[Source.](https://the-pipeline.org/what-the-world-needs-now-more-co2-not-less/) > Time on my hands, I watched a somewhat dated video of Patrick Moore, ex-president of Greenpeace, turned enlightened. He explained that it would be better if we had more CO2 in the atmosphere not less. That the current level was low by standards of the distant past. More CO2 means more plant growth; better for plants, which makes it better for us. In burning oil and gas, he said, we were simply putting back into the atmosphere what organisms with calcium carbonate shells have taken out and stored over many millions of years. He didn’t go on to describe the same picture with coal but it applies pari passu. Burning coal puts back CO2 taken out by growing trees over many millions of years. The circle of life, as it were.