Hi! I'm made from Carbon! Nice to meet you! ..hey, why are you looking at me like that? So are all of you!

Question

CO2 is NOT 'evil'. It is essential to all life on Earth. You simply would not exist without it.
It's disturbing that so many people seem to have lost the ability to think and rationalise. Do you really need a 'cause' to validate your lives? Do you feel that empty and worthless without a common enemy?
You are being made fools of by the media and the more you slowly realise that the more you fight to protect your pride.
The real question you should be asking is; why to you let yourself be led so easily... to paraphrase, 'Who's the more foolish; the fool or the fool who follows him?'

(EnragedParrot) - Methane is 23 times more powerful than Carbon Dioxide at effecting the Earths atmosphere. There is almost 100 times more of this gas produced naturally than human produced CO2. But because it's not produced by 'us' CO2 becomes the enemy. And btw, humans produce less than 1% of all CO2 expelled into the atmosphere. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Hi again! Thanks for proving me right, yet again...
You're all so quick to defend your 'beliefs' and are so quick to believe everything you read as gospel truth.
Funny thing..the gospels are all fiction too...

Answer 1

Are you trying to show how all living things are alike, rather than pointing out differences among us? Are you trying to bring unity rather than point out what makes us different? That's a good thing. I applaud you.

Answer 2

CO2 is natural and necessary; not a bad pollutant. I agree.

Natural sources of CO2, methane and other green house gasses are much more abundant than man made CO2. I agree.

Man made CO2 is only about 1% of natural sources. I agree.

But the natural processes that recycle natural CO2 have not become 1% more active to take care of the extra 1% people are putting in the air. So there is still a buildup. It may be small, now, but if we don't stop it then some day it won't be so small.

Take a look at the graph in the source. All scientists in the world agree that this chart accurately shows the CO2 levels for the last 400,000 years. Even scientists at oil companies who are saying not to worry about global warming, or are even maybe saying there is no global warming, agree the chart is accurate. Now extrapolate that last 200 year trend out a couple thousand years and then tell me you aren't just a little worried.

Answer 3

If we follow your logic then you'll have no objection to being exposed to increased levels of uranium, arsenic or strontium? They're all essential for life and occur naturally in the human body.

If carbon is the cause of global warming then you've single handedly re-written science - it's carbon dioxide, totally different.

At least learn the basic facts before attempting to construct an argument.

By the way, you don't need the media to make a fool of you, you've done a very good job by yourself.

Don't take this personally - I actually understand about global warming (it's what I do) and the amount of utter nonsense I hear day in and day out is beyond belief. Get educated.

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Re your Added comments to Enraged Parrot.

Methane is NOT 23 times more powerful than CO2 - it has a 23 times greater 100 year GWP - not the same thing.

There is noting like 100 times as much natural CH4 as anthropogenic CO2. If that were the case there'd be so much that the next time anyone lit a match the planet would explode. There are 1745ppbv of CH4 compared to 365000ppbv of CO2, humans emit CO2 at the rate of 29 gigatons per annum. CH4 has a Radiative Forcing of 0.48, CO2 has a RF of 1.46, the total respective contributions to GW of CH4 and CO2 are 7.9% and 72.3%.

And no, humans do not produce less than 1% of the natural CO2 - we produce MORE than 1% of the natural amount of CO2 EVERY year (29 gigatons pa, 2.3 teratons natural).

Answer 4

In reply to your additional rant:
Methane stays in the atmosphere for average 10.5 years, CO2 stays for 120 years, water vapour (before you drag that one out into your misinformation) stays for a few days. So if CO2 is less powerful as a GHG but stays for longer, the radiative forcing is hugely significant.

Houweling et al. (1999) suggests global human methane emissions of 330 million tonnes/yr and natural of 270 Million tonnes/yr.
Humans emitted an estimated 6000 million tonnes of CO2 per year in 2000 (Marland, G. 2003). Where are your figures from?

Natural sources and sinks are almost balanced, with the difference contributing to the natural climate change. Extra CO2 from humans either forces the natural sinks to work harder (and they seem to be slowing e.g. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/default.stm) or remains in the atmosphere and adds directly to the forcing. So the relative emissions are not what is important but the net difference between the source and sinks. This is why the Keeling CO2 curve yearly wiggles from vegetation and a underlying rise due to human emissions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeling_Curve

Read some proper science on www.realclimate.org before replying with other untruths.

