Activists Ignore Research Showing CO2 Benefits Marine Life

Environmental activists conveniently ignored mountains of scientific evidence when they appeared before the oceans subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee on June 9 claiming carbon dioxide emissions are devastating sea life.

Assertions that human carbon dioxide emissions are detrimental to sea life are patently absurd, according to Heartland Institute Senior Fellow James M. Taylor. You may quote from his comments below or contact him directly at jtaylor@heartland.org, 941-776-5690.

“The scientific evidence shows quite clearly that more carbon dioxide, both in the atmosphere and in the oceans, carries substantial benefits for the vast majority of marine life.

“Study after study shows most marine creatures, from phytoplankton on up the food chain, thrive and flourish when more carbon dioxide is added to their environment. Indeed, the National Academy of Sciences just published a study showing that sea stars exhibited significantly increased growth rates when carbon dioxide concentrations were doubled in laboratory conditions.

“But then again, why should we expect global warming activists to actually read the scientific literature?

“Singling out the very small number of marine species for which the benefits of higher carbon dioxide are not firmly established and using them to assert that carbon dioxide is harmful to sea life as a whole is misleading and dishonest.”