wiseones2cents
Verified User
I fully agree that we would be better off reducing dependence on petroleum for energy and transportation. But in case you have not noticed the MAIN focus of the AGW crowd is CO2. The main focus of the AGW summits is to concentrate on reducing carbon footprint. and, as is typical of the far left political factions, their answer seems to be limited to the idea of taxing or fining carbon footprints. It's fucking stupid, and those who support them are equally fucking stupid.
The carbon footprint they are reffering to is carbon caused by man AKA pollution. And this IS the main focus, and deforestation.
No, what is stupid is that the fines are sometimes smaller than the profits accumulated by polluting. Therefore the company just continues to pollute and they never get shut down.
Did you know you can develop film in lake Ontario thanks to Kodak? Thank GOD for the digital camera.
Whats stupid is allowing these people to pollute unrestrained.
I agree that alternative energies is the best option but until then? Technology to reduce pollution is the quick fix answer.
CH4 forcing: I give you reference to an actual scientific study that shows CH4 concentrations found in our atmosphere are too low to make a difference in heat retention in the atmosphere. You counter with WIKI? How about showing a scientific study that proves the heat retention of CH4 at 1500 ppbv is measurably lower than heat retention at 1750 ppbv? The study I referenced for you shows the opposite - the difference in heat retention at those low levels is immeasurable. For CH4 to start actually show a green house effect, concentrations would have to rise above 100 ppmv, or over 60 times present levels. The WIKI article simply makes the same base, unsupported assumption that CH4 can cause a greenhouse effect at low concentrations because of it's molecular heat retention properties. Experiemental data shows that assumption to be incorrect.
Because it balances itseelf out due to the amount of oxygen. Though what happens if that balance is disturbed? CH4 is just one of the pollutants.
CO2 makes up ALOT less than 1% of the Atmosphere yet plays a major role in our enviornment.
Additionally, good old water vapor has 20 times the heat retention factor as CH4. Are you going to start calling water vapor a GW pollutant?
No. It is organic. I believe the other ones emit radiation.
Deforestation has many problems associated with it that make the continued practice unwise. However changing the carbon cycle is not one of those problems. First, the vasst majority of photosynthetic activity takes place in the oceans via phytoplankton. All the tropical forests in the world contribute only about 3%. Additionally, most deforestation results in human agricultural areas, which is comprised of human modified crops (ie: bred or designed for fastest growth) that have as much if not more CO2 exchange per acre as the forest they replace. And let's not, of course, mention the fact that the carbon cycle is exactly that: a CYCLE. Trees grow and take in carbon to build its cell structures. Then it dies and releases all that carbon back into the atmosphere via CO2 and CH4. When men cut down trees and use the lumber they are actually reducing the return of carbon to the atmosphere than when those trees die naturally and decay. Deforestation is bad. But it is not warming the planet.
I have heard that the oceans produce most of the oxygen and it makes sense.
THOUGH the ocean converts ONLY ONE THIRD of the CO2. Therefore trees play a significant role.
And as the ocean heats up, more oxygen is released but its ability to absorb CO2 from the air decreases.
Not to mention what bad effects the pollutants have to ocean life.
Here is some interesting read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide
In the oceans
Main article: Carbon cycle
There is about fifty times as much carbon dissolved in the oceans in the form of CO2 and carbonic acid, bicarbonate and carbonate ions as exists in the atmosphere. The oceans act as an enormous carbon sink, and have taken up about a third of CO2 emitted by human activity.[28] Gas solubility decreases as the temperature of water increases and therefore the rate of uptake from the atmosphere decreases as ocean temperatures rise.
Most of the CO2 taken up by the ocean forms carbonic acid in equilibrium with bicarbonate and carbonate ions. Some is consumed in photosynthesis by organisms in the water, and a small proportion of that sinks and leaves the carbon cycle. Increased CO2 in the atmosphere has led to decreasing alkalinity of seawater and there is concern that this may adversely affect organisms living in the water. In particular, with decreasing alkalinity, the availability of carbonates for forming shells decreases.[29]
NOAA states in their May 2008 "State of the science fact sheet for ocean acidification" that:
"The oceans have absorbed about 50% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) released from the burning of fossil fuels, resulting in chemical reactions that lower ocean pH. This has caused an increase in hydrogen ion (acidity) of about 30% since the start of the industrial age through a process known as “ocean acidification.” A growing number of studies have demonstrated adverse impacts on marine organisms, including:
The rate at which reef-building corals produce their skeletons decreases.
The ability of marine algae and free-swimming zooplankton to maintain protective shells is reduced.
The survival of larval marine species, including commercial fish and shellfish, is reduced."
Also, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) writes in their Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report [30]:
"The uptake of anthropogenic carbon since 1750 has led to the ocean becoming more acidic with an average decrease in pH of 0.1 units. Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations lead to further acidification .. While the effects of observed ocean acidification on the marine biosphere are as yet undocumented, the progressive acidification of oceans is expected to have negative impacts on marine shell-forming organisms (e.g. corals) and their dependent species."
