The entire war against climate change to prevent the use of any carbon-based fuel is based on one single assumption: that carbon dioxide is the primary cause.

Yet the key scientific question that never even gets mentioned, let alone answered, is “how can any gas that occupies 4/100ths of 1 percent of our atmosphere have any effect at all?”

Meteorologists concur that the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere keep Earth about 59F (degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than otherwise. Water vapor, by far the strongest greenhouse gas, is 10 percent of our atmosphere. All of the other greenhouse gases taken together, including carbon dioxide, occupy less than 4.5/100th of 1 percent. Of the 59F, 58.73 is due to water vapor and only 0.27 percent to carbon dioxide and the others.

In parts per million (ppm) of our atmosphere, water vapor is 100,000 ppm and all the other greenhouse gases less than 450 ppm.

Think of a sports arena that holds 100,000 fans. There, in the center are 450 CO2 global warming fans. Surrounding them are 100,000 water vapor fans. Who is going to control the cheering?

In 1750 at the start of the industrial revolution, the amount of CO2 in our air was about 285 ppm. In 2015, at Mauna in Hawaii, it was 397. Assuming that this increase was all due to man’s use of carbon-based fuels (which it is not), and the rate of increase continues, the level will double to 800 in 1900 years (the year 3915).

Since the current global warmth due to CO2 now is 0.22F, by 3915 it will have increased to 0.54F, hardly a barnburner.

The issue is whether the Earth is warming. The study conducted by American, Russian and French scientists in 1999-2003 via extensive ice core drilling in the Vostosk Peninsula in the Antartica showed that Earth is nearing the end of a 24,000 year interglacial warming period. In the beginning, North America and much of the world was covered by huge glaciers. Now, although most of the ice is gone, the warming may continue for a few centuries more – a normal climate cycle, having almost nothing to do with CO2.

For the past 20-plus years, America has spent more than $1 trillion in the ferocious battle to prevent climate change. Isn’t it time we recognized the error?

– Jim Koubele