CO2 is not a pollutant, guys, so give it a rest already. CO2 is plant food. It's what every living thing is made of. It is GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT!! I know it's a greenhouse gas with a minor role in maintaining the temperature of the planet, but it is a VERY minor role. Only 0.0384% of the atmosphere is CO2. That is ONE THREE-HUNDREDTH of a percent. And then if you take the amount of CO2 that we're worried about, the man-made part, then that number gets way smaller. Anyways, I guess my question is this: WHY ARE WE PANICKING???
2008-09-19T15:37:17Z
Dana, your point, at first, seems to be a relevant one. Arsenic, though, is a very potent poison. CO2 is a rather minor greenhouse gas. It's only when you have a complete overload of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, like on Venus, where the air is 96.5% carbon dioxide, as opposed to less than one percent, that CO2 can cause a significant amount of warning. (And yet AGW fanatics still point to Venus as an example of the future. Yeah, right.) So, basically, I've heard your point before, and it really doesn't HAVE a point at all.
2008-09-19T15:42:45Z
spanner, you gave a good answer, and it was obviously well thought-out. But I would just like to again point to the fact that there is such a small amount of CO2 in the atmosphere that it really couldn't make that much of a difference to the climate, ozone layer, or whatever. Also, I would like to clear up the misconception of our living in a "delicate balance" on this planet. The same people who propose this are usually the ones who support the theory of highly adaptable animals that can change from a dinosaur to a bird, or a wolf to a whale. If life on this earth is so adaptable, then how are we in a delicate balance? Or, to change the question around, if this earth is in such a delicate balance, how has life survived through multiple ice ages and hot spells, meteor impacts, eruptions, earthquakes, etc?
Mikira2008-09-19T05:45:16Z
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I love how people answer the question as if it's a proven fact when it's not. And their claim to CO2 causes warming is getting weaker and weaker as the global average temperature goes down while CO2 levels continue to increase.
I show them articles about the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (from their own beloved sites even) and they still hold onto the belief that CO2 causes warming. (This is stating that the Pacific Ocean is entering into a cool phase.)
We have also shown them articles about no sunspot activity in the month of August and the possibility of a new sunspot minimum occurring. (The last one during the Mini Ice Age we warmed up out of.) And still they believe CO2 causes warming.
Guess what? You need the sun and the oceans to be warm to get warming here on earth.
Bottom line I'm not panicking about the warming, I'm panicking that the warming trend could be over and we are about to move into another cooling trend.
I think that the panic is centred around what might yet happen if too much carbon gas enters the atmosphere, in combination with the related phenomena of deforestation and of carbon gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels for energy. When the ozone in the air, including the ozone layer, is exposed to carbon gas in the form of carbon monoxide in particular, the oxygen molecules of the ozone (O3) tend to combine with the carbon in the carbon monoxide (CO), thus reducing the amount of ozone in the atmosphere and creating a hole in the ozone layer.
When deforestation occurs due to forest fires, either deliberately set or accidental, the burning wood gives off too much carbon gas. When it is used for fuel the same effects are experienced. The carbon that the trees and plants store for food is wasted and burned into the atmosphere in excessive amounts. Over time, the damage can be incremental. Because deforestation is occurring at an increasing rate for reasons of industry, housing, settlement and agriculture, the forests are not being replaced as rapidly as they should be replenished.
Any substance that reaches higher than normal levels could become a pollutant the way plants growing out of control can become weeds. Normal amounts of carbon dioxide is given off through animal and plant respiration. However, sometimes the problem of deforestation and the potential hazards of carbon gas emissions seem to be viewed as the same problem. As far as the concentration of a substance is concerned, it is good to remember that we live in a fragile balance on this planet, and small fluctuations in one area can upset the entire balance, andd result in large scale consequences.
Anything which causes environmental problems is a pollutant and excess CO2 is causing environmental problems for us.
How can anyone claim that the extra CO2 we are emitting isn't a pollutant?
Besides, the man made part is already a pretty significant proportion of the CO2 in the atmosphere (and CO2 has a pretty major role to play in maintaining the temperature of our planet, denialist delusions aside).
As for why we're panicking, probably because we haven't actually gotten around to replacing coal for electricity production (and some countries are even switching from carbon-neutral sources of power to coal, e.g. Germany).
Arsenic is not a pollutant, guys, so give it a rest already. Arsenic is plant food (yes, some plants eat arsenic). It is GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT!! I know it's toxic to humans, but in this glass of water it is VERY minor. Only 0.01% of the molecules in the glass are arsenic. That is ONE-HUNDREDTH of a percent. That's less than one-third the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere, and we all know how small that is! And then if you take the amount of arsenic that we're worried about, the man-made part, then that number gets smaller (some of the arsenic is naturally occurring).
Anyways, I guess my question is this: WHY ARE WE PANICKING??? Just drink the arsenic laced-water!!!
As you can see, your question does not provide sufficient information to determine if the CO2 or arsenic are dangerous. I gave all the same information you gave, but drink that glass of water, and you're dead.
CO2 can be blamed on human emissions of petroleum which the left hates. I have not exactly figured out the origin of this hatred since it goes back a long ways. It was used to blame humans for global cooling. Leftists like Nancy Pelosi and Obama want to prevent us from using oil. They haven't even figured out good alternatives and they want to drive up the price of petroleum and restrict our access. It is insane that Americans are letting these fringe San Francisco lunatics run our energy policy. It is like letting Charles Manson run a Daycare center.