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Ingela asked in EnvironmentGlobal Warming · 1 decade ago

How many around here denies these two claims?

"Increasing greenhouse gas concentrations tend to warm the planet. "

"The atmospheric buildup of CO2 and other greenhouse gases is largely the result of human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels."

I'll give you the source to these two quotes later.

Update:

licious: lol, I think there's more of them. :-)

cocomojo: I couldn't find the answer to my question anywhere in your post. Can you please answer me?

Update 2:

Fred M: Thanks for actually answering my question. You're right CO2 isn't the "strongest factor". I don't think anyone says it is.

Karazyal: I could not find an answer to my question from you either. The solution to potential dangers is to deal with them, not deny them. That's when the dangers become reality.

Update 3:

Time to reveal my source:

Mikira: My "erroneous quotes..." which "...both aren't true" are from EPA. These statements are "virtually certain" meaning MORE than 99% chance that the results are true:

Read the link if you don't want to look uneducated on the global warming subject:

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/stateofkn...

Update 4:

Jack_Scar: Read this link and scroll down to "Comparison of CO2 emissions from volcanoes vs. human activities": http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Hazards/What/VolGas/volg...

17 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    I agree with both of those claims. Greenhouse gases have an undeniable warming effect. Without them the Earth would be too cold to live on, with too many (like Venus) the planet would be too hot. We live in a delicate balance with them. The increase of greenhouse gases since the industrial age began is unquestionably due to burning fossil fuels. That can be shown with simple accounting.

    I don't agree with some of the other answers, like the one that said

    "Have you taken into consideration the billions of tons of c02 that are released each and every year for the fires in CA, NM AZ that could have been stopped if radical environmentalist had keep their mouths shut?"

    I can't speak for the fires in New Mexico and Arizona, but I have lived through two huge fires in California in the past 5 years and they had nothing to do with radical environmentalists. They were both human-caused and both were exacerbated by decreased rainfall in recent years that my be due to global warming. Fires are definitely part of the problem, especially the man-made ones.

    That stuff about volcanoes producing more greenhouse gases is nonsense, as you pointed out.

    Dr. Jello wants calculations of how much warming to expect from increased CO2, but of course when scientists provide that for him he ignores them. Dr. Jello, try looking at "Climate Change: The Physical Science Basis" by the IPCC and you'll get your answers.

    Mikira doesn't know what she's talking about in so many different ways, but perhaps the most laughable is claiming that environmental lobbyists control the EPA! That's some sort of fantasy world that you live in, Mikira. Perhaps you don't realize that California and fourteen other states filed a lawsuit against the EPA because they want to put limits on greenhouse gases in automobile exhaust and the EPA won't let them.

  • JimZ
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    "Increasing greenhouse gas concentrations tend to warm the planet. " It should theoretically lead to moderate warming with by far most of the warming on the coldest night and winter temperatures. In other words it acts to moderate the temperature.

    "The atmospheric buildup of CO2 and other greenhouse gases is largely the result of human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels." Obviously most greenhouse gases are natural. Of the 400 parts per million by vollume of CO2 in the atmosphere, only the wildest estimate would put human contribution at more than a 100 parts per million in the hundreds of years since the Industrial Revolution began. Clearly the trend was upwards anyway so in my opinion 50 ppm is more realistic to human contribution. If people weren't so eager to believe the worst, they would realize that is a relatively minor problem that has been exaggerated by some for various reasons.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    "Increasing greenhouse gas concentrations tend to warm the planet. "

    well it could also cool the planet also, it should be global climate change instead of people calling it global warming. So I will deny this claim.

    "The atmospheric buildup of CO2 and other greenhouse gases is largely the result of human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels."

    I'll accept this one. Although CO2 is a larger % it doesn't contribute as much as say methane. There has been times of global cooling when CO2 has been highest. Now if we look at the shield regions of Canada and Russia, this is the largest CO2 sink in the world, larger than the rainforest's, if we see this disappearing we will more than likely see a more intense global climate change.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    The observation that two things have risen together for a period of time says nothing about one trend being the cause of the other. To establish a causal relationship it must be demonstrated that the presumed cause precedes the presumed effect. Furthermore, this relationship should be demonstrable over several cycles of increases and decreases in both parameters. And even when these criteria are met, as in the case of solar/climate relationships, many people are unwilling to acknowledge that variations in the presumed cause truly produced the observed analogous variations in the presumed effect.

    In thus considering the seven greatest temperature transitions of the past half-million years - three glacial terminations and four glacial inceptions - we note that increases and decreases in atmospheric CO2 concentration not only did not precede the changes in air temperature, they followed them, and by hundreds to thousands of years! There were also long periods of time when atmospheric CO2 remained unchanged, while air temperature dropped, as well as times when the air's CO2 content dropped, while air temperature remained unchanged or actually rose. Hence, the climate history of the past half-million years provides absolutely no evidence to suggest that the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 concentration will lead to significant global warming.

