Carbon Dioxide is like cigarettes?

But Myles Allen, a lecturer on atmospheric physics at Oxford University, said assessing a "safe level" of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was "a bit like asking a doctor what's a safe number of cigarettes to smoke per day".[1]

I wonder if the good professor is aware that we need at least some carbon dioxide, but we do not need any cigarettes.

  1. Mr. Richard Black. "Stark warning over climate change" BBC News 2006-01-30. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4660938.stm