CO2 isn't a problem in the atmosphere. It is a fact, but that doesn't make it a problem. A problem is when something does something detrimental and needs something done to avoid it, mitigate it, or stop it. CO2 in air is a good thing, not a bad thing, up to something like 2000 ppm it could be a good thing when costs and benefits are considered.
That doesn't mean everyone would like it. People depending on low CO2 such as last gasp repiratory failure people or athletes trying to beat a world record set in Y2K by 1/100th of a second would not like it. If warming became an actual problem rather than a theoretical one, and sea level did rise a metre, that would be a problem for people yet to be born. It won't be a problem for anyone alive now. They will be dead and their buildings and roads will have long since been fully depreciated and actually decomposed.
100 years is a long time for buildings. Roads need replacement every couple of decades. Sewerage doesn't last much more than 100 years. Economic returns are in 10 years and 20 years. These days, more like 5 years, with equipment depreciation of 40% and more.
Since people are heavily dependent on atmospheric CO2 for food supplies and timber and other things, 400ppm is much better than homeopathic 280 ppm, though I admit that plants do not consider 280 ppm homeopathic - they are able to scavenge quite low concentrations of CO2 from the air thanks to their Darwinian survival strategies.
CO2 production has dropped a lot in the USA since 1990. When Peak People has been reached in 2037 and technology enables more with less and cultural shifts mean roaring around freeways in dirty great Otto cycle SUVs is displaced by cerfing around Cyberspace in 3D, gasoline will be so last century.
Mqurice |