IPCC also includes in its last report that with a probability greater than 0.66: "the resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded in this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change, associated disturbances (e.g. flooding, drought, wildfire, insects, ocean acidification) and other global change drivers (e.g. landuse change, pollution, fragmentation of natural systems, overexploitation of resources)."
Some marine calcifying organisms (like coral reefs) have been singled out by major research agencies, including NOAA, OSPAR commission, NANOOS and the IPCC, because their most current research shows that ocean acidification should be expected to impact them negatively.[31]
Thanks for making my point for me. In fact I said the exact same thing using slightly different words, didn't I? They don't have ice core data prior to 800,000 years ago because there was no ice more than 800,000 years ago. The Earth has had ice ages. The Earth has had warm periods that completely melted the ice caps. So, acknowledging this reality, can you tell me, out of all the hundreds of millions of years that global climate has been fluctuating up and down, how is it that THIS time it is the fault of human activity instead of one more of thousands of natural fluctuations which have been observed in the data available from analysis of ice cores, fossilized plants, and geological structures?
Sure. If you had bothered to read all my posts? You would see that my theory of ice ages involve celestial events like a distant super nova.
If this is the case today? You can kiss the world as you know it today goodbye.All scientists with scientific data say that pollution from burning fossil fuels is the cause of GW and I find this logical.
It's a fucking scare tactic to get mindless dweebs to accept the idea of paying governments around the world trillions of dollars in taxes and carbon fees over the next few decades, not to mention that certain political factions world wide are slavering at the idea of having an excuse to gain governmental control of energy production. To the people pushing this idea it means vast amounts of money, and vast amounts of power. To the scientists pushing the idea it means millions in government sponsored research grants. Follow the money.
The only mindless dweebs I see are the ones following the scientists that are backed by their own opinions, faulty conclusions and no real science to back it up. More than likely paid off by big business as I have already prooved.
Now it MAY be true that the powers that be are show boating. This I wont deny. They always huff and puff and argue but nothing hardly gets done.
This reminds me of the climate summit and the health care reform in America just to name 2.
This is to fool the people when their intentions really are to keep the profits flowing.So they can take the money and say they spent it on GW when they actually didn't.
Though this doesn't change the fact that HUMANS are causing GW and if something is not done, the consequences may be severe. We will soon see if the money was indeed being spent where it is supposed to have been spent.
The thing is, I am fully and completely behind the idea of vastly reducing our use of petroleum as an energy source due to the polluting aspects of petroleum that have nothing at all to do with release of GHGs. I am opposed to the continued indiscriminate cutting of tropical forests. But the whole AGW scare is exactly that: a ruse to scare people into accepting things they would otherwise not accept from our respective governments.
All burning fossil fuels period. Most deforestation that is not balanced(trees replanted) is bad.
The AGW scare is very real. If we do not do something to stop this deterioration of our enviornment? The consequences wil be severe, many will die.....
Who cares how many agree? The science is shaky because it is founded on shaky assumptions. Assumption #1, the biggest, fattest assumption of them all, is using the correlation between CO2 concentrations and mean global temperatures to form a cause/effect relationship with CO2 being a driver of mean atmospheric warming. But the data and additional experiments do not support that base assumption for the reasons I have already outlined. With the assumption that CO2/temperature correlation indicates a cause/effect relationship gone, all the rest of AGW falls apart.
When you have the majority of the best minds agreeing on something? It is usually either 100% true or they are on the right track.
I disagree. The data and additional information you provided is misleading and classified under mis-information. And I have already explained why.
The correlation does exist between the human carbon footprint and the increase in temperature. CO2 plays a VERY large role in traping heat in our atmosphere. And toxins from buring fossil fuels plays an even larger role. You have the petrolium industry themselves agreeing.
Defending a scientific concept on the basis of how many agree with it is the ultimate in bullshit science. There was a time almost every scientist in the world agreed that heavier-than-air transport was an impractical idea that would never fly. (excuse the pun.) There was a time when almost every scientist scoffed at the idea that having doctors simply wash their hands between patients would reduce infections in hospitals. There was a time, quite recently, when the scientific consensus supported a food pyramid that had a severe imbalance in the amount of carbohydrates recommended. It took "crazies" like Robert Atkins and Arthur Agatston to push through the consensus amid vast amounts of ridicule and opposition. The result is a vastly changed food "pyramid" adjusted after much resistance to reflect the new science. So don't bother pulling the "almost everyone agrees" crap. Scientists are every bit as prone to factors such as peer pressure, political atmosphere, and personal ego as anyone else. They are also every bit as prone to being wrong as anyone else, and equally prone to refusing to admit it.
These were people baseing their beliefs on nothing more than opinion. They had no actual science or ways to verify their beliefs. Today we do through many things like satellites, microscopes, and various high tech measuring instruments.
The thing with science is the more FACTS you varify? The more evolved the science and the thinking behind it becomes.
Now I do believe that if people are told a lie over and over they will percieve it as the truth and this is what impedes progress. THOUGH the GW facts are based on SCIENCE/PROOF that GW is caused by man. It is the sceptics that have B.S. data supported by nothing. Only their opinion, that even I have been able to discredit.