One "argument" that has really got to me of late is the one in the title - "CO2 isn't pollution!" I don't know why this one gets to me so much. I think a lot of it is to do with the fact that it is such a non sequitur. There is no logical relationship between the fact that humans, by adding too much extra CO2 to the atmosphere are driving the climate (not the weather) into an unstable state which, in all likelihood, will be highly unfavourable to all extant life on earth, including humans, and the fact that carbon is a part of all life on earth as a normal part of the metabolism of plants and animals.
To be clear, there is a relationship underlying the two statements above but it is not one of logical negation. In other words, the fact that carbon is a part of all life on earth does NOT disprove the scientific bases for Anthropogenic Climate Change.
Perhaps it's the word "pollution" that so irks people who take this fallacious line of argumentation. Well, if that's the case, how about this - something else that's in your body, which you could not live without, which is a vital part of the cycle of life on earth, and which is also considered pollution in the wrong places, or at the wrong times, or just in too great a concentration (in this case, people might say any amount is too much).
We're speaking, of course, about faeces. Shit. Crap. Food, which you can't live without, goes into your body. As it's being processed by your body, it eventually turns into something you can't stand to be near. Then you get rid of it. If you put it in a river, or in the ocean and, if humans need to access that resource later (for drinking water, or swimming) then it is very definitely pollution.
Does this mean that drinking contaminate water doesn't cause typhoid fever, to take just one example? No, of course it doesn't. There is no logical negation relationship between those two facts.
There are so many examples like this, I could go on all day. You need iron to live, but if your drinking water had too much iron in it, you'd certainly say it was "polluted" or "contaminated". OXYGEN! Without oxygen you would die very quickly, but a high oxygen environment is not only deadly to humans, but produces a highly dangerous, highly flammable environment.
Please, please! No more non sequiturs!!