Edit:
Wow you are really out there. Retreating to compare proper science to the gospels, rather than construct a coherent defence of your stated 'facts'. I think you prove yourself wrong and are believing whatever you care to believe.

Answer 5

Well purplemoon, while the body is comprised predominantly of water it is carbon that is the basic building block of ALL life as we know it. Read up on Carbon Based Life Forms before you decide to accuse someone of being from another planet.

In response to the Asker, it's definitely the fool that follows because at least the first fool had a thought, wrong though it was, it was minimal brain function.

Answer 6

Where to begin?

Human activity from burning millions of acres of rainforest a year to massive CO2 emissions since the beginning of the industrial revolution by burning fossil fuels, such as coal, is warming the planet.

Imagine, if you will, putting a plastic bag over your head for a while and sealing the base of it around your neck with sticky tape. The inside of the bag gets wetter and warmer over time.

Exactly what is happening to our planet.

Now take the bag off your head and have a rethink.

NB: Half of the entire worlds species live in rainforests and are under direct threat of extinction today.

Answer 7

Yeah, CO2 is not evil. The carbon cycle keeps things going, but that relies on it being in a natural balance.

We're disrupting the natural cycle.

You can argue that we're the fools who are following the 'fool', but did you make up your arguments all on your own? No, you're going on the arguments you've read from some 'scientist'. Study the subject before you try and influence other people's opinions.

Answer 8

Nobody has ever said that CO2 is evil. Without it, life as we know it wouldn't exist. What we *are* saying, however, is that carbon dioxide is a highly potent green house gas, and its concentration in the atmosphere due to human activities is increasing, which will and has lead to higher global temperatures.

And I have not yet got one single scrap of information on global climate change from the media. Everything I know about it has come from highly credible fully verifiable scientific sources.

Answer 9

If you want to know why this all started with the greenhouse effects was because of the chlorofluorocarbons: CFCs. There are more gases that are being produced you should of mentioned also here is a short speil on the effects of these gases that are produced in nature and produced by humans. People do follow a lot of things that make sense without doing the research for themselves to be educated about what they are fighting for. So here it goes:
1). In nature there is no natural source for CRCs. CFCs are human-made compounds. CFCs are human-made products released when using aerosol propellants, refrigerants, coolants, and foam-blowing agents. Aerosols (e.g., spray cans) in the U.S. have not contained CFCs since 1979, and began the phase out of these substances through the use of CFC substitutes (e.g., HCFCs and HFCs).
2). CO2 which is in nature and most of it is used back in the seas, oceans, respriation of plant and plankton live. But we added almost double what the earth produces naturally. 3).Nitrous oxide is produced and consumed as part of the nitrogen cycle in biological processes in the soil and oceans. Human. Sources include combustion of fossil fuels (automobile exhaust), use of nitrogenous fertilizers, and biomass burning in the tropics.
4). Tropospheric ozone is produced via photochemical reactions of carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4) and other hydrocarbons (ozone precursors) in the presence of nitrogen oxides (NOx). Other natural sources of tropospheric ozone include lightening and natural forest fires (biomass burning). Human. Although ozone in the lower atmosphere does not come directly from motor vehicles, they are major sources of ozone precursors throughout the industrialized world. Increased ozone contributions in the troposphere are attributed to photochemical reactions involving primary pollutants (CO, NO, SO2, and hydrocarbons) emitted as a consequence of the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels from industrial plants, homes, and most importantly from motor vehicles. Biomass burning (destruction of the rain forests) also contributes precursors to ozone.
5). Methane is produced by bacteria in wetlands and in animals, especially wild ruminants (e.g., reindeer) and termites. Human. Sources include rice paddies, municipal and industrial landfills, domesticated ruminants (e.g., cattle, sheep), incomplete combustion during biomass burning, and fossil fuel production (natural gas wells, coal mining

Answer 10

Sometimes I'll just rev my engine or leave my car running while it's parked. I start fires in the middle of summer - nothing like watching a whole forest burn - Buy CO2 cartridges just to crack the seal. Yesterday I got a good deal on 5 barrels of crude oil. I threw them in the Illinois river and then riddled each one with bullets - fish oil...... yum - And by the way who says a coal furnace it out of date - yeah right - coal is cheap - but you have to burn a heck of a lot of it everyday to keep warm - hopefully in a few years there wont be winter. I know I'll keep doing my part.

Answer 11

Well said!!! The media has lost it's collective mind and jumps on any band wagon for ratings. If they would bother to do the research they would see that they are the fools for reporting this trash.