Quote:
Humans inflict the least amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. The Water systems of our world contribute 10 times more CO2 than we do, and all combined less than half of that actually reaches the upper atmosphere. Where it has no impact on surface temperatures. It has a net cooling effect the more CO2 their is the more cold air is pushed down into other regions of the atmosphere.
The problem is that before humans started pumping CO2 into the atmosphere, provided there weren't any big volcanoes going off, most CO2 was reabsorbed naturally by plants & animals (algae) on the land & in the ocean. Despite how "small" the amount of CO2 is that humans emit via the burning of fossil fuels, the issue is that only 40% of that can be reabsorbed naturally. The other 60% is cumulative, and because of that atmospheric CO2 is at its highest level in 15 to 20 million years. A natural change of 100ppm normally takes 5,000 to 20.000 years. The recent increase of 100ppm has taken just 120 years!
Cite.
Quote:
Again we are small potatoes, again CO2 is not an effective greenhouse gas. It sits to high in the atmosphere for one and for two it cools the atmosphere not heat it. Third there is no evidence that CO2 has caused any climate change, which means we humans have had 0 effect on it. We have more CO2 in our system than recorded in the last 400000 years, yet we are still not as hot as the last 3 previous peak temperature periods, and are experiencing trends of cooling. Such as the expanding antarctic Ice shelf, and the predicted expansion of Arctic ice.
The direct contribution towards the Greenhouse effect by Carbon dioxide alone is anywhere between 9 - 26%. The higher end of the range is quoted for the gas alone; the lower end accounts for overlap with other gases. (
Cite). The big issue in regards to CO2 as compared to other gases is how long it sticks around & how it accumulates: Water Vapor has a residence time of only about 9 days, while CO2 is variable. The atmospheric lifetime of CO2 is estimated of the order of 30–95 years before it is removed naturally. However, while more than half of the CO2 emitted is currently removed from the atmosphere within a century,
some fraction (about 20%) of emitted CO2 remains in the atmosphere for many thousands of years. Also;
-There is plenty of evidence of global warming. It is unknown exactly how much CO2 plays a roll in that, but it isn't disputed that it plays a roll.
-There is direct scientific evidence that humans contribute to increased CO2. Every time you turn on a light, or go for a drive, you're contributing.
-While some areas may show trends of cooling, global temperature have increased. This is a fact.
- I'd love to see a cite where arctic/antarctic ice is supposed to expand, outside of it's usual seasonal expansions.
Quote:
No it won't we are insignificant producers compared to natural effects, removing us from the equation will do very little to the end result. The earth is gearing up to get cold, and to do that it needs more CO2 in the atmosphere, it has happened the same way for the last 400'000 years, when it decides it is time to heat up, it is because the CO2 has been removed from the atmosphere, and the cycle starts again.
Also I disagree with there not being a reason to not try. Based on the following. We have no @#%^ing idea how this planet works, why @#%^ with it. I mean we think we do, but we can't even agree on half the sh*t we consider fact! New stuff is found all the time. I mean sh*t we can't even agree on what is causing Global warming. The lap dog of the UN wants to blame us. Cool, evidence doesn't support it but whatever its a theory, others claim it is a natural cycle that has been marching on for billions of years, maybe they are right. Some folks claim that we are warming up because the Sun is warming up, which does make a lot of sense, and explains why Mars is warming at a similar rate as us even though it doesn't have pesky humans dumping CO2 into is 98% based CO2 atmosphere.
I say do nothing, because we don't know what to do, why fix it if it aint broken. Hell some of the leading ideas actually want to block a portion of the sun. That is incredibly retarded, sh*t the only thing we know for sure about this little blue green rock is that without that bad boy there is no life.
-
Since 1979, the sun has actually contributed a slight cooling effect on the Earth. - The more we reduce greenhouse gas emissions now, the more the effects of man-made global warming will be reduced in the future.
- It isn't broken yet, but it will be if we don't do something. See; Venus.
Quote:
Of course there is consequences when the climate changes, we will have to adapt we have done it before as a species probably dozens of times according to climate history. But it isn't humans that are causing it, it is a natural recurring event, that has happened numerous times in the past, and we aren't even on the list of top contributors to it.
We are unique tool using apes who can adapt using said tools, the rest of the life on Earth doesn't have that privilege. While climate change does occur naturally, right now, it also occuring due to human influence (there are 7billion of us & we're increasing). While we aren't the top contributor, we are the only contributor that emits Greenhouse Gases that the Earth can't take care of naturally while also removing the natural ways the Earth has for removing CO2 via deforestation & Ocean pollution.
We're also the only species that knows we're doing it & can't be bothered to do anything about it.
Quote:
I swear some people just have this desire to believe we are actually more special then we are. We are nothing literally, we are the same food tube as everything else on this planet, we live and die like every other food tube on this planet, have for hundreds of thousands of years, and will do so until the planet decides it doesn't want us anymore, and wipes us out with some awesome disease like the Plague. Or Aids.
We are the only food tube on this planet that can save it from ourselves, which certainly makes us unique. Choosing not to do so because we're all going to die eventually anyway is not only extremely pessimistic, it's lazy.