Do you beleive that human activities have resulted in an increase in emissions of the so called 'greenhouse gases' (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide etc).
2007-06-04 10:16:14 · 14 answers · asked by Trevor 7 in Environment ➔ Global Warming
To nickolassc - Water vapour isn't pertinent to the question, the question is about man-made greenhouse gases
2007-06-04 10:43:52 · update #1
Of course it has, no one is disputing that it hasn't.
What we are skeptical about are the climate models that attribute a quantifiable effect of these gases to the overall warming trend that we have recently experienced.
The Earth is a very complicated system and the science isn't conclusive either way on the true effect of our emissions.
I don't care about the chicken littles who say we must cut off all of our emissions immediately, or the people who say we should keep putting more into the atmosphere because the earth is "too cold." I care about what the science says, and what the truth is.
By the way you left out water vapor as a greenhouse gas--again.
2007-06-04 10:37:05 · answer #1 · answered by Nickoo 5 · 4⤊ 1⤋
Funny how when our creature comforts are threatened we finally start paying attention. It's possible that humans are causing some of the emissions. Whether we have caused the increase is debatable. There are so many other events going on in the world which create carbon dioxide and other gases. such as volcanoes, forest fires etc., that there is no one thing causing it. Plus there are too many large organisations with their own agendas attached to the answers to this question. We can't tell who is actually telling the truth anymore.
Why all the fuss anyway? Mother earth is very capable of balancing things out. Plants take up CO2 and emit oxygen so if the weather warms up in more barren arctic areas, plants will be able to grow there and compensate until there's a balance. Of course being from up north I wouldn't mind some warmer temperatures!
The bigger question is why isn't pollution taking top billing instead of arguing over whether the climate is really changing or if humans are causing it.
I'd have to say that the ongoing polluting of our air, oceans and waterways and land is far more serious. For heaven sake companies are still dumping garbage straight into the oceans!Our soil is so contaminated and/or weak that the food we are growing in it doesn't even carry all the nutrients we need. Smog level reports are a regular part of the weather channel. How sick is that? That I can gurantee is definitely being caused by humans 100%. WAKE UP EVERYONE!
2007-06-04 10:43:58 · answer #2 · answered by Rolande 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes, yet no one has proven an increase in temperature is due to this increase. You have studies that show CO2 is increasing, then you have studies that show temperature is increasing, yet the CO2 increase is relatively steady while the temperature is moving up and down in a general upward trend, the two graphs show very little similarity.
Also there have been a number of times in recent history like the period between 1940 and 1970 when temperatures dropped drastically while CO2 kept rising, this is the final nail in the coffin for me, if the increase in CO2 is causing our current warming why did the temperature drop while CO2 kept rising?
2007-06-04 12:30:34 · answer #3 · answered by Darwin 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
yep.
It has never been my contention that GHG's aren't rising. I just don't think that we are even close to understanding the interaction of GHG's, the atmosphere, the oceans, and our galactic environment well enough to say that CO2 is definitley the cause of our current 30 year warming trend.
Therefore, I think it is irresponsible to make policy decisions at this time.
It reminds me of the DDT scare, the environmental harm was far smaller in reality than in the mind of Rachel Carson et al. Banning DDT directly resulted in the deaths of millions (yes millions) of poor people throughout the mosquito infested areas of the Third World.
Bad policy based on biased science is not a good thing. Be it DDT, AWG, or any other issue.
2007-06-04 11:31:52 · answer #4 · answered by Marc G 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
"if the increase in CO2 is causing our current warming why did the temperature drop while CO2 kept rising?"
b/c the earth has used the extra heat to melt polar ice which ends up in the atmosphere and causes increased rain which in the short term brings temps down.
Maybe it's because I'm a business major that I know this: Look at the *overall* trend not the quarterly data.
So tell me, what happens when there is no more polar ice to cool the earth down? Now that's something to think about.
2007-06-04 13:04:20 · answer #5 · answered by jacksonville jones 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Yes I believe that the increase in the industry of manufacturing and the increase in the number of factories around the world has a lot to do with the increase in emmisions of greenhouse gasses.
Also, if you look at the increase in the use of cars, there is a direct correlation between the use of cars and between the green house gasses in the atmosphere.
P.S.-
Magical Trevor rocks!
2007-06-04 11:04:49 · answer #6 · answered by ck_pinna 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I find this rather interesting.
We put out 30,000,000,000 tons of CO2 in the atmosphere every year.
To put that in perspective, that's 38 molecules of CO2 for every 100,000 molecules of air. It would take 5 years to change that 38 molecules to 39 molecules at the above rate.
Interesting, huh?
2007-06-05 08:43:59 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes.
2007-06-04 10:57:03 · answer #8 · answered by BAL 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Just out of curiosity nickolass, do you know what "etc." means?
I certainly hope there aren't any skeptics here who deny this obvious reality.
2007-06-04 10:40:56 · answer #9 · answered by Dana1981 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
2007-06-05 16:40:13 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