The Swiss are innovative. At https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/co2-capture-plant-to-enhance-… … the Swiss intend to capture co2 from the atmosphere which will then be used as a greenhouse gas – in real greenhouses. The idea came about as co2 increases the rate of vegetable growth, and market gardening is the ideal place to get rid of the co2 that is captured out of the air. The Greens will be happy with the carbon capture facility and the farmers will be happy with increased yields – sounds like good news all around (apart from the taxpayers that will subsidise the carbon capture plant).
It is thought that by increasing co2 levels lettuce will put on 20 per cent more growth – which is more leaf to chew on your salad platter. Tomatoes and cucumbers will also benefit – and in fact any kind of vegetable grown in a glass greenhouse or even a polytunnel (if it can keep the co2 from escaping back into the air). Not only that co2 is also useful in the production of synthetic fuels. Now, that is innovation, synthetic fuels to replace fossil fuels by capturing co2 from the air and thereby saving on the burning of co2 in coal and oil and gas.
What will Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and even Oxfam make of this innovating behaviour? Hedge fund managers will be reasonably happy as they are investing heavily in renewables and carbon capture is in that tick box. The activists, propagandized by the NGOs, are in a different category as they have been led to believe co2 is virtually a poisonous substance – and who wants poison in their food. The big environmental organisations have campaigned against golden rice and genetically modified food for some years now, so what bracket does co2 enhanced salads fall under. Will they come out against whopper lettuces and giant tomatoes and extra long cucumbers – as these are clearly artificially altered foods. Will they be subject to the same demonisation that surrounds CFCs, DDT, and genetically modified products on the supermarket shelf? We can wait and see.