If the earths atmosphere is 68% nitrogen and 20% oxygen with only 2% other could anyone explain the warming?

Question

can we be honest with each other, we are to expect that the earth will warm substantialy hinging on trace gasses and the like. does any one get tired of hearing about how hot it is getting and yet this morning I still had to push the snow off of my jobsite in order to work this morning. I even checked the date and spring was supposed to be here by now.

Answer 1

I actually do not believe in global warming. I do however believe in temperature change.  In the 1970's "scientist" said that the world was going to freeze over.  People were concerned and scared. The freeze over never happened.  Now we are suppose to get warmer.  I think this is a need for "scientists" to publish or parish .  In order to keep their pay scale they need to write document that cause interest. As far as the co2 and other gasses: Just think about it.  The solution to pollution is dilution. I find it hard to believe that we are polluting enough to cause global warming. I would put money on it that in twenty years we will be causing the earth to freeze again, or whatever will give the scientists a reason to write a paper and keep their jobs.

Answer 2

You are absolutely right!  Alarmists say that 385 parts per million....  That's 385 / 1,000,000, which is less than 1 2500th is making us hotter and hotter and hotter every day.  There is absolutely nothing but crazy thrown out theories and those tiny 385 parts pick up and radiate sunlight?  OMG LOL...  

Honestly, if there was even REMOTELY any validity to what they are ranting about, then we would be packaging CO2 heat packs, microscopes, telescopes, magnifying glasses and CO2 energy packs instead of CO2 fire extinguishers that COOL FIRES.... Wow, they are brazen in their ridiculousness.  It is like determined nonsense.  Every day you see these rants by people who claim to have scientific knowledge, calling their parents stupid for not conserving, all the while sitting on their tails being supported by them.

Yes, it is very frustrating but alarmists are those abstract thinkers that tend to look at a picture of a donkey and can see two people kissing.  It is just that mindset that allows them to be neck deep in snow and ice and yet believe someone who is yelling at them that they are getting warmer and burning up.

Great question!!!!!!

Answer 3

If you find that ridiculous Cindy, wait till you hear about the wave-particle duality.  At least you finally grasp how AGW works, even if you don't believe it.

Answer 4

u see, the temperature is changing...  just be glad there's still snow because for years to come, there won't be.. u see, there is that "random climate" that's affecting our environment... Maybe southeast monsoon is coming early

Answer 5

Argument error #1: Misunderstanding the balance of equilibrium.

It doesn't matter a hoot whether the atmosphere is 2% "other gases", 10% "other gases", or 50% "other gases". The earth has a climate cycle (which includes the atmosphere, the oceans, the forests, and so on) where the proportion of greenhouse gases cycling in and out of the atmosphere trapping heat balances heat losses, resulting in a habitable climate.

Percentages of the original ingredients do not matter when it comes to upsetting an equilibrium.

On a large scale, you can pump out massive amounts of greenhouse gases above and beyond what is produced by nature, and while the Earth can most likely cope to an extent, there will be a point where the equilibrium tips one way or the other.

Argument error #2: Confusing local weather with long term climate.

Global warming is about long term average global temperature change over decades, not about whether one country has a late spring, or whether there is still snow on the ground this winter! The seasons are caused by the way the earth is tilted in its orbit around the sun. They have nothing to do with global warming!

Argument error #3 (from another answerer): Misunderstanding the difference between CO2 and water vapour.

In short, CO2 lasts decades in the atmosphere. Water vapour lasts days before it condenses, falls out, and your head gets wet. So water vapour is easily maintained in equilibrium, but CO2 is not. At the rate we're putting it in now, it has to build up in concentration.

Yes, if we were causing massive amounts of extra water vapour to enter the atmosphere and it couldn't condense back out, scientists would rightly be more concerned about water vapour than CO2! But that is not the case - obviously.

EDIT: Cindy W, is there ever going to be an end to your totally dopey comments about CO2? CO2 extinguishers do not "cool" fires. They starve them of oxygen. That is why they go out! God I hope no firefighters read your comment.

