"We are about to hang an innocent hero"

The Carbon Sense Coalition » Clearing the Smog of Beijing with “Coal by Wire.”

As the TV turns nightly to Beijing, we can expect chilling pictures and doomsday comments about the “Asian Pollution” and the “Beijing Smog”. This will induce media and political scaremongers to use these images to sell dud products like the “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme”.

It is not carbon dioxide from burning coal that pollutes the skies of Asia and Africa. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a naturally occurring, clean, invisible, beneficial gas. CO2 is an essential part of the natural world but a very minor trace constituent of our atmosphere.

The major gases in the atmosphere are Nitrogen (78%), Oxygen (21%) and Argon (less than 1%). These three gases make up 99.9% of the atmosphere (ignoring the variable water vapour which can rise to 4%). Seven other trace gases, including CO2, together make up less than 0.1% and CO2 is less than 0.04%.

This trace amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is the aerial food store for all plants, and thus also sustains all animals, including humans. CO2 is a boon to life, not a pollutant.

Moreover, the claim that man’s emissions will cause dangerous global warming is strongly and increasingly disputed by scientists and is not supported by historical evidence. It also defies common sense to believe that such a minor natural gas can cause all the climate disasters that are blamed on it.

We are about to hang an innocent hero.