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"I just want to be perfectly clear, you do believe that CO2 is a pollutant... Yes?"


What is a pollutant?


A pollutant is a substance or condition that contaminates air, water, or soil.  Now, CO2 emitted by human sources can certainly be considered to be a pollutant, since it does all those things.  If you add enough CO2 to an aquarium, the fish are going to die of anoxia.  And that certainly is harmful to the life in it (although,as we know, cyanobacteria love the stuff, but they also take oxygen out of the water when they bloom uncontrollably. In high enough concentrations, CO2 also kills humans.  But the usage of the concept of CO2 as a pollutant in enviromental circles has to do with what it does to the planet as a whole.  As a greenhouse gas in equalibrium with other gases in the atmosphere, it acts as a controlled greenhouse gas that beneficially warms the planet.  Were it not for greenhouse gases such as CO2, the planet likely would be frozen over. Too much CO2 and other greenhose gases causes harm to our environment just like any other pollutant does, and so yes I do consider manmade CO2 released into the atmosphere as a waste product of manmade processes to be a pollutant.


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