
Originally Posted by
whoisjohngalt
For every study that you can name that says CO2 is harming our environment, I can link to another that says it is negligible.
You are wrong. Numerous surveys of scientific papers exist on this topic--there's virtually no scientific support that sharp increased in Co2 won't lead to significant warming--enough to cause lots of environmental damage. (
The most recent is here and concludes:
"Here, we use an extensive dataset of 1,372 climate researchers and their publication and citation data to show that (i) 97–98% of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field support the tenets of ACC outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and (ii) the relative climate expertise and scientific prominence of the researchers unconvinced of ACC are substantially below that of the convinced researchers. "
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/06/04/1003187107
(their results are consistent with my own observation as I try to read dozens of abstracts a month in several major climate journals.)
On one thing I hope we can both agree, CO2 produced by natural causes dwarfs the CO2 produced by mankind.
A poor argument. The amount man is producing is on top of the amount nature releases and that amount is exceeding natures ability to absorb Co2 as evidenced by the climbing Keeling curve and increasing acidity of the oceans.
That's not to mention the big events...like meteor strikes, super volcanos, sun cycles, etc. When Yellowstone errupts again, the amout of CO2 humans have put into the atmosphere will seem like a pretty silly statistic.
Comparing catastrophes is rather silly. The natural ones are for new impossible to prevent, a man-made equivalent is something we should try to avoid.
And let me correct you on another thing. The last time Yellowstone popped was some 640,000 years ago. We can take an educated guess about its Co2 output because it ejected roughly 1000 times more than Pinotubo 1991 eruption. Pinotubo put out an estimated 40-50 million tons of Co2. The massive Yellowstone super-eruption 640,000 years ago put out something like 50 billion tons...aka less than two years of mans yearly emissions. (last year was about 30 billion tons).
On a year to year basis volcanoes put out less than 1% of the Co2 that man's putting out.
http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volc...e_effects.html
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It's ironic that humans have such a self inflated sense of importance.
It has nothing to do with a self-inflated sense of importance. It has everything to do with science. This being a science forum that should be the foundation of our discussions.