One of the main benefits of CO2 is if there is more CO2 plants can live with less water. They grow leaves with fewer holes (stomata) in them so they don`t leak as much water, making them more drought tolerant.
Prof. William Happer was appointed special advisor to the White House at the age of 80. His efforts to have a proper debate on the issues of climate change and put a stop to the hysteria were deemed too politically sensitive ( would affect voting). He did however persuade Pres. Trump to have a review on climate change. Trump did so against all the advice of those surrounding him.
In the interview below, the honourable Professor William Happer debunks the non scientific narrative that has created climate alarmism in its negative portrayal of CO2. Beginning with the Ozone hole that became the mantra of climate science in the 1980s and 90s, how the hole has quite possible always been there. Its size since the Montreal Protocol ban on freon refridgerants has not altered but saw Dupont make huge profits from their freon-free refridgerants which replaced the existing type that were safer, non-toxic, more efficient and cheaper.
Carbon Dioxide is what drives life on Earth. The growth of plants depends on CO2. The present amount of CO2 is much lower than levels that have prevailed over geological history. CO2 levels have been 2 or 3x greater than they are now. We probably don`t have enough fossil fuels around to restore those levels where plants evolved and where they function best.
The small amount of increase over the last 200 years has caused greening all around the Earth. You can see that from satellites. Over the past 2 or 3 decades, Earth is getting greener, especially arid regions, the edges of the great deserts are shrinking. They are shrinking because of more CO2. One of the main benefits is if there is more CO2, plants can live with less water.They don`t waste as much water. The `little mouths`, stomata (that`s what it means) they don`t open as wide. The problem with sucking CO2 out of the air which is what plants have to do, is that for every CO2 molecule that diffuses into the leaves, the plant looses a hundred water molecules diffusing the other way. So this is a real dilemma for the plant. It absolutely has to have CO2 to make sugar and grow but it needs the water too. And so it is wasting lots and lots of water.So it partially fixes that by increasing the concentration of CO2. Plants only put as many holes in their leaves as they absolutely need to get CO2. They grow leaves with fewer holes (stomata) in them so they don`t leak as much water. Plants have to have CO2 to make sugar and grow. The benefit of more CO2 is it makes plants more resistant to drought and making them grow in regions that used to be too dry to grow at all.
There are other advantages too but they are more subtle.
Prof Happer continues to explain the role of an enzyme called RUBISCO, an ancient evolutionary molecule that evolved when the atmosphere did not contain much oxygen, only water vapour,CO2 and nitrogen. As the oxygen levels rose in the air, it became toxic to the RUBISCO molecule which is how the anti-oxidant function evolved. (Inside plant cells the enzyme ribulose bisphoshate carboxylse creates organic carbon from the inorganic CO2 in the air)
On carbon dioxide being a greenhouse gas, Prof Happer says yes, that is right. CO2 lets sunlight in but stops sunlight going out. It is opaque to thermal radiation but transparent to sunlight.That is the definition of a greenhouse gas.However Earth radiates infra red into space which stops the temperature of earth getting hotter and hotter. Therefor adding CO2 does not really affect anything. The Earth has its own balancing system.
If the alarmists really want a stable population they should encourage prosperity all around the world but especially in Africa, South America and India, regions where they are not yet wealthy and they should be wealthy, why shouldn`t they be as wealthy as Europeans or Japanese. The more wealthy they are, the slower the population growth will be. When the world is prosperous, as long as things are not derailed, the problem will be maintaining the population numbers as people tend to have fewer children in good economic circumstances.
Source: BizNewsTV
Elimination of CO2 is a suicide pact – Professor William Happer on climate change misconceptions
4 November 2022
It’s safe to assume no one consciously sets out to challenge a narrative as deeply entrenched and emotionally charged as climate change. Dr William Happer, an American physicist and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at Princeton University, certainly didn’t. It was only in 1991, upon Happer’s appointment by President George W Bush as director of Energy Research in the US Department of Energy, that his interaction with climate change authorities – and their refusal to engage in customary scientific debate on climate change – piqued his interest. Thereafter, Happer was dismissed for his contrarian views and ‘head butting’ with climate change luminary Al Gore, only to be brought back to Washington by former president Donald Trump in 2018. BizNews spoke to Happer (83) about his prodigious career and discovery that the burgeoning climate change hysteria had no scientific basis. Happer meticulously detailed why and how CO2, the “demon gas”, is not a pollutant but is essential to mankind’s prosperity.