Is carbon dioxide a pollution?
Pollution: the presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects. (Oxford Dictionary)
Not all substances are pollution absolutely. Some substances only become a pollutant (ie. become harmful) when in high concentrations or in excess of natural equilibrium levels. CO2 fits this latter category when it's the waste product from the burning of fossil fuels (hydrocarbons) and is pumped by us straight into the atmosphere increasing the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere and enhancing the greenhouse effect artifically. It's not the fact that there's CO2 in the atmosphere that's the issue; it's the fact CO2 levels are ever increasing which if allowed to continue unabated will lead to increasingly harmful effects (climate change).
One of the anti-climate change arguments appears to be that because CO2 is needed for photosynthesis, is odourless and exists in beer lol
, it must be good stuff. And since it's good stuff it can't be a pollutant. Molecules however aren't either good or bad - they just have their various properties and effects. Oxygen (O2) and Nitrogen (N2) are simplistically good stuff as well as they are the main components of the air we breathe but in 100% concentrations (at atmospheric pressure or higher with Oxygen) they are toxic gases and we'd all die.
Anyway I see on the news Abbott at his rally with far-right wing nutters like Hanson, One Nation and the anti-semetic Australian League of Rights. What have any of these looney groups' views got to do with the issue of pricing carbon
. No wonder the polls have turned against Abbott. One minute climate change is "crap", then it's real, then it's not (CO2 isn't really a villian), then the next day it's really happening again, and then the next he associates with fruitloop denialists of all sorts
. You can't be all things to all men as Phoney Tony is trying to be.
