A Ph.D student took to TikTok to call out a politician's misleading claims about our atmosphere and carbon dioxide's role in warming our planet.
TikToker Rosh (@all_about_climate) is a Ph.D. student with degrees in Earth and Climate Science and an occasional TCD contributor. He shared a video of Representative Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) pointing out that carbon dioxide makes up 0.04% of our atmosphere and that it's silly we're focusing on a "tiny change" in the makeup of the atmosphere. However, Rosh points out that "there are a couple of problems with that argument."
@all_about_climate CO2 is just 0.04% of the atmosphere, here's why it's still important. #climatechange #science #sciencetok #carbondioxide #CO2 #emissions #globalwarming #climatescience #greenhousegas #scienceexplained #knowledgeispower #climatecrisis #saveourplanet #atmosphere ♬ original sound - Rosh
First, he notes that heat-trapping gases make up less than 1% of the total atmosphere on Earth, but without that small percentage, the planet would be completely frozen, which means that minute amounts of atmosphere make a big difference in our planet.
"If you look at science in general, tiny quantities of things have big impacts all the time," Rosh says. "Just because something is small, doesn't mean it can't have a big impact."
He also points out that LaMalfa contradicts his own argument, as the representative goes on to note that if the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dips below 0.02%, plant life on Earth will die. He says LaMalfa's claim is that the shifts in carbon dioxide do not impact climate, but quickly points out that we can measure that impact directly.
Rosh says a better way to think about it is not that we've raised the concentration by 0.012% but that it's gone up by 50% from where it once was, which can have a profound impact on the world.
"Without [carbon dioxide], we would be frozen," Rosh says. "And we've increased it 50%, taking global temperatures to their highest point in 100,000 years."
To prevent misinformation about our planet, it's important to spread climate awareness as people like Rosh are doing.
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