Does carbon dioxide contribute a lot to global warming?

Question

is carbon dioxide the major contributor to global warming?

Answer 1

Yes, here is the graph:

http://cait.wri.org/figures/World-FlowCh...

Answer 2

that's what the Nobel Prize committee said.

and they have never been wrong.

Answer 3

Not really, CO2 is one of many greenhouse gases and is actually a very small percent of the total- water vapor alone makes up for 95-97% of all greenhouse gas. Human contribution to CO2 is actually a small percentage of the total CO2 as well.

Answer 4

Absolutely NOT. Water vapor accounts for the vast majority of the green house effect. Generally between 65 to 95 percent. CO2 and the other gases attribute very little. As for CO2 it is a minor contributor, and the amount we contribute to CO2 is even less. We contribute (by emitting CO2) less than a half of a percent (<.5%) of the green house effect.

Bob, I will even use your own link to prove my point.

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

This article does state the truth, "Water vapour is by far the most important contributor to the greenhouse effect. Pinning down its precise contribution is tricky, not least because the absorption spectra of different greenhouse gases overlap." Notice the article says water vapor is the most important. This statement also mentions how there is overlapping effects. Also an important point, "At some of these overlaps, the atmosphere already absorbs 100% of radiation, meaning that adding more greenhouse gases cannot increase absorption at these specific frequencies." This statement backs up my point that at some point, adding more CO2 will do nothing to the temp.

What the article then says is that water vapor will not build up in the atmosphere and it is controlled by temp. This is all true. The level of water vapor can not be controlled, and it will not build up past a certain point. BUT at current levels, it is still THE MAJOR greenhouse gas, as it will always be.

The point the article makes that CO2 is a problem because it can build up has a HUGE fallacy. Yes it is true that the CO2 can build, but as the article previously stated, greenhouse gases overlap, even each other. Thus, at some point, no matter how much CO2 is added, there will be a ZERO increase in temp.

I find one of the most telling statements of this article to be, "But the overall quantities of these other gases (methane, etc) are tiny. Even allowing for the relative strength of the effects, CO2 is still responsible for two-thirds of the additional warming caused by all the greenhouse gases emitted as a result of human activity." What makes this line so telling is how the author tries to make CO2 sound more important than he has already shown it is not. Yes CO2 is responsible for 2/3 of the HUMAN ACTIVITY. What he is trying to hide is that humans only contribute about .28% of the total greenhouse effect.

http://mysite.verizon.net/mhieb/WVFossil...

His statement is really quite ridiculous in that all he is saying in this statement is that of all the greenhouse gases we do emit (methane, CO2, etc), the CO2 portion of our emissions is 2/3's of that amount. Of course, that is 2/3's of the .28%. You could also say this as, human CO2 emissions account for about .18666% of the total greenhouse effect. Of course it does not seem quite as scary then, does it?

Bob, please keep posting links that support my answers. It is really quite helpful.

Richard,

What does your answer have to do with the question? Here are 400 scientist against AGW. Funny thing is, some are also from NASA, IPCC, etc. So what? We need actual scientific data here.

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

Answer 5

its one of the major pieces

another is the depletion of the ozone

what co2 does is keep the heat that normally wud b lost to space

normally the earth wud lose heat hence keep it cool

the co2 doesnt allow it to do that

Answer 6

yes.

one of  the largest problems is that people, animals, and machinery let this gas off. trees and other plants take it and make oxygen. but people are killing all the plants and cutting down the trees, so we are really s******g ourselves over.

Answer 7

No.....

Answer 8

Of course-carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere

and traps sunlight

Answer 9

yes, co2 is a very strong greenhouse gas, aside from methane

Answer 10

It's the main b.loody cause mate

:p

Answer 11

75-95%, right now.  It's changed a lot over the last 100 years, as shown here.

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Ima...

Contrary to the unsupported statement above, the data clearly shows warming.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2007/

Because excess water vapor falls out of the air as precipitation, it CANNOT cause warming.  Details here;

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

Beware of people here making statements without any backup.  Mostly they pull them out of their ear or copy them from an ignorant blog..

Answer 12

no. water vapour in the air is to blame! if you examine graphs of global temperature: carbon dioxide levels you will see that the temperature increases BEFORE the carbon dioxide!!! this is because of the temperature of the sea and the plants within it. carbon dioxide is NOT causing global warming, in fact we humans have got nothing to do with global warming! and for those who disagree with me you should research further and listen to those who actually know what they're talking about, the world is actually getting cooler by a few degrees over the past few years, how does al gore explain that?

Answer 13

NASA, the National Academy of Sciences support AGW theory. These are just 2 of the most trusted scientific organizations in the world. Below are more...

Scientific organizations statement (Joint science academies’ statement 2005) from the G8 nations.

"It is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities (IPCC 2001)2. This warming has already led to changes in the Earth's climate."

Furthermore...

"The scientific understanding of climate change is now

sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. It

is vital that all nations identify cost-effective steps that they

can take now, to contribute to substantial and long-term

reduction in net global greenhouse gas emissions."

Signatories shown below...

Academia Brasiliera de Ciências, Brazil

Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Royal Society of Canada, Canada

Académie des Sciences, France

Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher, Leopoldina, Germany

Indian National Science Academy, India

Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei,Italy

Science Council of Japan, Japan

Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

National Academy of Sciences, United States of America

Royal Society, United Kingdom

Other organizations...

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007

U.S. National Research Council, 2001

American Meteorological Society

American Geophysical Union

American Institute of Physics

American Astronomical Society

Federal Climate Change Science Program, 2006

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London

Geological Society of America

American Chemical Society

Engineers Australia (The Institution of Engineers Australia)

The Joint science academies’ statement 2007 is also linked below.

Answer 14

No.  and that is one of the major fallacies of the AGW religion.

Answer 15

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/002...

http://motls.blogspot.com/2006/05/global...

http://motls.blogspot.com/2006/07/carbon...

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editor...  pt1

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editor... pt2