IT'S good to get comments on my column both positive and negative. I don’t comment back, as that’s not the thing columnist’s do. 

If we want some uncomfortable truths, then let’s wind back the time to the beginning of the solar system. When the Earth was young and life had not started yet, the primeval atmosphere was nothing like today. 

Exactly what it was like we can’t be sure, but it had lots of poisonous gases like sulphur mixed with the Co2;  nitrogen and hydrogen, plus all the rare gases. Without going into all the other possibilities, the main thing that changed the atmosphere was the carbon evolution, in other words, the carbon cycle. 

As plant life got going, photosynthesis, (which is the plants energy) started to turn the Co2 in the atmosphere into oxygen as a by-product. As the plants died and dropped to the ground, they took the Co2 they captured into and under the soil, and locked it away forever. 

So this allowed the start of animals to breathe oxygen, and then came mankind. In the last 200 years we have dug up trillions of tons of  that carbon, burnt it, and return the Co2 back into the atmosphere from whence it came.

Our current atmosphere was not God given but transformed by the interactions of plants and the soil, and the rocks beneath that were formed by the Co2. We always think of oxygen as the most important gas, but without the carbon cycle life wouldn’t work. The thing to understand is, our atmosphere is a fine balance of chemistry at ground level, and we are like children experimenting with a new chemistry set for our birthday! 

So why should we get to net zero carbon? Firstly, all mainstream economists’ say it is the best way in the current business evolution to grow the economy, and secondly, if we continue to increase Co2 in the atmosphere we will reverse millions of years evolution. 

The earth had its time of plus 10 C degrees and ice ages, due to many reasons including the Earth’s tilt change and orbital changes, but just as important, is the carbon cycle getting out of balance. 

We know from the work of Joseph Fourier (1820s) that Co2 keeps the Earth warm, and the reverse is true that too little will make it too cold. This was proved in our time by the Russian third mission to Venus in the 60s, when it found out that the planet was two times hotter than it should be at its distance from the Sun. 

It also found out why. The atmosphere on Venus is around 97% Co2, now proving with modern science that Fourier was right. This science is not known by most people and especially the climate change deniers. 

I will repeat, the atmosphere was not God given, but amazingly made on Earth by interaction between plants and Co2, and rocks. Although it’s a good system, it’s not set in stone (sorry for bad witticism). 

Make no mistake, this atmosphere is only the current one, but not the ‘Earth’s forever after one!’ It’s all down to us now. 

On this path we are on, it will get 2 or 3 C degrees hotter by the end of the century; if not sooner. Anyone want to be a king Kanut in the face of science (born around 994 AD), good luck with that!