This paper investigates the discrepancy between the rate coefficients for the deactivation of the bending mode of CO2 by atomic oxygen, a process of great importance in the energy budget of the mesosphere and the lower thermosphere, measured in the laboratory and arrived at by space-based measurements. It is concluded that super-thermal rotational levels of N2, produced by the impact of hot O atoms or by N + NO reaction, have the potential to provide the unknown mechanism.