Joe Bastardi, who has a long record of dissembling truthiness and truthlessness when it comes to climate science issues, appeared on Fox News (yet again). Of of his comments has received much attention:
BASTARDI: CO2 cannot cause global warming. I’ll tell you why. It doesn’t mix well with the atmosphere, for one. For two, its specific gravity is 1 1/2 times that of the rest of the atmosphere. It heats and cools much quicker. Its radiative processes are much different. So it cannot — it literally cannot cause global warming.
Putting aside the fact that his comment is at odds with nearly two centuries of science and scientific work when it comes to the greenhouse gas properties of carbon dioxide (CO2), Bastardi’s comment drove a ‘what if’ scenario:
- If CO2 molecules are heavier than “the rest of the atmosphere” then
- Gravity (another one of those pesky Scientific Theories) would mean that CO2 molecules would concentrate closer to the earth which means that
- Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 at sea level would be much higher than at altitude which means that
- Sea-level CO2 concentrations would likely be lethal to humans which means that
- All of humanity must live at altitude to avoid the poisonous atmosphere at sea level.
Hmmm
Next time I take my children to the beach, thanks to Joe Bastardi’s excellent scientific observation, I will make sure that we pack enough oxygen tanks for the week. (After all, wouldn’t want to have to pay the exorbitant prices a beach vendor would charge.)
Note: There are many who believe Joe Bastardi is a serious contender for the Geocronium Award:
to the climate change denier who exhibits the biggest apparent departure from reality