To what degree has anthropogenic CO2 augmented the greenhouse effect?

Question

I have been reading much about global warming lately and I have had a very difficult time answering that question. I have read through the IPCC reports and myriad other sources which all seem to give me different answers to this same question.

I think the question is a very important one because it deals specifically with the impact that CO2 emissions will have on our posterity. If the level of augmentation of the greenhouse effect caused by CO2 emissions is not yet discovered then I feel it would be very difficult to justify many of the proposed reforms such as Kyoto. However if the augmentation is significant enough then it would certainly justify the large scale reduction of carbon emissions.

Answer 1

While it certainly would not hurt to reduce our CO2 emissions, the greenhouse gasses and particulates (including radioactive particles) emitted by natural sources, such as volcanoes, far exceed man-made sources.

Answer 2

Good job reading through everything and making up your own mind instead of just listening to what's in the popular [sensationalist] news media.

You obviously know that CO2 has increased by about 25-30% in the past 100 years. While nobody argues with that, every different study I've read has a different view on how much global temperatures are actually changing. Whether they use satellites (which actually show a slight cooling), or weather balloons, or historic temperature records, nobody has measured a change larger than 1.8 F (1 C) in the past 100 years, and that study was shown to be false anyways. The generally accepted number for increase in temperature in 1 F in the past 100 years. Anybody who says this is cause for alarm (i.e. not part of the Earth's natural cycles) is a nut.

I feel that the numbers cited by some studies are too varied (they will say a rise from 1 C to 6 C in the next 100 years) and use models that don't take into account the effect of water vapor and other 'negative feedback' mechanisms (in fact, they include unneccesary and unproven positive feedback mechanisms) to be taken seriously.

Answer 3

It's quite significant.