In 2009, the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an “Endangerment Finding” that classified carbon dioxide (CO2) as a pollutant under the 1970 Clean Air Act. Yes, you read that right—CO2, the very molecule that sustains life on Earth as we know it, was branded a threat to human health and the environment. This decision opened the floodgates to a cascade of regulations aimed at curbing emissions, all built on the premise that CO2 is some kind of villainous toxin. But let’s step back and examine this for what it is: an absurd overreach that defies science, logic, and the basic principles of life.
CO2 is not a pollutant—it’s a cornerstone of existence. Plants rely on it for photosynthesis, the process that produces oxygen and forms the foundation of the food chain. Farmers have known this for decades, quietly boosting crop yields by increasing CO2 levels in greenhouses. More CO2 means lusher fields, bigger harvests, and more food on the table. Study after study shows that elevated CO2 levels enhance plant growth—hardly the hallmark of a dangerous substance. And then there’s the simple fact that we exhale it with every breath. Are we polluting the air just by living? The idea collapses under its own weight.
This isn’t some man-made poison spewed from a factory smokestack. CO2 is naturally occurring, present in the atmosphere for billions of years. The Earth has seen CO2 concentrations far higher than today’s—levels that coincided with thriving ecosystems and abundant life. The current obsession with slashing CO2 rests on the claim that it’s warming the planet. But even if we accept that premise, where’s the catastrophe? A warmer world means longer growing seasons, fewer crop-killing frosts, and less misery from brutal winters. Do we really want to plunge into a new ice age, where fields lie barren and starvation stalks the land? History shows us that cold kills far more ruthlessly than heat.
Yet here we are, waging a war on CO2 as if it’s the enemy of humanity. This isn’t just misguided—it’s a direct assault on life itself. By demonizing a molecule essential to plants, agriculture, and the balance of nature, these regulations threaten the very systems that keep us fed and breathing. The irony is staggering: in the name of “saving the planet,” policymakers are strangling the mechanisms that make it habitable.
The EPA’s 2009 finding isn’t just bad science—it’s a legal house of cards. As pointed out in a recent ZeroHedge article, the agency’s ability to roll back these climate cult regulations hinges on a single, critical point: proving CO2 isn’t a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. That’s the hurdle they’ll have to clear, and it’s a tall one. The Act was designed to tackle genuine threats—smog, sulfur dioxide, lead—not a naturally occurring gas tied to life’s most basic processes. Undoing this madness means dismantling the faulty premise at its core, a task that could unravel decades of overreach and restore sanity to environmental policy.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. If we keep treating CO2 as Public Enemy No. 1, we’re not just fighting a phantom menace—we’re sabotaging ourselves. It’s time to call this what it is: an absurd, self-inflicted wound on humanity and the planet we claim to protect.