Ben Stein : A Few Oddities
Second interesting issue. Our President, Mr. Obama, and other high pooh-bahs, want us to use more nuclear power to offset the harmful effects of burning coal, oil, and natural gas. These carbon products pollute the air and (supposedly, although no one is buying this any longer except for a few fanatics) are dangerous to human health because they create ''global warming." Therefore, so the reasoning runs, we should use nuclear power.Ben Stein, 2009: Dirty Work: Dealing With Air Pollution
When I am in a traffic jam on the 10 Freeway in Los Angeles, with thousands of cars and trucks belching out carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, I feel as if I'm being gassed by my fellow motorists -- and they probably feel the same way about me.
I am not entirely convinced that the burning of gasoline causes climate change, and there are smart people with good points on both sides of this issue. But I do assume that filling the atmosphere with CO and too much CO2 is not good for children and most other living things (although C02 is good for plants).
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1 comment:
Ummm... This just goes to show why we should not be paying attention to celebrities and pundits when it comes to matters of chemistry.
Too much CO2 will extinguish human life, just like it will extinguish certain types of fire, if there is enough of it to displace oxygen. But the combustion process for automobile engines, unless one is going to lock oneself in a garage or some confined area, does not produce enough CO2 to displace the oxygen necessary to breath. The human body is quite capable of handling CO2 which, BTW, is an ordinary product of human respiration.
CO, on the other hand, is harmful to humans but again, only in the high concentrations possible only in confined and somewhat sealed spaces.
There are other byproducts of internal combustion engines that are noxious and unhealthful and it certainly a good idea to control and reduce those things in so far as technically and economically feasible and sensible.
Apparently Mr. Stein has learned something about CO2 since 2009 such as, perhaps, the notion that it is a "pollutant".
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