Correspondent Darrin Heaven (Times, July 8) is dead wrong about CO2 as a greenhouse gas.
Even though CO2 amounts to only 0.03 per cent of the atmosphere, CO2 is vital in regulating earth’s temperature. If it were not for CO2 in the atmosphere, the average earth temperature would be -18 C instead of 13.9 C.
The percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere has been constant at 0.028 per cent for 4 million years.
Beginning in the 1800s, the CO2 concentration began to rise and is now 0.037 per cent. As the level of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses rises, the earth will continue to get warmer.
Just the Greenland ice sheet melting will cause the sea level to rise 6 metres. A 6m rise would put the Howick Beach carpark under water. The new beach will replace the aptly named, Beach Road.
All the houses along the beach at Bucklands Beach and Eastern Beach will be gone. We must all do what we can to halt global warming.
John Caldwell, Howick