A Climate Catechism

Q. Is it true the more C02 in the atmosphere the higher the temperature?  
A. No. The present C02 level is 407 parts per million, and the average temperature 14 Celsius.  650 million years ago the C02 level was 4000 parts per million and the earth was a giant snowball with a temperature of -58 Celsius
Q. So why today is it important to reduce the amount of C02 in the atmosphere to slow global warming.
A. It isn’t. C02 levels are already dangerously low. They have been falling from around 7000 parts per million for 66 million years to their present level, whether the earth was hot and tropical or cold and icy. We should be glad they are going up a bit now.
Q. Why?
A. At 170 parts per million plant life starts to die off.
Q. So why do we need to reduce C02 in the atmosphere ?
A. We don’t. Modern human beings are responsible for a tiny fraction  – a comparison would be 16 grains of sugar (carbon) made by man out of 10,000 grains of sugar – all the carbon – released into the atmosphere. The rest, 96%, comes from the growth and decay of plants, animal farts, termites, volcanoes, all other forms of biological life.
Q. Where is most of the C02?
A. In the sea.
Q. How much is in the sea?
A. Fifty times more than in the atmosphere.
Q. Does it stay in the sea?
A. No. When the sea warms it releases C02 and when it gets cold it absorbs it, just as warming a bottle of bubbly releases the bubbles while corking it and putting it in a bucket full of ice cause the bubbles to dissolve back into the drink.
Q. What warms the sea ?
A. The sun. The sun controls the vast bulk of C02 released into the atmosphere.
Q. What happens to C02 when there is less sun?
A. It is dissolved in the sea. It sinks to the bottom of the cold Arctic and Antarctic waters and, over 500 years, is carried by currents around the globe to the warmer Pacific where it bubbles up again into the atmosphere.
Q. So the C02 we are now seeing in the atmosphere is the result of the sun warming the sea 500 years ago ?
A. Possibly. It has almost nothing to do with the tiny 0.4% of C02 that our cars, factories and aircraft etc manage to produce each year. Trying to remove it will bring our economies to a halt and it won’t change the temperature.
Q. How much will that cost?
A. Billions of dollars per year.
Q. With what result?
A. None.
Q. How will that affect me?
A. By closing power stations, installing expensive green energy etc, your grandchildrens’ standard of living will revert to the 1850s.