Answer 6

yeah but thats for where you live, it may not affect you guys

but it is a very real thing and here in aus(!) were in a drought still and its really dry, there are cyclones in QLD that are nasty and stuff is really bad and im sure that were not all

its all the subtle things yet think what is going to be like in a few years time

like google the murray river darling basin, its the biggest river body in Australia and its basically dry

Answer 7

That is why Jan Veizer a world renown expert on the the carbon cycle states there are five important greenhouse gases.  The first is water vapour, the second is water vapour, the third is water vapour, the fourth is water vapour, and co2 a distant fifth.

Answer 8

I'm a bit surprised that nobody seems to have picked up on your mistake on atmospheric concentrations.

It is actually 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen with only 1% other gases.

The 1% is a mixture of mainly argon and carbon dioxide, with trace amounts of mainly inert gases like neon, helium, krypton, and xenon.

You are correct however that CO2 is actually such a small percentage, that even if there was such a thing as a 'Greenhouse Gas' (which there is not), it is in such small proportions as to be completely discarded.

The current level of CO2 in the atmosphere is(according to most current figures) at 380 parts per million(0.038%).

This is not much different from what my old text books stated as I was using as a young lad over 40 years ago.

The text books stated CO2 concentrations to be about 0.03 %. It is not any more specific than that. Possibly because the exact level really was considered unimportant or it was rounded down, or that that was the closest accuracy, they could do at the time of publication.

Whatever the reason, the true science shows that increased levels of atmospheric CO2 never lead to previous temperature rise, but occurred after those periods of time!

Science and truth are completely ignored by the media and the 'Doom and Gloom' fanatics, mainly because they neither understand or are willing to learn some basic science.

The fact that you asked your question in the way you did in the first place tells me that you have some 'common sense'.

A recent video I found might be of some interest.

http://revver.com/video/792547/affiliate...

Take care.

Answer 9

Don't you get it? The smaller the trace amounts the larger the impact. Flea farts cause global warming!

Answer 10

Actually as someone else pointed out, N2 is closer to 78%.  There's much more compelling evidence that CO2 is not measurably affecting temperature.

Answer 11

2% water in your gas tank would have a somewhat negative effect on your driving, so why not have a negative effect on the atmosphere?   Is it usually hot and grass growing this time of year wherever you are, or are you just spouting off and looking foolish?   It's cold in Alaska and should be even though it is spring.   Spring doesn't mean it suddenly gets warm and sunny.   I feel foolish having to explain this to someone who supposedly is an adult, but sometimes it needs to be done.

Answer 12

I know your feeling, but this is good because if your voice is not heard the government and the alarmists will destroy the the reason why you are getting up ....going to work...having a job....being independent from government socialism.

This AGW alarmism has to be stopped, otherwise you will not have a reason to even get up. The government will tell you when and how you run your life.

Answer 13

It is pretty silly to predict doom when water vapor is much more significant especially in high humidity.

Answer 14

it is because overall composition of the atmosphere may have not changed substantially, but the concentration of "greenhouse gases" like methane, CO2, CO which were supposed to be near ground level, have reached higher levels in the atmosphere and there is where they cause the greenhouse effect.

Answer 15

You're right, CO2 is a trace gas and also a very weak cause of global warming. It blocks a narrow band of infrared radiation emanating from the surface and keeps it from escaping into space. Nearly all greenhouse gases are far more potent which is why CO2 is rated as having a global warming potential (GWP) of 1, while methane is 21, nitrous oxide (mostly from fertilizers) is 296 and sulfur hexafluoride is over 22,000 times as potent as CO2.

Another interesting fact is that the 'suffocation' level of CO2 for plants, meaning the level at which they no longer grow and thrive, is not much below 300 parts per million. Yet the IPCC uses charts showing that thousands of years ago the level was well below 150 ppm. Why didn't all plant life die off at that time if their chart is accurate?

Answer 16

the earth is going to suffer from an ice age soon, not very soon but soon.

before every ice age the earth gets substantially warmer (which is what is happening now) and then it cools (which is soon to happen) and freezes everything up.

but yet in many places it is getting cooler like my city- bombay. winter temps never went below 16 celsius but this year we were down to 8.

summer temps were always above 30 but this time MET says they will stay close to the upper ranges of the 20s.

plus the earth is kind of confusing so we dont exactly know what is happening right now - cooling or warming.