If humans had not come along and started putting CO2 back into the atmosphere would the levels have eventually become too low for life forms as we know them to exist in large quantities. If so roughly how long would this have taken, would it likely be low on the list of things that would wipe out life on earth?
One of the scenarios for the ending of “life as we know it” on Earth is the reduction of CO2 levels to the point that plants can’t survive.
However, this is not projected to happen for 500 Million or more years, which is so far into the future that a whole lot of other issues also raise their heads, like the Sun brightening and making there Earth too warm and dry, or too much Hydrogen escaping into space, and leaving too little water for life.
But the narrative in some modern conspiracy theories includes the notion that abundant CO[sub]2[/sub] is necessary for life, so it’s a good thing you drive a big pickup truck because it helps plants grow. And those darn greenies who want to ban fossil fuels secretly intend to starve your children, etc.
Climate Change Deniers do not understand, or don’t care to understand, that our climate is very sensitive to the level of CO[sub]2[/sub] in the air. If for example, there was 0 ppm of CO[sub]2[/sub] in the air, the Earth would turn into an ice ball and all life would be extinguished. OTOH, we now have around 400 ppm of CO[sub]2[/sub] in the air due to the burning of fossil fuels. Yea, it means most plants will flourish. But that also includes weeds and invasive plants. And more energy will be expended by us to control growth.
I think a lot of folks being labeled as climate change deniers lean more toward believing that the cure should not create more problems than the issue itself. Coastlines may change a bit and weather patterns may change but life will go on. Common sense solutions with some degree of urgency are the direction we are headed in and should continue to head in. The is a very large sub set of the worlds population right now that seems to be thinking the world is going to end pretty soon and that is preposterous.
Well, displacing nearly half a billion people due to costal flooding seems like more than “a bit."
Climate change deniers, by definition, insist that there is no need for any type of cure.
That’s what we call a strawman argument.
Life will eventually end due to the Sun’s warming; there’s no avoiding that. But that’s on a time scale irrelevant to the current issue of CO2 levels and global climate change.
Have any of them calculated what happens to agriculture and even humans as the temperature rises? Doesheat stress not kill crops? Does heat stress not kill people?
I answered the question posed by the OP.