Is this a misquote or is this climate change denier setting a new record for stupidity? The emphsis in the article I’m quoting from is mine:

Professor writes book challenging man-made global warming beliefs

By R. Nicole Blanton

Published on: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 Modified on: Tuesday, August 30, 2011

A UH professor aims to refute claims that the Earth is in a permanent warming period in his new book.

Larry Bell, an endowed professor of space architecture, said he blames misrepresented statistics and misleading politicians for the widespread belief in global warming in his book, “Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind The Global Warming Hoax.”

The notion of carbon dioxide being a pollutant is silly because carbon dioxide is what makes plants grow; it’s what whales breathe,” Bell said.

“There’s a lot of shenanigans with words.”

via Professor writes book challenging man-made global warming beliefs // thedailycougar.com.

Right off the bat the “Carbon Dioxide is Plant Food” argument isn’t at all creditable and has been thoroughly debunked (see Skeptical Science: CO2 is Plant Food for starters and here debunking / Good for Plant Growth Myth for even more debunking links) but what really blew me away was the second part,…”it’s what whales breathe.” I am thinking that has to be a misquote because no college professor, in any subject, worth his salt could think that a mammal (whales are mammals you know) much less a fish breathes CO2. Animals breathe oxygen and exhale CO2. Plants take in CO2 (they don’t really breathe per se) and give off (exhale) Oxygen in a process we all know (except for Larry Bell that is) as photosynthesis).

There is more denial stupidity and ignorance in the article about his jokers book but I’ll have to get back to it some other time. Thanks to Tropical Storm Irene I’m working from a lap top as I sit on a sidewalk downtown where they have power and a few wifi hotspots.

But I have to ask did that guy really say CO2 is what whales breathe? How did he ever et beyond 10th grade biology?

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