Green Envy
Everything must be green these days. It seems that anything not green is either dead or forbidden. 
As you know, summer is in the air and in this hemisphere it will begin in a few weeks on June 21st. Right now, any bush or flower that is worth its salt is blooming or getting ready to do so soon. After all, the warm and wet season is short at higher latitudes; soon enough it will be either too dry or too cold again for the plants to do their natural thing like assimilating “carbon.”
Assimilating “Carbon”
Assimilating carbon or, more correctly “carbon dioxide” (CO2) from the atmosphere is any plant’s order of the day. That’s the only way it can grow and produce fruits, seeds, or underground shoots to advance and propagate. The CO2 in the atmosphere is absolutely vital in that process, just like water, nutrients and sunshine.
Without plenty of all, it may succumb to frost, shrivel in heat, die from thirst, or starve from lack of nutrition. The CO2 in the atmosphere is perhaps the most critical aspect for survival. While many plants can hibernate or suspend growth for lengthy times to survive cold or heat, lack of or overabundance of moisture, without any CO2 in the air they would soon all be dead. With them, essentially all other life on earth would die as well.
Vital CO2
Without a minimum of approximately 0.02{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} of that CO2 in the air, plants would stop growing and life on earth would come to a standstill. Right now, there is 0.04{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} of what climate alarmists call that “evil” CO2 in the atmosphere. One hundred years ago, its concentration was around 0.03{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117}. That 0.01{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} increase since then is what some people claim to cause “climate change” and call “the biggest threat to mankind.” Please, don’t laugh, even President Obama and other government functionaries think so, according to the New York Times. However, it much depends on which continent you happen to be as not all continents are alike. For example, look at the 7thcontinent, Antarctica.
Antarctica
That continent’s land and water-based ice shield has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. In fact, its ice shield just set a new record size with over 12 million square km. Except for a few mountain ridges that rise to 3,000+ m (10,000 ft.) heights, the continent of Antarctica and its surroundings is nothing but snow and ice, from sea to shining sea. In winter, that frozen area covers more or less the entire area south of the southern polar circle (67 S) and the South Pole and even extends north from there. The graph attached shows the ice cover with the continental land in grey and the red line indicating a long-term ice-cover average.
Indeed, some people even speculate about the possibility of Antarctica joining South America (the little grey area on the left of the graph) via a sea-ice bridge in the future. I have no opinion about the likelihood of that happening but if the ice cover keeps growing as in recent winters it could well happen.
Sea Ice Extent—May 2015
Where’s the Green?
Needless to say, there is no green plant cover on Antarctica, no palm trees, not even some hardy grass or sage brush. Any green plants you may find are restricted to fossil-fuel-heated indoors and well cared for by a research stations’ staff. If there is any other green at all, it can only be the envy of Antarctica’s temporary residents waiting for relief. However, if my proposal below gets adopted, they may want to stay a few more days. Therefore, I think:
The next UN/G7/climate-change love-in meeting ought to take place at the Executive Committee Range on Antarctica, say, in mid-August!
Dr. Klaus L.E. Kaiser — Bio and Archives
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