An article in the New England Journal of Medicine, claiming Australian bushfires were proof of a climate crisis, prompted Ken Haapala ( President, Science
and Environmental Policy Project, or SEPP )
to post in the journal
the following comment:
“Carbon dioxide (CO2) and the greenhouse effect are critical for life on this planet.
Green plants require CO2.
Without green plants, it is doubtful complex life would exist.
Water vapor is the primary greenhouse gas, CO2 is secondary.
Without the greenhouse effect much of the earth would freeze at night, making it barren of complex life.
The claim that life-giving CO2 is a threat causing a climate crisis is extraordinary, requiring extraordinary physical evidence.
There is a dearth of physical evidence that CO2 is causing dangerous global warming.
The greenhouse effect occurs in the atmosphere.
The entire 40-year record of comprehensive atmospheric measurements shows temperatures have warmed slightly.
This is the most comprehensive global temperature record existing.
What physical evidence shows that greenhouse gases are causing dangerous warming?
The problems of bushfires in Australia have been known since Black Thursday in 1851.
Bushfires are not physical evidence of a CO2- caused climate crisis.”