The Virtues of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

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George Washington was at Valley Forge during the coldest period in 1,500 years, with Earth average temperatures dipping as low as 1 degree centigrade below the 3,000-year average. Since then, temperatures have gradually recovered. If the current rate of increase continues, about two centuries from now the temperature of the Earth will be back to that of the medieval period 1,000 years ago -- when Greenland was green and warmer weather brought increased growing seasons and general rises in comfort and prosperity in many cooler climates.

Meanwhile, in the United States, rainfall is increasing, tornados are becoming less frequent, glaciers have been receding for 200 years -- back to their more normal average lengths, and hurricane frequency and severity has been unchanged for the past century.

Standing timber in U.S. forests has, however, increased by 40% since 1950*; 2,000-year-old pine trees are growing faster; and animal and plant quantity and diversity are sharply increasing. This is truly alarming! If current trends continue, we will be overrun by squirrels, deer, and foxes and fighting for our lives against aggressively growing orange and apple trees. A dire prediction was even published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences -- I am not making this up -- warning that poison ivy is also growing faster.

[* the US's massive reforestation program means it has literally done more to 'offset' carbon emissions than any other nation, and why North America is a net CO2 sink. Kyoto requires ignoring that fact in computing America's 'carbon footprint'. Why?]

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