More atmospheric CO2 means significantly more warming right?

Question

Revolutionary new maps show CO2 concentrations over the east coast of the United States at 2 and 3 times the global average as measured at Mauna Lao, Hawaii.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eJpj8UUMTaI

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Mauna_Loa_Carbon_Dioxide_png

An increase in atmospheric CO2 is supposed to "trap" more heat in the Lower Troposphere (the part of the atmosphere closest to the ground), but in the past 30 years, satellite measurements of the lower troposphere do not show any more warming over the east coast of the US than Africa, which hardly has any CO2 emissions. These satellite measurements are compared for accuracy with actual measurements taken by weather balloons.

http://www.remss.com/msu/msu_data_description.html#msu_amsu_trend_map_tlt

The East coast of the USA has some of the highest CO2 concentrations in the world, up to 1500ppm daily. Shouldn't it be warming faster than the rest of the world?

Answer 1

This might be true in a world with no wind and no weather systems, but since we do have those, it is not. It's just showing where the CO2 is coming from.

Answer 2

You are confusing a closed system with an open system.  If there were some sort of dome (e.g. closed system) over the entire east coast that kept that atmosphere separate from the rest of the world, then your thinking would be reasonable.  But in an open system where CO2 emissions travel all over the world, heat and cold fronts move around on wind currents, ocean heating and cooling effects travel around the world, etc. your thinking is simply incorrect.

If you research the scientist who headed the Vulcan Emission project (from you Youtube link) Dr. Kevin Gurney, you'd see that he does indeed agree with the theory of AGW.  It seems reasonable to assume that Dr. Gurney has a much better understanding of this data than you.

Edit:

Cindy - LOL. Apparently you missed the part in science class where they covered open vs. closed systems.

Answer 3

CO2 in hawaii will measure higher as there is a volcano there, but it doesn't mean it will get warmer as CO2 follows temperature rise

Answer 4

Air moves, and heat moves with it. That's what weather is: an attempt by nature to even things out. And it's a fairly successful attempt. There is no fence around New York to keep air or heat in. If there were, you might expect to see more warming there.

Answer 5

The origional link to this post can be found below. It is on the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works website, and was posted by Mark Morano. The following paragraphs are copied and pasted from the report.

"Washington DC - An abundance of new peer-reviewed studies, analysis, and data error discoveries in the last several months has prompted scientists to declare that fear of catastrophic man-made global warming "bites the dust" and the scientific underpinnings for alarm may be "falling apart." The latest study to cast doubt on climate fears finds that even a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide would not have the previously predicted dire impacts on global temperatures. This new study is not unique, as a host of recent peer-reviewed studies have cast a chill on global warming fears.

"Anthropogenic (man-made) global warming bites the dust," declared astronomer Dr. Ian Wilson after reviewing the new study which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Another scientist said the peer-reviewed study overturned "in one fell swoop" the climate fears promoted by the UN and former Vice President Al Gore. The study entitled "Heat Capacity, Time Constant, and Sensitivity of Earth's Climate System," was authored by Brookhaven National Lab scientist Stephen Schwartz. (LINK)

"Effectively, this (new study) means that the global economy will spend trillions of dollars trying to avoid a warming of ~ 1.0 K by 2100 A.D." Dr. Wilson wrote in a note to the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee on August 19, 2007. Wilson, a former operations astronomer at the Hubble Space Telescope Institute in Baltimore MD, was referring to the trillions of dollars that would be spent under such international global warming treaties like the Kyoto Protocol."

Answer 6

You are confusing "CO2 emissions" with the "atmospheric CO2 concentration". Of course there are more emissions over the populated areas of the US; that is where most of the cars and factories are.

Here are atmospheric CO2 concentrations from ten points from around the globe:  http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/trends/co2/sio... .  They all measure approximately 380ppm as of the year 2004.

Answer 7

Now you know why it's called global warming instead of US east coast warming.

Answer 8

It's a matter of time and distance.  The heat from the locally high CO2 dissipates relatively fast.  These urban areas ARE warmer than rural areas, but it's hard to sort out the urban heat island effect from the effect due to CO2 concentrations.

The bottom line is that a number of variables can confound the analysis when you limit it to specific geographic areas.  To get clarity, you NEED to look at the global averages.

And, basic physics says more CO2, more warming, until wee get to concentrations tens or hundreds of times what we're seeing now.

Answer 9

I am laughing so hard right now...  I am reading 'if there were a dome and you are confusing CO2 emissions with atmospheric CO2.'  What makes me laugh is that these ignorants are now contradicting their OWN GREENHOUSE THEORY....  Which is it alarmists?  Are we a greenhouse or aren't we?

Then you get Bob skirting totally around the CO2 effect issue by saying that it is too complicated and full of too many variables.....  Yeah!  lol

Anyway, he is absolutely correct in asking this great question because where there is CO2, there is cooling.  Simple when CO2 peaks, cooling starts!  I love it when the rats are brought out to be exterminated.