American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023 - 85
Wrightstone Analyzes CO2 For PIOGA
WEXFORD, PA.-The May edition
of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil &
Gas Association's " Just the Facts " series
features guest author Greg Wrightstone,
executive director of the CO2 Coalition
and author of Inconvenient Facts: The
Science That Al Gore Doesn't Want You
to Know. Wrightstone's piece examines
the important role carbon dioxide plays
in agricultural efficiency, habitat growth,
erosion prevention and the improvement
of ecosystems around the world.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom
that casts anthropogenic CO2 emissions
as nothing but detrimental pollution with
disastrous consequences for the Earth,
the geologist and expert reviewer for the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change makes a contrarian case.
" People should be celebrating, not demonizing,
modern increases in atmospheric
CO2. " Wrightstone asserts. " We cannot
overstate the importance of the gas. Without
it, life doesn't exist. Rare, exotic exceptions
are anaerobic life forms dwelling
at out-of-the-way places like ocean-bottom
volcanic vents. "
Taking A Long View
Each of the globe's last four glacial
advances saw CO2 concentrations of 190
parts per million, Wrightstone details,
which is less than half of the planet's
contemporary concentration of 420 ppm.
" When glaciers began receding about
14,000 years ago-a blink in geological
time-CO2 levels fell to 182 ppm, a concentration
thought to be the lowest in
Earth's history, " he notes. " Why is this
alarming? Because below 150 ppm, most
terrestrial plant life dies. Without plants,
there are no animals. "
Therefore, he reflects, a mere 32 ppm
provided the margin that prevented a true
climate apocalypse that would have entailed
the extinction of most land-based plants
and all higher terrestrial life-forms. Moreover,
he continues, before industrialization
started adding CO2 to the atmosphere, it
was impossible to know if the next glacial
period would send CO2 levels below the
critical 150-ppm threshold.
" Contrary to the mantra that today's
CO2 concentration is unprecedentedly
high, our current geologic period, the
Quaternary, has seen the lowest average
levels of carbon dioxide since the end of
the Pre-Cambrian Period more than 600
million years ago, " Wrightstone explains.
" The average CO2 concentration throughout
Earth's history was more than 2,600
ppm, nearly seven times current levels. "
Beneficial Increases
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations
climbed from 280 ppm in 1750 to the
present day's 420 ppm, with most of that
increase coming from the surge in industrial
activity after World War II, Wrightstone
recounts. The higher concentration has
been a boon for life on the planet because
of how the gas serves as a plant food in
increasing photosynthesis, he says.
According to Wrighstone, the benefits
include:
· Faster plant growth with less water
and larger crop yields;
· Expansion of forests and grasslands;
·
Less topsoil erosion because of
more plant growth; and
· Increases in plants' natural insect
repellents.
" A summary of 270 laboratory studies
covering 83 food crops showed that increasing
CO2 concentrations by 300 ppm
boosts plant growth by an average of
46%, " he recounts. " Conversely, many
studies show adverse effects of low-CO2
environments. For instance, one indicated
that, compared with today, plant growth
was 8% less in the period before the Industrial
Revolution, with a low concentration
of 280 ppm CO2. Therefore, attempts
to reduce CO2 concentrations are
bad for plants, animals and humankind. "
Wrighstone cites Indur Goklany's recent
paper published by the CO2 Coalition,
which indicates that as much as 50% of
Earth's vegetated areas became greener
between 1982 and 2011. Researchers attribute
70% of the greening to CO2 fertilization
from fossil fuel emissions, the
paper notes, while another 9% of that is
attributed to fossil-fuel-derived fertilizers.
" Goklany also reported that the beneficial
fertilization effect of CO2-along
with the use of hydrocarbon-dependent
machinery, pesticides and fertilizers-
have saved at least 20% of land area
from being converted to agricultural purposes,
an area 25% larger than North
America, " Wrightstone details. " The amazing
increase in agricultural productivity,
partly the result of more CO2, has allowed
the planet to feed eight billion people,
compared with the fewer than 800,000
inhabitants living a short 300 years ago. "
Furthermore, he continues, more CO2
in the air translates into more moisture
in the soil. " The major cause of water
loss in plants is attributable to transpiration,
in which the stomata, or pores, on the
undersides of the leaves open to absorb
CO2 and expel oxygen and water vapor, "
Wrightstone explains. " With more CO2,
the stomata are open for shorter periods,
the leaves lose less water, and more moisture
remains in the soil. The associated
increase in soil moisture has been linked
to global decreases in wildfires, droughts
and heat waves. "
Dubious Doomsaying
Wrightstone indicates that public
alarmism about global climate change
largely originates with exaggerations
about CO2's potential to retain heat that
otherwise will radiate to outer space. As
with water vapor, methane and nitrous
oxide, CO2 retains atmospheric heat by
reacting to infrared portions of the electromagnetic
spectrum, he acknowledges,
but the gas largely has saturated within
the infrared range, which minimizes its
potential to further increase warming.
" Both sides of the climate debate agree
that the warming effect of each molecule
of CO2 decreases significantly (logarithmically)
as the concentration increases, "
Wrightstone maintains. " This is one reason
why there was no runaway greenhouse
warming when CO2 concentrations approached
20 times that of today. This inconvenient
fact, despite its importance, is
rarely mentioned because it undermines
the theory of a future climate catastrophe.
A doubling of CO2 from today's level of
420 ppm-an increase estimated to take
200 years to attain-would have an inconsequential
effect on global temperature. "
The CO2 that is liberated by combusting
Pennsylvania coal was removed from the
atmosphere eons ago by the photosynthesis
of vegetation that fed on sunlight and CO2
before those plants died and accumulated
in the vast coal swamps of the Carboniferous
Period, he relates. Similarly, he continues,
the Marcellus and Utica shales
originate from algae remains that gathered
on the bottom of the Ordovician and Devonian
seas. As with the coal deposits, he
observes, the algae used solar-powered
photosynthesis and CO2, to remove vast
volumes of CO2 from the air and lock it
up as carbon-rich organic matter.
" The provenance of these hydrocarbons
spawns two novel ideas, " Wrightstone
suggests. " First, there is a strong case
that these are solar-powered fuels. Second,
the sequestering of carbon during the
creation of the hydrocarbons lowered atmospheric
concentrations of CO2 to suboptimum
levels for plants. Therefore, the
combustion of today's coal and gas is
liberating valuable CO2 molecules that
are turbocharging plant growth. "
❒
JULY 2023 85
American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023
Contents
American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023 - Intro
American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023 - Cover1
American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023 - Cover2
American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023 - Contents
American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023 - 4
American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023 - 5
American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023 - 6
American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023 - 7
American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023 - 8
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023 - 33
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023 - Cover3
American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2023 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aogr/202502
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aogr/202412
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