If global warming is due to increased levels of greenhouse gases, then do we have less O2 and N2?

Question

I'm a global warming skeptic, so if your answer is "you're an idiot" then you won't convince me. I'd like to know if there are reliable measurements showing a decline in the concentration of non-greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere. At least something showing that the thermal properties of the mix of gases in the atmosphere has changed.

Answer 1

Yes, oxygen concentrations have fallen slightly. The CSIRO is Australia's main research organisation and has been monitoring the atmosphere for decades. N2 is not much affected as it is mostly inert.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/1999-07/CA-Omyg-190799.php

Apart from all that, I spent 14 years doing gas monitoring for a private resaerch and testing company. In 1977 I measured 320ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere, up from a reported 300 in the mid 1960s. By the mid -late 1980s I measured 345ppm as an average over 3 days, then later got a 360ppm result. Recent reports say 385ppm.

While the instruments that I had (gas chromatographs) could measure small changes in CO2 using a catalytic converter and a flame ionisation detector, they had a different, less sensitive thermal conductivity detector for oxygen, measured against argon carrier. The difference that the report refers to would not have been measurable on my instruments, though 0.1% was measurable.

While CO2 has been increasing, it was reported some years ago that methane levels, which are usuallu well below 1ppm had been falling since western investment was repairing leaky petrochemical plant in the old Soviet Union. What methane is doing at the moment I don't know.

Answer 2

Today CO2 is averaging at 380 ppm and the prediction is that a rise to 450 ppm will case drastic effects on climate changes. Obviously ppm (parts per million) changes makes very little effect on the percentage of O2 and N2. The major contributor to greenhouse effect (gases) is water vapor, while CO2 acts as a catalysis for its effects. See link below from NASA.

Answer 3

Since O2 is about 20% of the air and N2 is about 80%, the decrease is negligable. The critical increases are described in the answers already given. Your demand is roughly the same as "They say more and more people are killed by pollution, but I've never seen anyone killed, so prove there are more people who have not been killed."

Answer 4

i'm sure there is plenty of evidence on the net? anyway, levels of greenhouse gases have been rising, such as CO2 and CH4.

(did you know that hydropower plants produce CH4 in surprising amounts, and that CH4 is roughly 21 times more harmful than CO2? that's if you look at theire atmospheric lifetimes and global warming potentials. sorry, just a random fact. (: )

Answer 5

The oceans are actually absorbing most of the CO2, its when the ocean reaches saturation is when I would be worried.