CLAIM: CO₂ Is The Gas Of Life, It Is Not Harmful And Responsible For Global Warming
On January 15, 2026 an X user, @wideawake_media, claimed that CO₂ is the gas of life. CO₂ is not harmful and is not responsible for global warming, hurricanes, or extreme weather. This claim was picked from Climate SpotAI, a climate disinformation tracker tool.
VERIFICATION
Carbon Oxide (CO₂) is a naturally occurring gas that plants need for photosynthesis, the process by which they produce energy and oxygen. In that sense calling it important for life is accurate. Without any CO₂, plants could not grow and Earth’s ecosystems would collapse.
Scientific Understanding Of Co₂ And Climate
Scientific evidence from NASA, and the UN shows that CO₂ and other greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere. This greenhouse effect is a well-understood physical process; it is not controversial among climate scientists. Since the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric CO₂ has increased sharply because of burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. Measurements from ice cores and modern instruments demonstrate this rise and link it to rising global temperatures.
Image Source: Gemini AI
CO₂’s greenhouse gas effect works like this: it doesn’t make the air toxic, but it absorbs heat that Earth’s surface emits and slows its escape to space. This traps heat and leads to a warmer climate, which influences weather patterns and contributes to changes in the climate system.
What Dr Soon’s Claim Represents
Dr Willie Soon argues that CO₂ is not a significant driver of recent climate change and instead emphasises natural factors like solar variability. These views are not supported by the broad scientific community and are at odds with the large body of peer-reviewed research. In scientific terms, they are considered minority positions not backed by the weight of evidence.
It’s true that higher CO₂ can enhance plant growth under certain conditions, and Earth did have higher CO₂ levels in deep geological past when life persisted. But today’s rapid rise in CO₂ is linked with warming, sea level rise, changing precipitation patterns and other impacts on ecosystems and societies. Presenting CO₂ as only beneficial ignores the strong evidence for these risks.
Dr Soon is a Malaysian astrophysicist and aerospace engineer whose work is unusual compared with most climate science research because he argues that variations in solar activity are the major driver of climate change. He also disputes the mainstream scientific conclusion that recent warming is predominantly caused by human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. This position places him outside the broad consensus of climate scientists.
While Dr Soon has published research in peer-reviewed journals and presented at conferences, many climate scientists have criticised his work for methodological issues and for drawing conclusions not supported by the broader body of climate research. For example, his co-authored 2003 review paper challenging temperature reconstructions such as the widely cited “hockey stick” graph drew formal objections from other scientists because of how the data was interpreted.
The original northern hemisphere hockey stick graph. Source: Mann, Bradley & Hughes (1999).
CONCLUSION
The claim that CO₂ is not harmful and is not responsible for global warming, hurricanes, or extreme weather is MISLEADING. Carbon dioxide is essential for life because plants depend on it for photosynthesis, but that fact alone does not make it harmless. Dr Soon, whose work is referenced to make this claim is renowned for holding a scientific position that is at odds with the large body of peer-reviewed research on climate change.
