Rep. Shimkus: Carbon Emissions Are Really "Plant Food"

Not to get depressing on a Monday, but people who hope that our government will be the engine of important and needed societal change would do well to remember that our public policy is often only as good as the most crackpotty member of Congress involved in it. And, as it turns out, we elect a lot of crackpots to office. To wit, here's a video of Representative John Shimkus, who represents Illinois' 19th District, speaking with climate-change-denying pseudoscientist Lord Christopher Monckton about how man-made carbon emissions are "plant food."

As Washington Monthly's dday puts it:

Shimkus basically maps out a world where, prior to the Industrial Revolution, no plant life existed, because we hadn't yet set into motion mass production of their "food." In this scenario, plants actually sprung to life shortly after the invention of the Watt steam engine in the 18th century.

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Kevin Grandia: The Republican's global warming amateur hour

MORE:
Shimkus: Capping C02 Emissions Will "Take Away Plant Food" [Progress Illinois]
Rep Shimkus Says We Need Uncapped Carbon Emissions Because Carbon is "Plant Food" [Yglesias]

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Comments

[Richard2]

On the topic of CO2 as a plant food, readers should check out the lengthy article in the New York Times about the great physicist Freeman Dyson. Dyson's views differ from the conventional wisdom concerning CO2 emissions. The article is a great entry into the thoughts of a great mind. Well done, New York Times.

[fflores]

I really do hope that people realize that "Carbon Emissions" and Carbon-Dioxide (plant food) are 2 different things.... cause reading some of the replies, the bible thumpers seem to be out in full force.

[SFTor]

They are not. CO2 is CO2.

And it is, as a matter of fact, plant food.

[StanlyManly]

I really do hope that people realize that 95% of "Carbon Emissions" would still happen, even if Humanity digressed back to the stone age... because reading some of the replies, the easily influenced and uneducated seem to be out in full force.

[SFTor]

It is indicative of the climate debate that a guy like Shimkus basically gets it right, but goes overboard by suggesting that we are "depriving plants of food" by limiting emissions.

CO2 is plant food. It is a main building block for photosynthesis with water and sunlight.

Atmospheric levels today (380 ppm) are low from the perspective of geological history. Several thousand ppm were not uncommon during previous geological eras. Levels have also been lower: during the last ice age it was about 180 ppm, and 280 ppm at the beginning of the modern industrial age.

Plants need around 200 ppm CO2 to survive.
Plants grow much faster in greenhouses with 1,500-2,000 PPM CO2. I don't know of any practical upper limit for CO2 levels, although there may be one.
CO2 becomes toxic to people at about 80,000 ppm.

It is therefore correct to say that current CO2 levels are relatively low (from a historic and biological point of view.) It is also correct to assume that plant growth will be higher with more CO2 in the atmosphere. The plants will presumably be eaten by people who need the extra food.

Not that we should emit more CO2. We never emit only CO2, but a whole lot of actual pollutants at the same time (NOx, SO2, etc).

This is one reason I am not overly worried about rising CO2 levels: we live in a carbon-eating biosphere. It will use use the available carbon.

[slarabee]

What will eat it. The rain forest that is being slashed and burned?

[SFTor]

There is a lot of rainforest being cut down. That is a real problem. Deforestation in the Amazon basin and elsewhere has local as well as global consequences.

Plants, wild and agricultural, grow everywhere. Empirical evidence from the SEAWifs project suggests that plant mass is increasing faster than we have ever seen all over the planet.

[clarryr]

He doesn't address the issue of there being too much plant food in the atmosphere or what we'll do with all the excess plants.

[SFTor]

We don't have any "excess plants." More plants will mean more crops and more wild plants. People eat crops, animals eat wild plants.

I am not suggesting that I know how this will play out, but there is at least some reason to believe that the overall result will not be catastrophic.

[Onandon]

If you believe Carbon is a danger to the earth you are an idiot.
If you believe man made carbon emission is a danger to the earth, you " " "
if you believe creating a cap and trade system for carbon credits helps the earth " " " "
If you believe that one of the four building blocks of life should be taxed " " " "
If you believe humans should be taxed for breathing " " " "
If you doubt that plants require carbon to live grow and thrive " " " "

[JXJASON]

I do not approve of the Obama "carbon tax". I also do not approve of a "cap and trade" system.

I use gasoline to travel, electricity and oil to heat my house and air to breathe. The idiots, like Al Gore, who think we should all worry about climate change do not understand that THERE WAS ONCE AN ICE AGE.

[slarabee]

John Shimkus's top contributor?

Ameren Corp $11,000 (electric and natural gas company)

Top Industry Contributions:

Health Professionals $101,300
Pharmaceut­icals/Heal­th Products $62,250
Electric Utilities $53,500
Oil & Gas $51,750
TV/Movies/Music $42,650

See; http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00004961

[rf-hawaii]

How many of our lawmakers hold the view (religion-based or otherwise) that protection of Earth's resources is unnecessary, since the end of the world is near?

[novowel4me]

Some, but probably, most only want the earth to last until they, personally, cash out. It's why hearing the GOP, regarding the debt, claim that they don't want to burden future generations is such a joke. They don't care, or they would also care about what was left of the earth as well.

[Whinger]

He must have been sniffing the same plant food, his brain cells are paying the price!

[WarrenPease]

"Shimkus basically maps out a world where, prior to the Industrial Revolution, no plant life existed, because we hadn't yet set into motion mass production of their "food." In this scenario, plants actually sprung to life shortly after the invention of the Watt steam engine in the 18th century."

So, what did the plant-eating dinosaurs eat -- you know, the ones that palled around with Gov. Pa.lin's ancestors?

[melmoid]

Clever. I like it.

[WarrenPease]

By that logic, my flatulence is plant food and I'm sure he won't mind if I send some in his general direction.

Just say "Shimkus" and try not to smile or laugh.

[edwcorey]

While espousing this view, he probably is in favor of clear-cutting forests as well. Reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon, where the planet Saturn, with a doctor's reflector on its rings, says to a sorry-looking Earth, "I'm afraid you have...humans."

[LeftLeanWing]

So does that mean that Oxygen is 'People Food' and McDonald's hasn't discovered a way to fry and sell it ?

[Tracy Hale]

Reason number 1,205,372 of why there needs to be an IQ prerequisite to be a member of congress.

[WarrenPease]

If "con-" is the opposite of "pro-," is Congress the opposite of progress?

[amluvinit2]

I don't know what's worse... That he said it, or that people will believe it. Sheesh...

[coco51]

Is it me or did the page sitting behind Shimkus look stupified! I don't think this guy realizes that oxygen is a needed for plants to grow thus it is food FOR plants and that plants also emits oxygen.

[LeftLeanWing]

No actually plants intake CO2 and emit Oxygen.

[BruceHNV]

No, actually, they both emit and consume oxygen. They emit a good deal more oxygen than they consume.

But photosynthesis emits oxygen, and the process of growth, which burns the "food" photo synthesis creates, consumes oxygen.

[melmoid]

Correct! Plants except for some extremophyles use water, CO2 and sunlight to produce carbohydrates and oxygen.