CO2 and Climate Change
Senior Energy Analysts and Forbes Magazine contributor Robert Rapier writes:Whenever I write about climate change, some people always respond with anger or denial. The denial crowd tends to stick with classics like “The climate is always changing” or “We don’t really know how much humans are contributing.” I even know one guy—way out on the fringe—who insists CO₂ levels aren’t even rising.
I used to respond by saying we’re running a massive experiment on the atmosphere. If the doomsayers are wrong and we cut fossil fuel use anyway, the worst that happens is slower growth and cleaner air. But if the skeptics are wrong? There’s no switch to flip us out of that mess.
I just started reading The End of Eden by Adam Welz, and he summed it up in a single line: “We are creating an atmosphere in which no humans in history have ever lived.” That’s the heart of the issue. The very air we breathe is slowly changing—and there’s no sign of CO₂ emissions slowing down. Many species are not going to be able to cope with that.
More CO₂ in the air also means more carbonic acid in the oceans, which lowers pH, bleaches coral, weakens marine shells, and threatens the food chain.
And if we want to make that worse? Just keep burning more coal. That’s about the worst move we could make right now.
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FWIW, I can relate to having climate deniers write back to me in anger. It comes with the territory, as they say.
Over the years, I’ve been a guest on many dozens of talk-radio shows, and a caller once called me a cockroach. The host was furious with the caller, but I just laughed. “Not everyone agrees with the climate scientists, some of whom have been studying this subject since the 1970s, I said. “But ‘cockroach?’ That’s a first.”
Not only is the story at left touching, it’s prescriptive of a way of life that almost everyone would prefer over the one we have now.
I just had the pleasure of meeting a freshly minted Boston College graduate who, in the fall, will become an intern for 
We’re all seen graphics that remind us that blue states tend to be far wealthier that red states; one of which is at the left. Note that all the wealthiest top six states voted for Harris in 2024, and all the poorest eight voted for Trump.
As American actor Jeff Daniels points out, the United States finds itself on the brink of authoritarianism.
The answer to Dr. Goodall’s question at left is our intelligence is only part of the package that is humankind. We mustn’t forget about our greed, tribalism, and cruelty.
In fourth grade, at age 9, we learned how eclipses work, and why the garbage at left is impossible. How sad that, a generation or two later, we live among morons.
From 
I’m trying to guess how many replacements for wood we have around us. For decks alone, there are at least eight. We don’t have “a” company replacing wood as building materials; we have many dozens.
Being on some criminal’s “list” and writing letters about “beautiful secrets” are not crimes.
