10 hilariously inaccurate statements made by US politicians

5 Michele Bachmann

On April 21, 2009, a day before Earth Day, Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann argued about the effects of carbon dioxide:

“Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.”

CO₂ is a part of the Earth’s atmosphere, which we all breathe. Specifically, it comprises 0.035 percent of it. Much higher concentrations, all the way up to 0.5 percent, are permitted by OSHA in occupational settings. Higher concentrations can be lethal, however. CO₂ will displace oxygen in the bloodstream, causing dizziness, disorientation, suffocation, and death. Five minutes of exposure to a CO₂ concentration of 9 percent can kill you.

Of course, Rep. Bachmann was actually referring to how CO₂ affects the environment. Scientists would disagree that no study can be produced claiming that CO₂ harms the environment. There is a 97-percent consensusamong scientists that the Earth’s climate is changing, and human activity is responsible. (Scientists were saying that before 2009.) CO₂ is a contributor to that greenhouse effect. Its concentration in the atmosphere has risen by one-third since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.