Yeah, ya know, CO2 is indeed a natural gas that is needed in the atmosphere but...if you look at all of the natural excretion of CO2 compared to the CO2 that humans create, the earth can not maintain an equilibrium...particularly when one of the things human are doing is leveling huge swaths of rainforest and other natural CO2 absorbers. Pretty sure humans care cause far more CO2 than can be absorbed and that excess human made CO2 is indeed a pollutant if you accept that a a pollutant is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effects, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource?
I think you are underplaying the significance of CO2, Jeff. It's not just needed in the atmosphere, like a particular vitamin is needed for good health. It's a molecule that is absolutely essential for all life and plant growth on our planet.
Plants in particular thrive on increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. A doubling of CO2 levels, say from preindustrial levels of 280 ppm, to 560 ppm that might exist at some time in the near future, would have the effect of increasing total plant growth by an average of 30%.
Some types of pants will increase their growth by 40% or more with a doubling of CO2 levels. Other types might increase their growth by only 20%, and this effect takes place with the same amount of water and nutrients.
When plants are water-stressed due to drought conditions, the benefits of high levels of CO2 are even greater. This can be confirmed in real time without the need of computer projections.
This is an inconvenient truth for CO2 alarmists. How do they counter it?
The mantra is, such increases in plant growth, with respect to agricultural crops, do not contain as much protein and micro-nutrients as plants grown in lower levels of CO2. I don't deny this, but let's unravel it.
If soils do not contain sufficient quantities of certain minerals and micronutrients to accommodate increased growth, then the percentage of such minerals in the final product will be reduced. That's obvious.
If there's no Selenium in the soil, for example, then one should not expect any Selenium to be present in any crop grown in the soil. Basic logic.
If it were possible, through some science fiction scenario, to bring CO2 levels back to preindustrial levels in one year, by seeding processes that caused the CO2 to fall as rain, the alarmists might be overjoyed, but the reality is, there'd be a catastrophic reduction in agricultural production. There'd be mass starvation in many undeveloped countries.
