I’m still trying to reattach my jaw after reading this op-ed published by The Wall Street Journal today. It’s shameful even by the dismal standards of that page.

In Defense of Carbon Dioxide

The demonized chemical compound is a boon to plant life and has little correlation with global temperature.

Breaking! Plants like CO2.

The numbskullery on display here was actually put best by Republican Congressman John Shimkus a few years ago:

Also, it’s false that CO2 levels have “little correlation with global temperature.”

The op-ed is written by Harrison H. Schmitt and William Happer, who are adjunct professor of engineering and a physics professor, respectively, not climate scientists.

Here are some greatest hits from their column today:

… The cessation of observed global warming for the past decade or so has shown how exaggerated NASA’s and most other computer predictions of human-caused warming have been—and how little correlation warming has with concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide…

There isn’t the slightest evidence that more carbon dioxide has caused more extreme weather…

For most plants, and for the animals and humans that use them, more carbon dioxide, far from being a “pollutant” in need of reduction, would be a benefit…

At the current low levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide…

Nowadays, in an age of rising population and scarcities of food and water in some regions, it’s a wonder that humanitarians aren’t clamoring for more atmospheric carbon dioxide.

War is peace and all that.

Just astonishing.

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Ryan Chittum is a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and deputy editor of The Audit, CJR's business section. If you see notable business journalism, give him a heads-up at rc2538@columbia.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @ryanchittum. Tags: carbon dioxide, climate change, denialism, WSJ editorial page