Where does all the heat go?

Question

We know from industrial production records approximately how much carbon we have brought up from underground and injected into the atmosphere by burning since the industrial revolution.
We know that the observed rise in atmospheric and oceanic CO2 is approximately equal to what we have dug/pumped up and burned.
We know from straightforward engineering physics that that much CO2 added to the atmosphere will result in about 1.5 watt/sq. meter reduction in the heat the planet looses to space.

The question is - if you feel that global warming is not occurring, what mechanism are you proposing to offset the known forcing of that much CO2?

For Gaby: the second "assumption " is 50 years of the most meticulous field experimental meas;urement ever done - Google "Keeling",.
The third is not an assumption, it's engineering math, the same stuff gets used to come up with practical numbers like space-station cooling requirements.

Of the answers given, all bu one supports the evidence for anthropogenic global warming. The single anti stated that temperature varied without human intervention, gave no mechanism. The number of questions on Y Answers deriding global warming gives the appearance of a much larger crowd. Asking for proof, or even a hypothesis, thins their ranks remarkably.

Answer 1

How about using giant scrubbers like they use in submarines and spacecraft? Then give the collected Co2 to companies that need it. i.e. fire extinguishers.

Answer 2

Of course global warming is occurring. That is old science.

I believe your second and third assumptions may be incorrect. We do know we have released more than the natural CO2. We have observed a higher CO2 level and a increased rate of temperature change in this heating cycle than we calculated from core samples for past cycles. We don't really know exactly how much excess the world can handle without a significant temperature increase. All CO2 is not bad and the planet may actually benefit from some access. We just do not have all the answers yet. We may find that we not only want to reduce emissions, but capture and store even more.

Academic science is one thing. All the numbers add up every time. I still have some concerns with the base data being compared to. My understanding is it is estimates made from historical samples. My long experience is that when science leaves the academic and goes out in the world to apply, the numbers almost never add up. I am not trying to say the present theories are wrong, I just think these are the first few and we need to keep sampling and calculating.

Lets push ahead with reducing our use of fossil fuel. We don't need global warming to justify that. Burning fossil fuel pollutes and we need to get off our dependence on foreign oil.

Take a look at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI.COM) some good recommendations / studies on how to reduce CO2 from power plants.

Answer 3

Offset, smoffset. Look, before there even was any industry in the world the temperature fluctuated much higher and much lower than it is today. The scientists were convinced that there was a new ice age coming just in the 1970's. Your model does not hold water unless you can prove that there has been a steady increase in temperature every year in relation to released CO2 every year.

I am not a physicist but I have had training in meteorology. I can tell you that looking at a single factor like CO2 levels will net you exactly nothing in understanding all the phenomena that are influencing planetary temperatures or temperature cycles.

The system is so complex we cannot effectively predict the weather beyond three days with any real accuracy.

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Answer 4

The amount of heat produced from burning coal, oil, wood, gas and other fuels is minuscule compared to the heat that the earth receives from the sun. The problem with CO2 is that it acts like an insulation blanket to keep the heat in, reducing the earth's ability to re-radiate the sun's heat back out into space. So it's not the burning of carbon that causes global warming but the production of CO2 that results from the burning.

Answer 5

any emission will not remain in its original position for long. when evaporated, it takes a different form and content having mixed with the atmosphere. sun rays also gives effect for the conversion. but this cycle has limitation. when there is too much of emission, it will lose balance thereby creating disturbance in the natural working of the cycle. though every body knows, we are running beyond the limit now, what exactly the limit is yet to be found out!

Answer 6

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

Answer 7

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

Answer 8

Yes I believe so !!!