Why do liberals hate CO2?

[Cocoa]

First it was the War on Christmas, now the liberals are going after the most American of gases.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/18/new-ads-funded-by-big-oil-portray-global-warming-science-as-smear-campaign-against-carbon-dioxide/

New Ads Funded by Big Oil Portray Global Warming Science as Smear Campaign Against Carbon Dioxide

Yesterday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute – a front group funded by ExxonMobil and other big oil companies – launched two advertisements in response to Al Gore’s new movie, An Inconvenient Truth.

The first ad portrays global warming science as a vicious smear campaign against carbon dioxide. The ad, which despite appearances is not an SNL parody, helpfully reminds us that carbon dioxide is “essential to life” because “we breath it out.”

Watch it:

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/18/new-ads-funded-by-big-oil-portray-global-warming-science-as-smear-campaign-against-carbon-dioxide/

[MadMaddie]

1. These ads could very well backfire on these big companies...

What a stupid anti-science thing to advertise...

[electropop]

4. They can't be series!

What a HUGH mistake!?!! Those morans. Only the bottom 29% will buy shit like that. Are farts essential to life too?

[lostinacause]

44. Beyond the scientific community the debate on GHGs is useless.

Both sides ignore science to support their team. There efforts will hopefully be seen as such. (I don’t really consider them anti-science any more then someone who makes an ill-founded opinion in the other direction.)

[skids]

2. I've been too apoplectic at this to reply...

Seen it on other threads but just couldn't work up the bile...it's just so utterly reprehensible. Google "ocean acidification", and you'll have all the ammo you need to convince even a global warming denialist that more CO2 in the atmosphere is in no way desirable.

[don954]

3. are you sure this isn't some onion parody?

please tell me it is!

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. Bizzaro World.

:crazy:

[Mel]

8. I so wish I could

it sure as hell does sound like onion parody but they are serious it's insane.
I hope this backfires on them.

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. In a real world, it would. We're talking bushland here. The bushbots

will eat this up. Lets them off the hook, ya know?

[MadMaddie]

10. It's not....Al Franken played the ad on his show today...

they are putting the ads out before Al Gore's movie comes out to try to lessen the impact...

It's disgusting....

[Bucky]

26. Wait a minute. Open policy debates are never disgusting.

Sometimes they're pathetic and laughable. But not disgusting. Frankly, I welcome any debate where my opponents are gonna say something this stupid.

[onehandle]

6. CO2 ate my baby.

Or was that a Dingo?

[KyuzoGator]

7. Is methane essential to life because I fart it out?

Just trying to learn what the rules are.

[TahitiNut]

16. Cow farts are holy ...

... in some parts of the world. :eyes:






.... like Texas. :evilgrin:

[siligut]

24. CO2 is essential to life if you are a vegetable

Oh, wait a minute, there's the confusion, the repugs are vegetables; now it makes sense.:sarcasm:

[newyawker99]

31. Hi siligut!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[siligut]

37. Hi newyawker99, glad to be here.

:hi:

[KyuzoGator]

45. The Terri Schiavo debacle suddenly makes more sense.

Republicans care more about vegetables than anything else.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. Oh my God. You GOTTA be kidding.

Yeah. I like the windows on my car, too. But if I leave them rolled up on a sunny day, the fucker will start to roast. For exactly the same reasons that the polar caps are melting.

[Cocoa]

11. why do you hate car windows?

:rofl:

[kestrel91316]

12. Ummmmm, because it's SO AMERICAN???

[noamnety]

14. k&r (n/t - speechless)

[flaminbats]

15. why do Republicans love hot air? n/t

:crazy:

[BlueEyedSon]

17. If you hate CO2, you hate 'murka (ya durn libruls)!

[Skinner]

18. That is hilarious.

I love it.

[longship]

19. Value LIFE. Save the C02

Do you realize that the NASA and the Navy are *killing* CO2!!! They both use the insidious, anti-life CO2 scrubbers! NASA uses them in all their manned spacecraft. The Navy uses them in all their submarines.

Contact your Congress Critters *NOW*.
C02 is our *friend*.
Value life!!! Stop the *killing* of defenseless C02.
Tell your Congress Critters to cut all funding for C02 scrubbers.

On edit: I forgot. In case you didn't figure it out.
:sarcasm:

[noahmijo]

20. Remember movies like Robocop and Total Recall? WE LIVE IN THOSE TIMES NOW

Remember those hilarious but scary ads in particular in Robocop? Companies have reached the point where they really believe the citizens are that brain dead..


Well sadly they're probably right about 53% of us anyway...

[KyuzoGator]

21. 6000 SUX. 8 MPG. An American Tradition.

RoboCop is one of the finest satires ever made.

[nxylas]

33. Robocop

If you like Robocop, check out Judge Dredd (the comic book, not the crap Stallone movie supposedly based on it). It contains a lot of the same satirical humor, and the writers freely admit that Robocop was a Dredd movie in all but name.

[Jim__]

22. Hopefully, this ad will be shoved right up their ass!

People are beginning to understand the dangers from Global Warming.

[daydreamer]

23. We need to hire this ad agency

to run our Dem. presidential campaigns. These people are capable of turning black into white. What else are they not capable of?

[Bucky]

25. Analogy: if CO2 is "essential to life because we breath it out," then shit

Shit is essential to digestion. I still want government to regulate where it ends up.

But, but plants breath in CO₂ and excrete oxygen. It's part of the respiration cycle.

