Global Warming Question 2: Why don't recent temperature increases correlate with CO2 increases?

Question

Data from the Vostok and Law Dome ice core

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/icecore/antarctica/vostok/vostok_data.html

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/icecore/antarctica/law/law.html

Show that CO2 levels varied between a natural low of about 180 ppm to a natural high of about 280 ppm until about 1800. At this point, which is close to the beginning of the industrial revolution, CO2 levels began to increase above pre-industrial highs due to the release of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels. Since then, annual average CO2 levels have increased monotonically with time to the current level of about 380 ppm.

http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/

Post industrial revolution global temperature levels, however, have not shown a similar monotonic increase

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/

If the recent warming trend is due to man made greenhouse gases, why does the temperature trend not correlate with the CO2 trend?

Same rules apply as to my first question.

Answer 1

The data you cite do not support your claim of noncorrelation. Here are both the temperature and CO2 records from your sources, plotted on the same graph and adjusted for scale:

http://www.columbusnavigation.com/images/CO2-Temp.gif

Other than CO2 forcing of higher temps, all I see here is normal annual temperature variations. In fact, the correlation coefficient between CO2 and temperature anomaly in the data you cite is .937 during the period the data overlap (1882-2002). That is a highly significant correlation by any standard.

Answer 2

Because the recent warm temps are caused by El Nino. Actually the temperature of the earth has increased less than 7/10 of 1 degree (C) from 1880 to 2005. That is an increase of about 1 degree (F) in 125 years. You may choose to believe that is global warming or you may not. Source: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2005/2005cal_fig1.gif There are numerous charts all over the internet showing the same. Some say that 1 degree is enough to impact the global climate, others say it's not. Most proponents of global warming think the earth's temperature has risen much more than that and don't even know that it has only risen by 1 degree. But the charts do not lie as do the proponents on both sides of this issue. The average temperature in the Antarctica is 109 degrees below zero. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica#Climate It seems to me 108 below (one degree warmer) is still pretty cold and not enough to melt anything. But there are those that say it will.

Back in the '70s all the hype was about global COOLING and another ice age was coming. I remember that they blamed pollution for that too. They said that all the pollution was darkening the skies and not as much sun was coming through so the earth was cooling off. It took many years to discover that they were mistaken and it was all just hype. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling So when someone says, "the sky is falling" don't believe everything you hear on either side of the issue. There are Spin Doctors galore out there.

Most of the time people will form an opinion and not really be informed about the subject with which they become so opinionated about. So it's best that you not form your opinions from other's opinions, (as in this forum) but on the facts presented. (Many do not provide any proof or links to prove their point, just their opinion.) With that said we do have a responsibility to do our part by doing whatever is within your power to keep our planet alive and well.

I hope that helps...

Answer 3

ok, that is a good questoin
1st
the temperature is related to the concentration of co2
but most of the heat produced by the global warming effect are absorbed by the ice in the polar region .that is what scientist worried about , if we dont have ice any mor e, the temperature trend will correlate with the increasing co2 level

2 nd there are also other factors that might influence the temperature . like sun acitivity .

3rd , the carbon sink . the scientists have estimated that the co2 level should be higher that our current co2 level since peopel begun to burn the oil gas , but why it is lower ,because some of the carbon deposit somewhere ,
scientist s are still studying the carbon cycle , especically the carbon sink , becasue the carbon sink really plays an improtant role in reducing the effect of global warmign effect.