President says you “pollute the air that we breathe” . . . when you breathe!

“… this legislation is paid for by the polluters who currently emit the dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink and pollute the air that we breathe.” - President Barack Obama

The above quote is from the President’s June 23, 2009 press conference. It is in reference to the “cap-and-trade” bill making its way through Congress [Update:  passed by House of Representatives by 219-212 vote on 6/26/09]. This was not in response to a question (so he was not “winging it”), but part of the prepared remarks. I do not want to get into a debate about “global warming” or “climate change” today, however when the President of the United States makes such a decidedly unfactual statement regarding “carbon emissions”, it is necessary to correct that statement. “Carbon emissions” do not make the water we drink unhealthy, nor does it cause damage to animals and plants on this planet that inhale the air we breathe. A quick Google search of the term “carbon emissions” shows that common usage of this phrase is synonomous with carbon dioxide. I don’t know where the president went to school (!?!), but in most elementary school courses we learn that, on a very simple level, animals inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Conversely, plants “inhale” carbon dioxide and “exhale” oxygen. Put another way, plants take in sunlight and carbon dioxide which through the process of photosysthesis they turn into sugar (food) and oxygen.

William Happer, the former Chief Scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy and now Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics at Princeton University says, “Every time you exhale, you exhale air that has 4 percent carbon dioxide. To say that that’s a pollutant just boggles my mind.” So when the President says that “the legislation is paid for” by those who “emit … dangerous carbon emissions”, isn’t he stating that the bill will be paid by all of us “dangerous” “polluters”?  Are we, and all of the other animals on this planet, dangerously polluting the air every day, just by our very existence?  There is no debate that carbon dioxide causes no harm to life on this planet, as an atmospheric gas we all respirate.  In fact, considerable research shows that plants thrive when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rises.

As far as contaminating “the water we drink”, the soda in your hand is “contaminated” with carbon dioxide – CO2 is what makes the bubbles in CARBONated water! Recently, the National Academy of Sciences just published a study that shows sea stars exhibited significantly increased growth rates when carbon dioxide concentrations were doubled in laboratory conditions. There is no clear evidence that increased CO2 in the oceans is detrimental to sea life, but instead can carry substantial benefits for the vast majority of marine life.

To call “carbon emissions” “dangerous” is an outrageous twisting of the facts. It seems that no one dared to call out the President on such a clear misstatement. So we’re saying it here:

“Oh no you didn’t say that!”