CO2 is a greenhouse gas but not a particularly strong one: its warming effect is proportional to the log of its concentration, not linear. That means 400ppm has twice the warming effect of 20ppm. Look up Beer’s Law.
CO2 levels were at 4000 ppm in the Triassic period 100 million years ago and life thrived in that environment. Unfortunately the carbon locked up in Coal, oil and gas since then has starved the world of CO2. Releasing that carbon dioxide into the atmosphere does far more good than harm. “To any unprejudiced person the facts should be obvious: that the non-climatic effects of carbon dioxide as a sustainer of wildlife and crop plants are enormously beneficial, that the possibly harmful climatic effects of carbon dioxide have been greatly exaggerated, and that the benefits clearly outweigh the possible damage.”~Freeman Dyson.
CO2 is good for the environment, therefore not a pollutant. The fact that people who insist that CO2 plant food is a pollutant tend to come overwhelmingly from the Left Wing of politics does make this Left Wing propaganda. More correctly it is a tenet of faith for the Left: to question their hypothesis is blasphemy!
Climate Change Alarmism is not Science – it is a Religion. Read these, and question your indoctrination.
http://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2015/10/benefits1.pdf
https://www.csiro.au/en/News/News-releases/2013/Deserts-greening-from-rising-CO2
Note that I don’t dispute that the climate is changing as the last Ice Age comes to an end: in as little as 20,000 years the sea level will rise by up to 10 metres: we will either build dykes to keep the sea out, or we will move inland. Even with the loss of low-lying coastal land, the arable land of the planet will increase, with higher crop yields due to the CO2 fertilisation effect, the greening of deserts and longer growing seasons due to warming of sub-polar areas. Nothing to panic about: the future will be better than the past.
Coal is the cheapest base load energy source if you take out government interference and subsidies for Wind and Solar. Coal needs to run 24/7 to stay the cheapest. Forcing Coal generators to turn off during the hours of daylight when solar energy is plentiful, and ramp up at night-time when Solar is generating zero power, is what makes it expensive. If governments didn't force power companies to buy all the Solar power generated during the day, Coal would still be the cheapest option, and burning it releases fossil carbon back into the carbon cycle, which is of great benefit to all plants, and therefore to the environment.
