What's a greater cause of Global Warming, Oil or the Urban Heat Island Effect?

Question

Oil - Yes, CO2 is produced by it.

Urban Heat Island Effect - This phenomenon describes urban and suburban temperatures that are 2 to 10°F (1 to 6°C) hotter than nearby rural areas. Elevated temperatures can impact communities by increasing peak energy demand, air conditioning costs, air pollution levels, and heat-related illness and mortality.

http://www.epa.gov/heatisland/

Answer 1

Neither as there is no Global Warming...

Answer 2

Oil.  UHI is a local effect which has virtually no impact on global temperatures.  According to the IPCC:

"the global land warming trend discussed is very unlikely to be influenced significantly by increasing urbanisation"

Answer 3

There is no proof of a causal relationship between CO2 and warming.  This is an assumption which has no scientific support.  CO2 levels increase AFTER temperature increase, not before.

Neither has any significant impact on global warming, which is a solar driven phenomenon.

Answer 4

Oil.

The data shows that the fact that urban temperatures are warmer does NOT affect the measured trend upwards.

David E. Parker (2006). "A demonstration that large-scale warming is not urban". Journal of Climate 19: 2882–2895. doi:10.1175/JCLI3730.1.



T. C. Peterson (2003). "Assessment of Urban Versus Rural In Situ Surface Temperatures in the Contiguous United States: No Difference Found". Journal of Climate 16: 2941–2959. doi:10.1175/1520-0442(2003)016<2941:AOUV...

Answer 5

It would appear the UHI is the winner. There is no study suggesting man is responsible for the current warming. There is evidence to suggest that the NASA numbers from surface temp stations are being skewed upwards because of urban sprawl. Anthony Watts has an ongoing study to research the different weather stations, mostly in the USA. It really is appalling how some of this locations are placed.

This one happens to be outside the US

http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/200...

Here is the temp sensor, on top of a roof. Ask any roofer if it is hotter on the roof.

http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/200...

Take the time to see some of these temp sensor locations. You will not believe what you see. It's almost as if they are trying to get higher readings. Do you think Jim Hansen would alter data just to be right?

http://gallery.surfacestations.org/UCAR-...

Answer 6

coal burning by far

check out the video

http://multiply.com/gi/ecowellness:video...

Answer 7

The Urban Heat Island Effect is a localised phenomenon, atmospheric CO2 is global...

Urban Heat Island Effect actually has zero impact on global warming; it is not a net contributor to GW except in so much as the pollution produced in urban areas is a percentage of other pollutants globally.

The analogy would be to ask are hot deserts contributing to GW?

Edit to jeff m:

I really am getting tired of being called a liar by the cumbersome process of:

- putting words I have never said into my mouth;

- denouncing those words as being untrue and;

- by association, saying I lie!

This, jeff, is the dishonesty - your slur tactics.

For the record:

I do NOT prefer to get my data from urban heat islands

Next time, please cite at least one source for these malicious slanders.

Answer 8

The heat island effect is accounted for in Global warming so it is not the cause of it.

Answer 9

Fossil fuels.

Urban heat islands do have an effect.  We should paint our roofs white and do the same with asphalt. But the effect is small and limited.

It is simple to figure.  3/4 of the earth is water.  Urban areas only make up a few percent of the land area.  So, assuming they make up 1 percent of the earth's surface, they would contibute .01 -.06 deg C to global warming.

But they do have a significant local effect on the environment.