Yes, and plants also eat my shit and then poop out tomatoes and apples and grapes. We have a deal with plants. We eat one another's poopage in both solid and gas forms.

Besides, isn't part of our argument with Carbon Monoxide? Don't tell me that's part of the Circle of Life© too!

[siligut]

36. But, but, but; where's the cute little sound bite for CO1?

There isn't one. Oh, wait, the Nazis were pleased that after gassing the Jews with CO1, they actually came out pink, how sweet. Let's start that for the reich wing campaign for why Carbon Monoxide is so good for us, it leaves a lovely pink corpse.

[warrens]

27. This is how nuts the right wing has become

They're actually trying to call CO2 a "fertilizer" because some study showed that trees grow better in high CO2 environments or something. Studies published in magazines I have never heard of. They're just loonies, trying to muddy the waters and baffle the sheep with bullshit.

[thoughttheater]

28. Al Gore: "The Rapture Wrecker"

These ads are obviously directed at those who believe global warming is a threat...this includes Al Gore. See a tongue-in-cheek visual depiction of "Al Gore: The Rapture Wrecker"...here:

www.thoughttheater.com

[newyawker99]

32. Hi thoughttheater!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[ktlyon]

29. Lets lock the republicans in a room and fill it with CO2 and see

if they change their tone if they don't at least we won't have to listen to them any more.

[tjwash]

30. The only problem is, that they are completely full of shit.

Long story short...the CO2 that we breath out is water soluble and gets washed out of the atmosphere eventually by rainfall. The CO2 that is produced by fossil fuel emissions stays in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. It's is the same crap they pulled with the tobacco industry as well in the eighties.

Unfortunately, it will keep a lot of people thinking that global warming is a myth, even after we start getting our coasts pounded by mega-hurricanes.

[porphyrian]

34. It's respiratory excrement.

I don't love my shit, either.

Actually, I give little thought to carbon dioxide most of the time.

[eppur_se_muova]

39. Nicely put. Succinct and accurate. nt

[RedStateShame]

35. Bush and Big Oil:

Building the bridge to post-apocalyptic days. Hope you've seen "Mad Max."

:banghead:

[eppur_se_muova]

38. CO2 = POISON!! crosspost from another thread, with some additional info...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=54321&mesg_id=54321

There's a reason we breathe the stuff OUT, you know.

This is a new low. CO2 in concentrations above a few percent is POISON.

From wikipedia:
"High levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere effectively exterminate many pests. Greenhouses will raise the level of CO2 to 10,000 ppm (1%) for several hours to eliminate pests such as whiteflies, spider mites, and others."

"Carbon dioxide content in fresh air is approximately 0.04%, and in exhaled air approximately 4.5%. When inhaled in high concentrations (about 5% by volume), it is toxic to humans and other animals. This is sometimes known as choke damp, an old mining industry term, and was the cause of death at Lake Nyos in Cameroon, where an upwelling of CO2-laden lake water in 1986 covered a wide area in a blanket of the gas, killing nearly 2000."

"OSHA limits carbon dioxide concentration in the workplace to 0.5% for prolonged periods. The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safey and Health limits brief exposures (up to ten minutes) to 3% and considers concentrations exceeding 4% as "immediately dangerous to life and health." People who breathe 5% carbon dioxide for more than half an hour show signs of acute hypercapnia, while breathing 7%–10% carbon dioxide can produce unconsciousness in only a few minutes. Carbon dioxide, either as a gas or as dry ice, should be handled only in well-ventilated areas"


Yeah, you can call that "life".

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

40. I wouldn't really call it poisonous.

It simply displaces oxygen, thus asphyxiating the subject. Rather like a plastic bag around the head, in fact, exactly like that.

[eppur_se_muova]

42. It's more complicated than that. CO2 is toxic even if O2 level is normal.

from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide

Hemoglobin, the main oxygen-carrying molecule in red blood cells, can carry both oxygen and carbon dioxide, although in quite different ways. The decreased binding to oxygen in the blood due to increased carbon dioxide levels is known as the Haldane Effect, and is important in the transport of carbon dioxide from the tissues to the lungs. Conversely, a rise in the partial pressure of CO2 or a lower pH will cause offloading of oxygen from hemoglobin. This is known as the Bohr Effect.

CO2 is carried in blood in three different ways. Most of it (about 80%–90%) is converted to bicarbonate ions HCO3? by the enzyme carbonic anhydrase in the red blood cells. 5%–10% is dissolved in the plasma and 5%–10% is bound to hemoglobin as carbamino compounds. The exact percentages vary depending whether it is arterial or venous blood.

The CO2 bound to hemoglobin does not bind to the same site as oxygen; rather it combines with the N-terminal groups on the four globin chains. However, because of allosteric effects on the hemoglobin molecule, the binding of CO2 does decrease the amount of oxygen that is bound for a given partial pressure of oxygen. {but note, not a one-for-one exchange}

It is interesting to note that although it is oxygen that the body requires for metabolism, it is not low oxygen levels that stimulate breathing, but is instead higher carbon dioxide levels. As a result, breathing low-pressure air or a gas mixture with no oxygen at all (e.g., pure nitrogen) leads to loss of consciousness without subjective breathing problems.

[mom cat]

41. even Orwell would be amazed!

[stepnw1f]

43. I Request the Writer Suck on a Tail Pipe

go ahead and prove to us how beneficial CO2 is. I dare ya...