Media attacks. CFACT rebuts. Media retreats.

After Marc Morano appeared on Fox and Friends on April 30, 2019 to expose Beto O’Rourke’s version of a Green New Deal, Newsweek Magazine apparently had enough and decided to take him on. In particular they took issue with Morano’s (scientifically accurate) statement to Fox News that carbon dioxide was not a “pollutant.” Within minutes, the prominent left-of-center publication went to work attempting to discredit not just this notion, but Morano himself.

Newsweek’s headline stated: “CLIMATE CHANGE DENIER TELLS FOX & FRIENDS CARBON DIOXIDE ‘NOT A POLLUTION’.”

Of course, those who know Marc, know he doesn’t take this sort of thing sitting down. Climate Depot immediately fired back, noting that prominent scientists and even UN lead authors agreed with him. Morano quickly posted that UN IPCC Lead Author Dr. Richard Tol declared that “Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, not now, not here, not to us.” Tol also pointed out that “CO2 in the human body is not dangerous (but lack of CO2 is)” and that “CO2 concentrations in the human lung reach 37,000 ppmv.”

MIT climate scientist Richard Lindzen also mocked claims that carbon dioxide is dangerous. “CO2 , it should be noted, is hardly poisonous. On the contrary, it is essential for life on our planet and levels as high as 5000 ppm are considered safe on our submarines and on the space station (current atmospheric levels are around 400 ppm, while, due to our breathing, indoor levels can be much higher),” he said.

As if this wasn’t enough, Morano then presented several studies showing that, far from CO2 being a “pollutant,” that rising of CO2 levels are actually greening Earth – greening areas equivalent to two times the continental USA.

One suspects Newsweek did not count on CFACT’s instant rebuttal to their groundless attack. They should have.

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