The president believes that an additional 0.0001 mole fraction CO2 causes heart attacks.
Apparently no one told him that people’s lungs already contain levels of CO2 hundreds of times higher than that.
Barack Obama talked up the health benefits of his climate plan on Saturday, saying cuts to carbon pollution would reduce asthma attacks by 100,000 and heart attacks by 2,100 just in the first year.
In the run-up to the announcement, the White House has tried to frame climate change as a personal threat, highlighting the risk to public health and national security.
Obama held a number of climate-themed events, including the visit to an asthma ward at the Children’s National Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he recorded the address.
Scientists have linked a risk in asthma and other respiratory diseases to worsening air pollution under climate change.