I breathe carbon dioxide out right? How can that be bad for the planet?

We don’t actually breathe in pure oxygen, and breathe out pure carbon dioxide (CO2). We breathe a blend of gasses. Nitrogen and oxygen with a substantial amount of water vapor make up the bulk of the air we breathe. CO2 has been a trace amount in the atmosphere for a long time. We run into problems when this blend of gasses changes too dramatically. CO2 isn’t poisonous by itself, but the buildup of it can be. We all know better than to stick our heads in plastic bags right? Why? Because the air runs out of oxygen and the carbon dioxide builds up. We can look at the planet like a big plastic baggie. There is only so much carbon dioxide the system can absorb. We have reached that point, and need to take steps now to back up.

So what do we do, tell people to stop breathing?

No, I hardly see that as a viable option do you? A large sedentary adult breathing normally produces somewhere in the range of 500 pounds of greenhouse gasses annually. If you planted a tree a year, the earth would take up that amount of carbon dioxide. The earth has a harder time with the 30,000 pounds of CO2 that same person produces through driving and using electricity.

I don’t believe in global warming, so what?

The thing about science is that you don’t have to believe in it; it’s a lot like the mailman, you can disbelieve in the mailman too, but he still delivers the mail. Sadly, in the United States, the science behind climate change was tied into partisan politics somewhere along the line and as a result it inherited political bias. I urge you to join us in looking past these lines. This isn’t about conservative or liberal; rather this is about worldwide environmental awareness and sustainability.

The climate has changed before there were people here, why should I care about climate change now?

Earth as we know it evolved over four and a half billion years into a place suitable for us. Over that time the atmosphere went from 1% oxygen to about 21% and our way of life is dependent on this balance. In the last 200 years, not only have we changed the atmosphere but we are doing so faster and faster. The current rate of global warming is 10 times greater than it has ever been and scientists from all over the world have shown that this phenomenon is directly related to human activities.

So why is there so much opposition to action?

Climate change has been accepted in the almost all of the developed world, but there are always businesses and individuals making money on the status quo. Remember when the pesticide industry fought the banning of DDT? Or when the tobacco industry told us cigarettes don’t cause cancer? These companies have to defend their profit margins, and will until the very last second they can.