Some people on this website, influenced by various news and opinion sources, have expressed the idea that there is no scientific basis for possible danger due to global warming. The scientific argument has several parts, what part of this argument do you doubt?
1) Humans are extracting and burning about 6 billion tons of fossil fuel each year.
2) In the past hundred years, CO2 levels in the atmosphere have increased from 280 to 380 ppm.
3) (1) is the cause of (2), as indicated by 14C isotope levels
4) CO2 is a greenhouse gas, transparent at visual wavelengths and opaque in the infrared. As an isolated factor, addition of a trillion tons of CO2 will increase average global temperatures by 3 C.
5) While global temperatures are driven up and down by many effects, the cumulative addition of CO2 will come to dominate these natural effects, and significantly raise temperatures.
6) Burning all fossil fuel reserves may raise temperatures to truly catasrophic levels.
2007-03-19
10:17:05
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10 answers
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asked by
cosmo
7