JISHOU, HUNAN — Do people forget basic science when they become Republicans? I’m not talking about understanding complex questions like global warming, stem cells or genetic engineering. I am speaking of really, really basic stuff, like knowing carbon dioxide is not safe.
A couple of weeks ago, the shining star of Minnesota Republican dumbness, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, expounded on the House floor that there was no need to tax and cap CO2 emissions, because CO2 is a safe and natural gas. Humans exhale it every day, after all, she said.
Now, the Mr. Big of the the GOP, Rush Limbaugh, has repeated the same meme on his ridiculously popular radio show.
WTF?
Sure, we exhale CO2, for a good reason. Our bodies can’t use it! It’s basic biology: breath air in, extract the oxygen, expel what our bodies don’t need. I learned this in elementary school, for pete’s sake! I thought everyone did.
Logically speaking (I know, I know, considering who I am highlighting here, I am asking way too much) … Logically speaking, any idiot, if he or she took time to consider the question, would realize if humans (and other animals) could use CO2 we would NOT exhale it. Our bodies would keep it.
It’s not even a question of oxygen starvation. If the CO2 levels in a closed system are too high, the CO2 inhibits oxygen usage, and people suffocate to death. That was one of the problems the astronauts on the crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft faced years ago; there was plenty of O2 on board, but rising levels of CO2 threatened to slowly kill them. Once they jerryrigged CO2 scrubbers, the men were able to recover from near unconsciousness.
Misunderstanding the dangers of breathing CO2 is only one level of stupidity offered by Bachmann and Limbaugh. The other, much bigger issue is that they are both unwittingly — or deliberately — diverting debate from the real problem created by rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere: the greenhouse effect. Too much CO2 in the air won’t suffocate us, a la Apollo 13; it will slowly raise average global temperatures, melting the ice packs, raising water levels, flooding coastal areas, disrupting agriculture.
Oh, I forget. The other rightwing meme is that humans don’t cause global warming.
After all, if Rush says so, it must be true.
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