Does CO2 cause warming?

Question

In seventh grade we all learned about greenhouse gasses. Anyone with a ninth grade education understands that our burning of fossil fuel releases loads of CO2. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps heat. The CO2 levels have risen dramatically since we began using fossil fuels in the industrial revolution. The average temp is steadily going up.

Can anyone out there STOP hating Al Gore long enough to disprove THAT??

And what exactly are you fighting for? The right to pollute?

Answer 1

Yes, it surely does.

Note that some will point out it can be an effect of warming, as warming ocean waters release it.  That is also true.

In previous warmings CO2 lagged temperatures by hundreds of years.  It takes a long time for the oceans to release it.  That showed previously that CO2 was mostly an effect.

This time, THERE IS NO LAG.  That shows that CO2, this time, is mostly a cause.

EDIT - We KNOW it's not the Sun.

"Recent oppositely directed trends in solar

climate forcings and the global mean surface

air temperature", Lockwood and Frolich (2007), Proc. R. Soc. A

doi:10.1098/rspa.2007.1880

http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/pro...

News article at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6290228.st...

Or water vapor.  Proof.

http://environment.newscientist.com/chan...

Answer 2

finnaly some that makes sence.  YEs co2 is the main cause (in cemicals) of global warming, also you were and are right tha it (ovbiously) comes from fosil fuels.

who's Al gore?

I know right!!!  sometimes I think that it was good for the gas prices to go up, I mean honsetly with-out that would most people even care the slightest bit that our world is coming to an end?

Answer 3

Clint CO2 doesn't reflect heat, it absorbs it. Far form being an umbrella, it's a blanket. What happens when you make a blanket thicker?...

Answer 4

CO2 has the ability to absorb lower wavelength energy than other major atmospheric gases.  It shares this property with methane and water.  Other gases, like N2 and O2 are not able to absorb these lower frequency energies.

This means that once the light from the sun hits the earth and then is radiated off as heat, if there was no CO2 in the atmosphere the heat given off by the surface would virtually all go back into space.  When there is CO2, that absorbs it.

Now, after that it then loses the heat again.  SO WHAT?  We,, the heat that the CO2 absorbs was all going one way...into space.  The heat the CO2 gives off goes in all directions, including some into space and some back down to earth.

Therefore the presence of CO2 molecules results in some heat being reflected back to earth that would otherwise be lost to space.

More CO2 = more reflected heat.  It's that simple.

Roger.

Answer 5

No. Co2 rises after the warming is complete.

Answer 6

I'm not going to go into detail regarding temperature trends but state a small comment to think about that shows climatology isn't as simple as one thing does this.

CO2 reflects energy. The greenhouse effect is energy reflected back to earth, whilst some of this heat escapes to space. This energy must come from somewhere and it arrives from space. If CO2 reflects energy then it must also reflect incoming energy back out to space and it does. The Ozone's main job is to protect the earth from this solar energy.

With that information in mind would a increase of CO2 reflect the solar energy required to heat up the earth away? If this is the case where is the additional energy coming from to heat up the climate? wouldn't this increase in energy reflection also have a negative effect on the temperature since the energy required to heat up the earth is being deflected back to space?

As I stated earlier I understand the reasons for this but this is aimed at getting a ninth grader to think about the science and information she is being taught. The question if the CO2 stops the energy escaping why doesn't it stop it entering at the same rate is a good question to ask there teacher.

Edit ---

Peter - I was trying to get a young girl to think about what she was taught. I know the answers to my questions can be found and are easy to look up.

I know how CO2 works in the Atmosphere in regards to Bonded eliments, I suspect that a seventh grader is taught about atomic bonds. As I'm sure you know its the atomic bonds that absord the energy by using the increased energy available via quarks. This moves the outer electrons away from the nucleus thus causing the energy ratings to change. It's all to do with the atmoic Vibrations caused when the eliments get struct by the passing solar energy.

Since in my opinion I doubt that the question asker would know this information and proberably just been told that CO2 reflects the energy, which it also does (although N2 is more likely to be the reflection agent and uses Rayleigh scattering to cause a greater rate of both absorbtion and reflection).

Since more solar energy is reflected in a high density atmospheric field than a low one the less energy would be able to pass to the lower levels causing a increase temperature in the higher atmosphere and not at ground level.

I can see why you like the blanket idea. If you throw water at a blanket so will soak in, some will go through and soak the person on the other side and some will get reflected off and cause puddles in front of the blanket.

Answer 7

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

Answer 8

CO2 does not cause warming!  The Sun does!  CO2 is just like everything else, at the mercy of the Sun or whatever other element influences it.  CO2 does not and has not caused warming.  It is like an attenuator by way of absorbing heat and filtering UV rays.  Allegedly CO2 retains heat but that is really a minimal argument, due to the fact that once the heat is removed, CO2 is almost immediately cooled to its environmental temperature.  

I think the fight that we should be having is with humidity.  Water vapor holds FAR more thermal energy than CO2 ever could.  Otherwise it would not get cold at night.  

