly bi-product of combustion would be considered a pollutant. The same exact thing could be said for H2O.

Answer 2

We do not see a progressive increase in CO that would alarm us.

It is not the poisonousness but the ability of CO2 to bend light of long wave lengths that is of interest. Environmentalists are well aware that part of the problem solution is to get our plant life to absorb more CO2.

But we are hamstrung by unwillingness to use water, water tht is needed to flush toilets, to irrigate our plant life. CO2 can of course be absorbed by plants only when plants have adequate water.

We can control our CO2 concentrations in three ways: Emit less. Absorb more (plants) and sequester more.

But good environmentalists are joining with the city folk of the deserts calling to have farmers deprived of irrigation water. They can not accept the simple fact that CO2 disappears into plants only when they have the water.

Answer 3

This is a two-parter.  I agree that CO2 is harmless and that CO is deadly, but CO is not stable and in the atmosphere it is converted to CO2 fairly quickly.

As for focusing on CO2, the enviros have demonized it because most of the serious pollutants are under control and they need a new bandwagon.

Answer 4

CO does not cause Greenhouse effect that CO2 causes. Greenhouse effect is primary cause of Global Warming.

Answer 5

Mainly because CO isn&#039;t increasing in the atmosphere:

http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/otheratg/cs...

More data here:

http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/otheratg/cs...

CO2, in contrast, is increasing.  There are a lot of other reasons why CO2 is more important in terms of climate change than CO, but really that&#039;s a bunch of technical sciency-type details you likely wouldn&#039;t be interested in anyway.

Answer 6

Fortunately for us, CO decomposes indirectly via several reactions into CO2 within a matter of days of release, so does not cause a problem, unless you have large amounts being rapidly released into a confined space.

As for whether the CO2 release causes global warming of not, or whether it&#039;s all a conspiracy, that&#039;s a completely different question.

Answer 7

CO is a poison that will kill you if you inhale enough of it, in a few minutes.

CO2 traps in heat from the Earth and increases the temperature but we will not bake for many years.

Those of us over 70 think and hope we will be dead before Global Warming becomes the cause of the death of 10,000 within a week due to the heat or the lack of water, in India or Bangladesh.

The loss of life in Africa and Latin America will be at slower death rates and probably we will not know about it until someone finds an abandoned town in the jungle of Africa and begin to wonder what happened to the people.

This actually happened to a town on the shore of a lake that had a high concentration of some bad gas (Carbon Monoxide?) and it took a while to figure out that the gas concentration was very high at the bottom of the lake.

The deaths from Global Warming bringing up poisonous gases will be hard to discover.

Answer 8

of course CO2 is essential to plants and indirectly us but that dose not mean more is better. that&#039;s like saying food is important to our survival so eating more will always be better. whi8ch is wrong.

CO is another separate issue it quickly oxidizes to CO2 so it can not build up in large quantity&#039;s in the atmosphere. where as CO2 is stable and can build up.

you are also forgetting about CO2 poisoning so in a way CO2 is also deadly although only in very extreme circumstances.

Answer 9

Well, you&#039;re right, carbon monoxide is a lot more deadly to us than carbon dioxide. However, combustion and factory pollutants produce very little amounts of CO, if at all. And anyways, CO levels have not been rising and do not contribute to global warming.