Golf balls and carbon dioxide

Golf balls and carbon dioxide

 

 

By Kelvin Kemm|

 

There is a video clip of Senator John Kennedy interviewing some climate change enthusiast. The issue of rising carbon dioxide in the air came up. The interviewee pointed out ‘how bad rising CO2 was.’ So Kennedy asked him, “How much is there in the atmosphere now?”

 

But let me digress for a moment to gripe. I hate the terms ‘carbon’ and ‘carbon tax’ and so on. Let me be clear, chemically, carbon dioxide gas and carbon are two totally different things. Referring to ‘carbon’ is like saying; “Please pass me the sodium, so I can put some on my steak,” when what you mean is “please pass the salt,” because everyday salt is sodium chloride. It bears no resemblance to highly flammable and dangerous sodium metal.

 

Okay, so back to the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. The person being grilled by Kennedy did not know. So Kennedy, quite correctly, jumped on him.

 

Imagine complaining about, say, the amount of poisonous liquid being poured into a river by a factory, and its horrendous consequences. But then when questioned, you have absolutely no idea how much chemical went into the river, or what it does. The fellow in the CO2 hot seat had no idea whether the concentration was 25%, 30%, or 15%, or whatever.

 

Kennedy pointed out that the actual concentration of CO2 is 0.04%.

 

Let me put that into perspective. Imagine 10,000, yes ten thousand, golf balls lying on the green. You now take four of these golf balls and paint them red. Then turn your back and throw them over your shoulder, back into the 10,000.

 

Yellow dot ball

 

So now, if the 10,000 golf balls represent the total composition of the atmosphere, including oxygen, nitrogen, and so on, then the total CO2 is the four red balls. Only four balls out of 10,000. However, let us go even further. Now pick out one of the four red golf balls, paint some yellow dots on it, and throw it back. The red ball with yellow dots represents all the extra CO2 added to the atmosphere since the time that Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States.

 

It is that one red ball with the dots that all the “climate change” fuss is about. The climate agitators keep referring to the “COor carbon added since the beginning of the Industrial Age.”

 

Using that terminology is a psychological trick to try to imply that industry is to blame. Before I get jumped on by certain people, as a physicist, let me hasten to add that the red ball with the yellow dots amount was largely added by all of industry. You can tell by looking at certain nuclear signatures and other stuff.

 

So now we have to ask questions like; “Is that one red ball with the yellow dots really causing a whole spectrum of negative effects?” “How much is due to industry, like coal power stations, as opposed to other sources, like farming?” “How much of that one golf ball could we have prevented or can we prevent now?”

 

Are there negative effects?

 

As far as negative effects are concerned, I am one of the physicists who believes that there are none. Yes, the temperature of the world, on average, has risen 1.5°C since Abraham Lincoln walked the streets with his long top hat. But why? The climate enthusiasts, tapping their bongo drums, refuse to take into consideration that it could be the Sun. They want industry to be at fault, because then there are some targets to attack for money. But in fact, by far, the most likely candidate is the Sun. Not brightening of the Sun, but alteration in the strength of its magnetic field. That affects the cloud cover on Earth, which then allows more or less heat to penetrate.

 

So, it probably is not industry, like coal-fired power stations. But how much CO2 is due to them? Well, not much, because CO2 came from many human activities since Abraham topped his hat to good sense. For a start, there are just many more people since Abe stood at Gettysburg and said, “Four score and seven years ago.” The world’s population is now almost four score times more.

 

Since Gettysburg, coal power has added about 25% of that one golf ball in the 10,000. The U.S. is responsible for about a quarter of the one golf ball, and the EU another quarter. Today, countries like China are building new coal stations faster than the Western world is closing them down.

 

So, how much of that yellow-dotted red golf ball could we have prevented this century? The answer is: virtually none of it. The ‘net zero by 2050’ target is just a fantasy. Besides, the carbon, or CO2, likely does not matter anyway. It is most likely the natural magnetic cycle of the Sun, which has happened many times before.

 

Kelvin Kemm
Dr Kelvin Kemm is a South African nuclear physicist and has been a CFACT Senior Advisor for over two decades. He is Chairman of Stratek Holdings, a nuclear project management company, and is past Chairman of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa).He has given both Congressional and Senate briefings in Washington DC. He has been guest speaker at over 20 US universities, and most recently gave a guest presentation in New York City. He has presented evidence to the Legislature of the State of Maine concerning nuclear power.

 

From cfact.org

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