Note: The blogster has nothing against the substance called CO2. Not a thing. It* does not mind that burning fossil fuels creates CO2. This is a chemical reaction, period.
In conversations, the blogster would frequently smirk and grin, well, fossil fuels are solar energy, just millions of years old.
This being said, it will repeat the title for maximum effect. And in bold this time.
Dear proponents of "CO2 is Life": fuck you.
The blogster has long lamented equating CO2 with global warming as a means to argue political and economic change.
Not because it thinks the two have nothing to do with each other.
But because it is way too easy to point at the role CO2 plays for plants, because it is too easy to point at earlier times in the Earth's history with far higher atmospheric CO2 levels and marvel at an abundance of greenery - while leaving out there were no 7+ billion humans at the time messing with basically every single one of the planet's ecosystems.
Also because CO2 as a compound released in burning fossil fuels is harmless compared to actual poisons contained in crude oil and coal and to toxins released when fossil fuels are burned.
And even more, because of what we produce from it: not just electricity and energy but huge amounts of plastics and substances millions of times more lethal than crude oil.
To this day, the blogster feels sad that melting ice caps and glaciers are the best imagery of the dangers of global warming.
Because we live our daily lives embedded inside the powerful narrative of all the wonderful life enhancing and life saving things that were developed in a world dominated by and powered by fossil fuels.
Even pictures of a submerged New York don't quite cut it.
No, the blogster does not want to go back to a wood energy society because it has seen the photos of depleted forests in Central Europe after the two world wars.
The blogster wants everybody to have a comfortable life.
But that is not what political and corporate CO2 is Life folks are about. They simply want to get more of the stuff out of the ground and make money.
But these still are not the full reasons for the Fuck You. You want to know how you have really earned a whole hearted Fuck You?
By claiming we don't know if global warming is man made. Many of you stop there, others are dumb enough to say therefore no action is needed.
If only man made bad things warrant action, why have you bothered at all to improve life since the days we crawled out of the oceans, why are you such great disease fighters, why do you extend the lifetime of food that just wants to rot? Wouldn't it be reasonable to let diseases take their course?
Oh, wait. The leaders among you do not give a sh*** with regard to that either as long as it does not impact you personally.
Creeks are not man made, but you will use a paddle to navigate them.
The only creek you go up without a paddle is probably man made.
The blogster wants to end the post on a positive note. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that a CO2 is Life person has made it this far.
Because they are fellow humans, and the vast majority of them wouldn't mind using less fossil fuels, would buy nice shoes that last instead of flimsy cheap discardable loafers, and would want their children to hear birds in the morning and to chase after butterflies after school.
[Update 6/2/2017]
Here are a couple of base figures for the blogster's humble abode, which is a two story house more than 100 years old.
Comfort level: American (aka. could do better).
Last purchase of heating oil for hot water & winter heating: 5 years ago. Amount purchased: 400 gallons. Next purchase: 2018 or later.
Other fuel for heating and cooking: wood, approx. 5 cubic meters/year.
Total annual household power consumption approx. 1800 kWh, incl. all amenities & home office.
Power savings from LED lighting (zero on moving in, 95% now) approx. 200kWh.
Hot water from thermal solar from, generally, mid May well into Fall: 100%.
One more thing:
The German government will claim this as a success of its climate strategy.
Which is really fucked because not a shred of its motivation had anything to do with the German or any other government.
Oh, and no subsidies were used either. For the work and equipment involved, Germany subsidizes companies, which looks great but turns the whole thing into a zero sum game. Cost estimates by companies came out at the projected lifetime of the measures, which only works for rental properties.
* We are gender neutral at the K-Landnews. Which just so happens to be another pet peeve of the CO2 is life brigade.
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