Now, since CO2 greenhouse gases of today is such a culprit.  Why don't we go back to the 30's and look at temperature differences between night and day?  See, if the absence of CO2 means less heat, then the night time temperatures would get really cold, even on summer days.  So, you would expect 30's temperatures to have a deviance of 50 degrees, whereas today, with CO2 keeping the night warm, the temperatures should be closer together.  If you did the research however, you will probably find that there is absolutely no differences in temperatures from the 30's as compared to today.

So, the global warming CO2 argument is well beyond reason.

Plus, if you consider that CO2 is 385 parts per million.  That means that out of 1,000,000 paticles of atmosphere, we have 385 parts CO2.  That equals 1  2500th of our atmosphere.  Yet, CO2 causes global warming?  No one in their right mind can believe that one!

Plus, if you take CO2 and heat it up compared to regular air and heat it up, once you take the heat away, you will find that CO2 does not retain heat any longer than the atmosphere or most other gases out there.  The scientific measured differences are so minimal that they are almost immeasurable outside of a laboratory.

But this is the culprit of so-called global warming.

By the way-  The reason why we are fighting is because we are sick and tired of being dictated by environmental alarmists.  Remember that Ozone layer thing?  Remember we were destroying the ozone layer because they discovered that hole?  Yea, that hole has always been there and it always will be there.  Funny, they figured out that CFC's from the ground, just couldn't quite make it up 30 miles into the air to deplete that ozone...  Just another example of a billion dollar crisis that we paid for, in which it was a scam....

So, this time we are fighting mad because people are hungry, gas it through the roof, California's education budget was cut by millions and crime is growing again... YET WE GOT TO PAY FOR THIS?

Answer 9

You are right CO2 is a minor greenhouse gas. But our contribution to it are minimal (about .25% of all greenhouse effect).

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenh...

As for our releasing of CO2, that is also true. But, to date, no scientific study supports the theory we are the cause of the recent warming. Also, you must look at the science behind CO2. Some highlights are: 1. The effect of CO2 diminishes as additional CO2 is added. Eventually, no matter how much CO2 we release, no additional heating will occur. 2. CO2 absorbs only about 8% of the light wavelengths, and some of this is already absorbed by water vapor. 3. Water vapor far surpasses CO2 as a green house gas.

http://www.warwickhughes.com/agri/Solar_...

Levels of CO2 have fluctuated drastically in the past. Past temperatures have not been driven by changes in CO2. Levels of CO2 are driven by the temp.

As for the temp, it has remained statistically static for about a decade (with drastic lowering in the last year). The CO2 theory states that temps should be steadily increasing with increased levels of CO2 (like we have).

As for Al Gore, we are fighting him because his movie is filled with lies and half truths.

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images...

What are we fighting for? You are probably to young to understand this. No one likes pollution. No wakes up in the morning and says, "What a nice day to pollute.) By the way CO2 is not a pollutant. It is a vital gas necessary to sustain all life on earth. Plants grow much more rapidly in higher CO2 atmospheres. What we are fighting against is the government takeover of our liberties. Government has used global warming as an excuse to increase taxes, and decrease personal freedoms. The final goal, in my opinion, is to further a socialist agenda which calls for wealth distribution to other nations. Those promoting the lie are also driven by anti american and anti capitalist ideals. If you doubt this, go to any Global warming rally (or anti war rally) and ask where you can sign up for the socialist/communist party. You will be promptly led to the proper location.

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?F...

They are not against pollution. They are against a viable energy policy. If they were just against pollution, they would be advocating nuclear energy (also CO2 free). But this solution would allow people to continue living at their current levels of freedom, so this must be squashed. They do advocate energy sources which are not realistic today. You can not power a city or even a modest house on solar or wind power.

As you mature and start to look at these issues realistically, you will begin to realize what I am saying is true. But for now, enjoy your life and do not worry about global warming. It is not man made, and we can only adapt, not change it.

Answer 10

of course

Answer 11

The privileged people in the world who want to remain privileged and claim this means they are defending some "right" to remain so pretty much make me sick.  Indifference to starvation, poverty and half a world without water is one thing.  Claiming to be a member of some kind of Godlike Master Race entitled to more than the rest of humanity is quite something else.  All the harangues in the world about how scientists don't know anything, and CO2, etc. doesn't behave they way they say, it behaves the way skinheads prefer it to behave does not in any way cover up, disguise or defend elitism on the part of those who see themselves as some kind of Master Race.  That approach has been tried before by people who sought to impose it on everybody else, and we don't need it again.  You know who you are.

Answer 12

it doesn't exactly cause it, its greenhouse effect-when the sun's rays hit the earth they are reflected and go in the space. while, others are trapped in by greenhouse gases, likeCO2. Greenhouse gases are good at some levels, they keep the others temperature warm, during night and if don't have it earth would have been cold barren planet like mars. But excess greenhouse causes increase of earth's temperature more than normal, because the gases as gases like CO2 in the atmosphere increase more sun's rays are trap therefore rise in temperature. We are fighting the increase use of fossil fuels as it produces CO2 which causes the global warming.