I need some of you smart people to get me, an uneducated white male, straight on this CO2 effect on the environment and the climate. From the recesses of my mind, I seem to recall that plants need CO2 along with sunlight, water, and nutrients  to produce the food that enables them to live and grow.

I think I also remember reading somewhere that when the CO2 levels increase the plants grow bigger and lusher which I would think would result in an increased intake of CO2.

In turn this whole process, called I think photosynthesis, using CO2, sunlight and water not only produces food for the plant but releases oxygen into the air as a byproduct. And if it is a crop plant – larger crop yields. Now not being a great thinker I still seem to see a built in balance going on here – more CO2 – bigger plants, bigger plants – more intake of CO2, more intake of CO2 – more oxygen released. In my small and feeble brain this would all seem to be a good thing.

(I’m almost sure about the above as Al Gore says he plants trees to reduce his carbon footprint.  As much as he flies around in his private jet and rides in big SUVs, I’m thinking he should have reforested most of North America by now.)

There are experts who say increased CO2 in the atmosphere is a bad thing and causes the climate to warm. I guess we wouldn’t want it to get too hot, but it would seem that the growing season in the normally colder areas would lengthen and perhaps crops that were restricted to the warmer climes could now grow farther north or south depending on the hemisphere.  More food would be good I’m thinking.

I also seem to remember hearing or reading that there is evidence that plants and crops once grew in Greenland, which as I understand  is a pretty cold place.  Could it be that the earth was as warm or warmer during that period than it is now ?

I hope one of you educated folks can help me out here and give me the real skinny on this. Meantime, I’ll just get back to reading my Bible and cleaning my guns.  Of course I might give Bill Nye a call as it seems according to the media that he and Gore are the pre-eminent scientists on climate change.