To the editor:

The March 18 edition of The Journal printed a story on page 3: “Appeals court revives Biden climate damage cost estimate.” This administration seems to feel that $51 per ton of CO2 released by industry into the atmosphere is a good assessment of climate damage due to greenhouse gas effects.

Here’s why we cannot control the climate via CO2 reductions:

The thing to note is that a rise in atmospheric CO2 level seems to follow a rise in temperature of the ocean surface water, lagging behind by of about 10-11 months (Humlum et. al., 2013).

About 3.2 percent of all CO2 in the atmosphere is manmade. (D.O.E. 2000).

The oceans hold much more dissolved CO2 gas than the atmosphere and have a 40,000-mile-long chain of mountains under them that are volcanically active and emit CO2, along with lots of heat to warm the ocean, depending on rate of activity, very little of which is being monitored.

We see atmospheric CO2 rising each year. Why? If the ocean is being heated by volcanic activity, and if the sun’s rays are not being reflected back into space by certain cloud types and particles in the air, then we should see more CO2 out-gassing from the ocean as it heats up.

Look at the NOAA annual mean growth rate of CO2 chart covering 1960 through present at Mauna Loa observatory. The CO2 growth rate dropped to .28 and .48 parts per million for years 1964 and 1992. How come? Did people suddenly burn less coal, gas and oil those years? No, Mt. Agung (1963-64) and Mt. Pinatubo (1991-92) blasted about one cubic mile of ash into the air to a height of some 22 miles. This causes a shading/cooling effect on the ocean, which then expels less CO2.

Water vapor, another greenhouse gas, traps about 1,300 times more heat than man’s CO2. That’s based on a 1% global atmospheric water vapor content; however, it can at times go up to 4% in places. Even a somewhat small change in the massive quantity of water vapor may release or absorb far more heat, and therefore have more effect on temperature, than would a doubling of our current tiny CO2 level.

Even a 2020 Bloomberg article said the COVID-19 pandemic brought down air pollution due to drop in fossil fuel usage; but had no effect on rising atmospheric CO2 level.

In summary: Sun, clouds and volcanoes are the big climate movers; not man.

Phil Drietz

Delhi