Carbon Dioxide Confusion
Comedian and talk-show host Bill Maher claims that CO2 is “carbon” and a “pollutant” that will kill you if you “go in the garage, close the door,” and “turn the car on.”
IN FACT, Maher is conflating carbon monoxide, a highly poisonous gas, with carbon dioxide, which is relatively nontoxic. Such confusion has been fueled by politicians and media outlets who refer to CO2 as “carbon pollution” while ignoring these scientific facts:
- CO2 is not carbon, just like H2O is not hydrogen.
- There are more than 10 million different carbon compounds, including “relatively nonreactive and nontoxic” substances like CO2 and “intense” poisons like CO.
- CO2 is vital to the existence of all forms of life and is emitted by nature at 19 times the rate that it is emitted by human activities.
- CO2 “does not cause cancer, affect development or suppress the immune system in humans.”
- CO2 causes no significant adverse cardio-pulmonary effects or discomfort in humans until concentrations exceed at least 48 times the level in Earth’s atmosphere.
- CO2 is a desired output of automotive catalytic converters, which the EPA describes as an “anti-pollution device” that converts “exhaust pollutants such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides to normal atmospheric gases such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water.”
Like all substances, CO2 has adverse effects at high doses, like those in face masks. Yet, certain politicians, journalists, and scientists deny that rigorously documented fact while referring to much lower levels of ambient CO2 as “pollution.”
