Is global warming real? Is global warming caused by CO2 emissions?

Question

Hasn't the Earths climate always been in a state of change. Weren't there many iceages followed by tropical periods? Isn't a warmer climate better than a cooler one? Don't higher temerpatures and higher CO2 levels promote more plant life, which means more food? Doesn't water vapor play a much larger role as a greenhouse gas than CO2? How could CO2 be polution if we breathe it out and plants breathe it in?

Answer 1

The Earth was warming until 1998 and it may begin warming again. Or not. Tying that warming primarily to CO2 emissions is debatable. Saying a doubling of CO2 will end life on Earth or cause huge disruptions is ridiculous.

The chart at the link provided shows that CO2 concentration was over 7,000 parts per million 500 million years ago, almost 20 times what it is today and temp was only about 10C warmer than it is today. Could we survive that temp? Life on Earth didn't end during the Cambrian period so I'd say something as smart and inventive as people could do at least as well as the life forms back then did. Since it would take 1000s of years our emissions to add that much CO2 to our atmosphere I don't think Ted Turner is right. Temp will not reach the dire predictions made by him or even the IPCC because the Earth is self-regulating and it's just never gotten that hot since oceans formed.

You're right about CO2, it's an essential gas for most life on Earth and water vapor causes far more warming than CO2 does. Without the effect of water vapor the Earth would be about 33C degrees cooler than it now is, making life impossible on the surface.

Is it a good thing to pump so much pollution and greenhouse gases into the air? Nobody here will argue that it's a good thing. The debate is about the doom and gloom of the AGW advocates and the enormous cost of their proposals to deal with warming. Warming which will be largely beneficial to people and other life on Earth. Polar bears have been around for several ice ages and interglacial periods when it was much warmer than it is today, so don't worry about them either.

More CO2 = more water available since plants will grow faster with less water needed, more plants = a good thing for people who eat plants. Sorry, no cannibalism for Ted Turner unless an asteroid hits us or some other calamity arrives. It won't be global warming from CO2.

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Plants prosper in concentration of CO2 higher than we've ever found in ice cores, up to 10,000 ppm. We're not far above the CO2 suffocation level for plants. People exhaling is hardly a leading cause of water vapor in the air, where do you think the water they exhale comes from? The air. CO2 would only cause cancer if you injected it into your body, it's only harmful to humans in high concentrations where it's displaced oxygen in the air.

The methane content in the atmosphere has been far higher than it is today and I don't think it every caused mass explosions during thunderstorms. You'd need a concentration far higher than is possible on a global scale. Where did you ever get that idea, Colanth?

Will, CO2 is not a bigger GHG than water vapor, it causes between 36-70% or more of warming, CO2 a paltry 9-26% at the very most. That CO2 figure is on the high side but it's from wiki so I'll let it stand.

Answer 2

Yes and Yes.

Historically (backed by scientific studies), the planet has gone through few "Global Warming and Global Ice Age" cycles.  Each cycle can last anywhere between few hundreds of years to few thousands of years.  

The problem is that we are accelerating that cycle by releasing more than usual amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.  By some scientific studies of fossil of plants, we are about 50% of what the peak CO2 ever recorded.  During that period, plants were growing very well.  However, the last 25% was increased in the past 200 years.  That is a dramatic rate.  

When climate changes very fast, it will create havoc on our living condition.  We might not be equipped or ready to support the kind of the new climate that we are NOT accustomed to.  

At the height of the global warming, ocean will become a dead zone and massive animal dying will happen.  We don't want to be part of it.

Yes, plants breath CO2 during the day under sunlight.  But it reverses at night and breath O2.  People breath O2 and emits CO2.  That can be balanced.  However, our industries are producing so much more Co2 than the planet can absorb.  Also, with the burning of fossile fuel, we are burning the Carbon that was stored millions of years ago that took millions of years to deposit.

Answer 3

the answer to the first two questions are YES. the rest, NO.

i agree with above.

Answer 4

2 the main question: YA!

Answer 5

Global warming is real in that in the last 100+ years, the temp has risen a little over 1 degree. However, there is no evidence to support the fact that man's emissions has anything to do with this warming. It appears to be natural.

Higher temps and higher CO2 does promote plant life. In history, most life forms have thrived in higher temps.

Yes, water vapor accounts for about 95% of the greenhouse effect. Our contribution to the green house effect via release of CO2 is about .27% of the total greenhouse effect.

CO2 is not a pollution. Anyone who says that is an idiot. Without CO2, every man woman and child would be dead. All living things rely on CO2.

Answer 6

Many of your questions can be answered if you watch 'The Inconvenient Truth' It is loaded with facts!

Answer 7

your retarded gary

Answer 8

it is both

Answer 9

We are not really sure.

Predictions and past data points to it being true. But we don't have enough data to really prove the point enough.

Yes CO2 is responsible for PART of the increase in earths temperature. Water Vapor, CO2, VOC, Human activity and natural causes are all responsible for global warming.

Answer 10

Two problems even bigger than CO2.

The Permafrost.  When it starts melting, all the plant matter frozen in it starts to be eaten by bacteria.  One of the byproducts is methane.  Millions (or billions or trillions) of tons of methane.  Methane is a greenhouse gas.

Methane hydride.  More millions (or billions or trillions) of tons of methane trapped at the bottoms of the oceans.  As the oceans warm, the ice in the hydride melts, releasing the methane.  More greenhouse gas.

Oh, and a methane-oxygen mixture is explosive, so lightning bolts (which will become more frequent as the temperature rises) will cause explosions that could equal the force of a 20 megaton hydrogen bomb or more.

But let's not worry about it because so many people don't believe in science that it can't be true and, besides, actually cutting back on things would be terribly inconvenient.

Answer 11

Maybe teh climate did change..but it changed naturally.

You cannot deny the fact that humans are destroying the environment at an unnatural pace.

I bet the dinosaurs never had factories and millions of cars.

Answer 12

To answer the main question, yes

To answer your second question, no, that's what big business wants so they can make us have to buy carbon credits. In Australia there is a company that will exchange personal, that means you and me, carbon credits for cash!

Check out "Greening Australia"

The Earth has had many periods, we just weren't around to make them into epidemics to scare the public.

A varied climate is the best climate, if you went to Alaska and had the same temps as Africa then life on Earth would die.

CO2 has it's good side and it's bad side, have you ever breathed in barbecue fumes? this is CO2, do you think plants could grow in that concentration of CO2?

Water vapor increases with the population the more people breath the more water vapor there is in the air, this and swimming pools, I know it sounds stupid but think about it, a pool looses an average of ten gal. of water a day in the summer.

CO2 can cause cancer and plants can only exchange CO2 during the day at night they create it.

Answer 13

Yes it's real.

There is no convincing evidence that it is caused by CO2 emissions.