What is the relationship between carbon dioxide and global warming?

Answer 1

CO2 does NOT contribute to global warming, it is a product of it.

carbon dioxide (Al Gore gas) increases about 400 years after a warming trend.

The ocean is the main contributor of Co2
Plants and vegetation next
then volcanoes

This warming trends are related to the sunspot cycle

The biggest contributor to global warming is water vapor in the atmosphere. Also directly related to the sunspot cycle

Answer 2

Believe me, nobody really knows.

If CO2 is released from ice when it melts, then it is just reabsorbed by the seawater formed when the ice does melt.

It is suspected that an increase in CO2 in the atmosphere results in an increase in atmospheric temps, but there is no real proof of that and no good mathematical models yet.
There is also suspicion that the increase in CO2 concentrations is due to the warming of the oceans by internal heat from the magma in the earth under the oceans
which would release CO2, and that it has much less to do with what man does, than some say.
I guess what you have to do is read as much as you can about all sides of this issue and then see if you can make sense of it all.
If you are able to do that, please let the rest of us know.
Also, if all the ice floating on all the oceans were to melt, the sea level would not rise at all, because the current sea level already compensated for the weight of all the floating ice.
The only ice melt that would make the oceans rise is the ice that melts and runs off of the land, and the ice in Antarctica at this time is getting thicker, not melting.

Answer 3

Higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere increase surface temperatures by reflecting solar radiation back to the surface.

Such levels are associated with warmer climates in the distant past.

These facts alone would not be as important if it were not for the fact that higher temperatures release CO2 trapped in ice formed in the distant past, accelerating the accumulation of excess CO2.

Answer 4

Here's the actual data.

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png

http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf