Couch potatoes for clean air

Approximately two years after a Supreme Court ruling on carbon dioxide (CO2) the EPA will likely declare CO2 a pollutant and seek to regulate it under the Clean Air Act. The White House has also announced its intention to tax industrial carbon emissions through a cap-and-trade system. I find both of these scenarios stunningly stupid.

But I could be wrong. Shockingly, such toxic emissions occur daily at fitness facilities and sports events nationwide. Considering that we breathe in about 0.04 percent CO2 but exhale about 5 percent, this 100-plus-fold increase makes human respiration a potentially dangerous pollution machine.

While I realize that normal breathing is rather necessary, have we honestly considered the ramifications of such excess exhalation? During rigorous exercise we may breathe three times faster, which in turn spews far more pollutants into the air. Clearly, as with coal-fired plants and CO2-emitting factories, this polluting activity must stop or, at least, be seriously discouraged.

I wrote this on my Energy Star laptop while reclining on the couch. My breathing was shallow, pulse rate at 56 and the remote was handy. Once an avid triathlete, I’m now thinking more about saving the planet. Are you?

Jerry Olson

Spokane