Co-authored by Ronald Stein and Gregory Wrightstone

The world now sustains 8 billion people—ten times the population prior to the Industrial Revolution and thankfully has experienced record crop production. This rapid increase in agricultural output is partially attributable to an increase in atmospheric CO₂ since 1940. This rise in CO₂ levels alone is linked to major yield increases for corn, soybeans, and wheat.

The world has also experienced significant economic growth and prosperity, benefiting from the more than 6,000 products that are derived from fossil fuels.  These products support the following infrastructures and were not around a few short centuries ago, because they all need components and parts made from fossil fuels that were NOT available in the pre-1800’s:

• Non-animal powered transportation
• Airports
• Hospitals
• Electronics
• Telecommunications
• Communications systems
• Militaries
• Space programs

Worldwide crop harvests and yields continue to climb. This is contrary to what politicians and the media tell you. We are growing more food on less land than ever before in history. The underfed populations are declining. That is all good. CO₂ is airborne Miracle Grow.

Today, CO₂ levels are about 420 ppm, a 50% increase since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. The minimum threshold for plant life is 150 ppm, and the Earth approached that catastrophically low level during the last ice advance.  When plants die, only microbial life on Earth will survive.

Atmospheric CO₂ levels had been in a significant and serious decline for the last 140 million years. They have declined from nearly 4,000 ppm to slightly more than 180 ppm 18,000 years ago. While our recent increase in concentration is helping to fuel vegetation and agricultural growth, the levels remain suboptimal for vegetation and crops. Compared to the average throughout Earth’s history (2,600 ppm) our current levels of CO₂ are near to historically low levels.

The question for that next conversation may be: If politicians support continued CO₂ reductions, what is the backup plan to support crop production to sustain the 8 billion on this planet?

In addition, greenhouses, submarines, and international space station CO₂ concentrations range from 1,000 ppm to 6,500 ppm.

A MUST viewing to enhance one’s ability to participate in CONVERSATIONS with students, teachers, and friends on the subject of Energy Literacy is a 40-minute conversation with Greg Wrightstone.

In addition, to assist with the subjects on Energy Literacy Conversations, an easy APP for your iPhone is the:  Inconvenient Facts.

Just a few Inconvenient Facts from the APP to stimulate CONVERSATIONS:

• CO₂ is plant food; thus, more CO₂ means more plant growth.
• CO₂ has been decreasing for 140 million years.
• Modern warming began long BEFORE SUV’s or coal-fired power plants.
• Temperatures have changed for 800,000 years, before modern civilization.
• It was warmer than today for more than 6,000 of the last 10,000 years.
• We are living in one of the coldest periods in all of Earth’s history.
• For 65 million years, the weather was warmer than today.
• More CO₂ = fewer droughts.
• The earth is becoming greener, not turning into desert.
• Extreme heat events are declining.
• Cold kills far more people than heat each year.
• There has been a 250-year decline in hurricane #’s.
• The population of polar bears is growing.
• Sea level increases began more than 15,000 years ago.

There is still much to be accomplished as almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day and billions are living with little to no access to electricity, like those living in places like Africa, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, is complicated by the hypocritical “green” agendas of leaders in the few wealthier developed economies that have benefited from the more than 6,000 products made from fossil fuels since the beginning of the industrial era.

World leaders have little comprehension that reducing crop production via a reduction of CO₂ and ridding the world of crude oil, without a replacement in our minds, would be immoral and evil, as extreme shortages of food and the products now manufactured from fossil fuels will result in billions of fatalities from diseases, malnutrition, and weather-related deaths, and could be the greatest threat to the world’s population of 8 billion.

To provide both the wealthy countries and those in developing countries with continuous food supplies and for the multitude of products made from fossil fuels that were not available a few hundred years ago, we need to focus on solutions for FOOD and ENERGY POVERTY.

FOOD and ENERGY POVERTY is promoted by a limited supply chain of the enhanced crop production worldwide, and all the products made from fossil fuels that are the basis of everything, such as:

• Appliances
• Heating and Ventilating
• Water filtration
• Sanitation
• Medical equipment
• Electrical generation (yes, all the “parts” of every electrical generation system such as wind, solar, coal, natural gas, hydro, and nuclear, are all based on the products made from fossil fuels.

Electricity that is reliable, abundant, uninterruptable and affordable is needed to operate phones, I Pads, computers, Xray machines, etc., etc. that are made with the products made from fossil fuels.

Without those products made from fossil fuels there would be nothing that needs electricity!  As we know, Unreliable Renewables, like wind turbines and solar panels, only generate occasional electricity, but manufacture no products for the 8 billion on this planet.

There are many commonalities among CO₂ levels and the many products made from fossil fuels, that are supporting today’s 8 billion on this planet.  Hopefully the contents of this article will stimulate CONVERSATIONS on Energy Literacy that will debunk global warming myths!

This commentary was first published at America Out Loud News on July 8, 2024.

Gregory Wrightstone is a geologist; executive director of the CO₂ Coalition, Arlington, Va.; author of “Inconvenient Facts: The Science That Al Gore Doesn’t Want You to Know” and “A Very Convenient Warming: How modest warming and more CO2 are benefiting humanity” and a co-author of “Nutritive Value of Plants Growing in Enhanced CO₂ Concentrations.”

Ronald Stein, P.E.,is an engineer, member of the CO2 Coalition, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for the Heartland Institute and CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations.”