Greenhouse gas emissions are considered to be a primary cause to global warming?

Question

what effect does it have on our climate

Answer 1

Yes.  Here's short and long summaries of the massive amount of peer reviewed data showing that to be true.

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

http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf

As stated above, water vapor is self regulating and the system is quite stable.  Data shows the same is not true for CO2.

There are a great many natural sources and sinks for carbon dioxide.  But the present global warming is (mostly) the result of man made CO2 from burning fossil fuels.

There is a natural "carbon cycle" that recycles CO2.  But it's a delicate balance and we're messing it up.

Look at this graph.

http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/graphics_gall...

The little squiggles are nature doing its' thing. CO2 falls a bit during summer when plants are active, and rises during the winter. The huge increase is us, burning fossil fuels (in addition to the shape of the graph, the increase numerically matches the increase in fossil fuel use). The scientists can actually show that the increased CO2 in the air comes from burning fossil fuels by using "isotopic ratios" to identify that CO2.  The natural carbon cycle buried carbon in fossil fuels over a very long time, little bit by little bit. We dig them up and burn them, real fast.  That's a problem.

Man is upsetting the balance of nature.  The results are clear in the first graph above,  We need to fix that.

Answer 2

Yes.  Greenhouse gasses are a category that include many different gasses that degrade the ozone layer or trap heat.  They incluse carbon dioxide, methane and chlorofluorocarbons  (CFCs).

Answer 3

The most abundant and important greenhouse gas is water vapor.  The effects of all other greenhouse gas emissions are negligible in comparison.

The specific feedback loop is:

water vapor traps heat, warms the earth

water vapor turns to clouds, reflects sunlight, cools earth

Without this natural feedback mechanism, more water vapor would heat up the earth that would evaporate more water vapor ... until the oceans were complete gone.

This "runaway positive feedback" doesn't happen, and we have oceans.

Computer climate models don't model this water vapor/cloud  feedback loop, so it is not clear why anyone has any confidence in computer climate models.

In theory CO2, carbon dioxide, should contribute to global warming, but this hasn't been shown to happen in our atmosphere.

If you look at global temperature versus CO2 levels, temperature increases first then CO2 starts to increase, not the other way around, so it is hard to see how CO2 has any effect on global warming.  In addition, CO2 levels have been much higher than at present, and the earth still descended into some terrible ice ages, so CO2 by itself doesn't seem to have much influence.

In short, the water vapor / cloud system probably swamps any effects of the other global warming gases.

Next time you discuss global warming, just ask one question:

"Will global warming cause a runaway positive feedback in regards to water vapor?"

If they answer, duh ... then rest assured they don't have a clue about anything else in the climate world.

Answer 4

Greenhouse gasses have a very little effect on our climate. If you look back through history you will notice that for millions of years there have been periods of warming and cooling on our planet.  If you are seriously concerened with global warming do some research on a period called the holocene maximum, humans and greenhouse gas emissions had nothing to do with this warming period.  It was a BIG little thing out in space that we refer to as sun that causes our climate to change, do some looking they are called Milankovitch Cycles and this will give you a better understanding of global warming and the heating and cooling of the earth than I ever could. But to leave you with this and I quote a very intellegent man "Man has thrived when it is warm, and suffered when it is cold.  So why would anyone want to try and prevent global warming"?