RANDELL CARSON: "The climate right now is no warmer than it's been many times throughout history. [It's] now the lowest that carbon dioxide has been in 600 million years."

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[–]binaryblob 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Humans like 290 ppm CO2. As such any rise, is bad. I don't even need a scientific discussion about that.

[–]GuyWhite 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Where did that 290 ppm number originate…do you know?

When I worked in industry and had to consider safety in confined spaces, the minimum allowed oxygen concentration was 19%. (21% is normal fresh air.). That would allow 20,000 ppm (2%) of CO2 in air.

We do not exhale fully. At times our breathing is shallow. That would suggest the CO2 concentrations in our lungs is variable and at times higher than atmospheric concentrations. Considering that, how did they arrive at 290ppm?

[–]binaryblob 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

The pre-industrial level was 280 ppm (https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-the-world-passed-a-carbon-threshold-400ppm-and-why-it-matters). It is a safe policy to undo any influence of industry.

I am not saying one dies at even 3,000 ppm. I am saying that my brains start to work worse when it's at around 600ppm and I notice when the air is below 400ppm. The scientific consensus is that brains work worse at 900ppm.

The 20,000 ppm you talk about might be for short periods of time, but there is no way in hell I would work in such an environment without protective gear. You can't think with 20,000 ppm (as in have meetings at work, do deep technical work, etc.). Perhaps you can do physical labor, but who cares about that in 2023? Build fucking robots and replace that.

At high levels, the carbon dioxide itself can cause headache, dizziness, nausea and other symptoms. This could occur when exposed to levels above 5,000 ppm for many hours. At even higher levels of CO2 can cause asphyxiation as it replaces oxygen in the blood-exposure to concentrations around 40,000 ppm is immediately dangerous to life and health. CO2 poisoning, however, is very rare.

Your 20,000 ppm number is wrong.

[–]GuyWhite 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Thanks for the information. But my 20,000 number is correct for the use I sighted. It was for manual labor in a confined space. We don’t want folks to die in there. So the 20,000 is half the IDLH limit.

[–]binaryblob 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I am not saying you are wrong for the use case you specified, but would you be in such a confined space for let's say an hour? If so, after how long would you say "Sorry, can't do that."?