CO2 Coalition Thrown Out Of Science Convention Over Free Comic Book

The Washington Post reports on The CO2 Coalition, a fringe science group that rejects the scientific consensus that carbon emissions are warming the planet and instead promotes acceptance and encouragement of the creation of more carbon dioxide, have created a comic book to help promote their message. Starring Simon The Solar-Powered Cat who lives on carbon dioxide. And by highlighting the fact that carbon dioxide helps plants turn sunlight into food, though choosing not to mention the greenhouse effect. The series is drawn by Brazilian artist Thiago Hellinger, an art teacher at the Cruzeiro-SP City Hall, Lions School in Brazil.

They recently distributed 700 comic books to teachers at the National Science Teaching Association’s convention in Atlanta last month before being kicked out of the event after someone read it. They quote Gregory Wrightstone, executive director of the CO2 Coalition saying “We were overwhelmed by the positive response from the teachers at the convention. In fact, by the second day, we had handed out all of the comic books we had brought.” The Washington Post also cites Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University, who counters this information, saying “By focusing 100 percent on this idea that plants need CO2, they’re intentionally misleading people by avoiding the real problems of CO2, which they didn’t talk about at all.”

The CO2 Coalition based in Virginia states that its mission is to inform policymakers and the public of the “important contribution made by carbon dioxide to our lives and the economy” and obtained a booth at the National Science Teaching Association convention for the first and possibly the last time, where they distributed three different comic books with one message. Will you be able to collect them all? All three comic books feature three young sisters named Sophia, Ariana and Elyssa, the owners of Simon the cat and their neighbor, a supposed scientist named Mr. Gordon.

The Post reports that on the second day of the show, an NSTA official asked them to stop distributing the comic, or they would have to leave. They didn’t choose the former and so were kicked out. When signing up to the show, they group signed a contract certifying that their materials were consistent with the association’s position statement on the teaching of climate science.

I am sure they will be keen to compare themselves to Gallileo, or some such.