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  • 1 decade ago

    Your first statement should read:

    "Increasing greenhouse gas concentrations CAN warm the planet. In conjunction with increased solar out put."

    And the second statement is really false because Scientists are estimating the Volcano eruption in Chile last month put 100 times the greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere that humans have since the invention of the automobile. So your premise of a buildup doesn't make sense.

  • 1 decade ago

    CO2 has been mainly delt with with plants,not just trees. That includes Algae.

    Methane is a lie as it is lighter than air so it is high up and U Carnot measure it. It is based on what they calculate that they want the answer to be. There is something that they don't know;;; As methane gets higher and higher the sun intensity is great enough to cause oxidation of the methane, That leaves more CO2 and water vapor. There is not a large lake of methane up there. Or an airplane would of found it.

  • 1 decade ago

    Honestly I'm a bit surprised that even the deniers are disputing these statements.

    Increasing GHG concentrations by definition warms the planet. That's why they're called 'greenhouse gases'! If they didn't, the planet would be 33°C colder than it is. This is just basic physics, proven by a simple blackbody calculation.

    http://www.mit.edu/people/goodmanj/terraforming/no...

    That the increase in atmospheric CO2 is due to humans burning fossil fuels has been verified by analyzing isotopic ratios.

    http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=87

    I agree with the EPA - these statements are both virtually certain, and both very basic. If deniers can't even accept these basic facts, they're in no position to dispute AGW.

  • Mikira
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago

    I could care less where you got those erroneous quotes from, since they both aren't true. You supposedly live in Sweden and you're going to still believe this BS when the Northern hemisphere just went through a colder winter and spring than last year. Oh and our winter had also proceeded a record cold winter in the Southern hemisphere. Sorry, not buying what you're trying to sell. And I feel you should finally pull your head out of the sand, especially since you live closer to the arctic circle than I do and we are only on the tip of the iceburg as far as a long cooling trend, so get ready to experience extremely cold winters up there.

    Edit: Great answer Dr Jello!! I did the calulation once to figure out how fast we'd get to a dangerous CO2 level at the rate we are increasing CO2 levels now and I came up with way over 1000 years. That calculation also didn't take into account all the forces working to suck CO2 from our atmosphere, since there's no way of knowing what things like blue-green algae and a few other things I studied would increase and do the same things they did over a million years ago.

    We have a complex ecosystem that people try to claim they know all the answers to all the riddles of how our planet works, but we don't.

    Edit: The EPA is a government funded organization that listens to the lobbyists that give them the most money. - Enviromentalists. The only thing I pulled from their site a while ago was their danderous CO2 level, which I think was about 3000 to 5000 PPM. Oh and I'm not uneducated on the subject. It's you who refuses to look at evidence contrary to what you want to believe.

    Oh I love this quote directly from the EPA: "Scientists know with virtual certainty that:"

    Virtual Certainty huh? You've got to be kidding. Do you know what virtual reality is? It's a false reality.

    Dictionary definition of the word: Virtual:

    1. Being something in practice - Being something in effect even if not in reality or not conforming to the generally accepted definition of the term

    2. Generated by computer - simulated by a computer for reasons of economics, convenience, or performance

    3. Hypothetical - physics describes a particle whose existence is suggested to explain observed phenomena, but is not proven or directly observable

    Edit: Those statements have not been proven to be true. If they have, explain why this past winter in the Northern Hemisphere was colder than the year before? And dito for Spring? Actually in 2007 the winter in the Southern hemisphere was also colder than their 2006 winter was.

  • bubba
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    Don't think you can deny observable facts! Most scientific state these facts, but some people put their head in the sand and claim it is all political and the scientist are only after research money. Their are lots of questions that get research money and global warming does not get much now. Most questions (the easy ones) have been answered enough to help decide policy actions needed.

    Source(s): Fred M.: You're statement that CO2 is not a very strong greenhouse gas is completely wrong. Please give a reference. CO2 is a very strong greenhouse gas. Look at the IPCC Working Group 1 report . I think the summary has the information graphically if you don't want to read it. CO2, although not a large component of the atmosphere, has a huge effect on warming. It is like having a wallet full of bills. A couple of $100 dollar bills can really increase your spending power compared to a couple more $1 bills. CO2 is like a $100 bill in the atmosphere. Doesn't take a lot to have an impact because it IS very efficient at absorbing long wave radiation. My source is IPCC WG1 but look it up in any atmospheric science book.
  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Fear that human beings are destroying the planet is the new "Danger" facing us today! Around 25 years ago the "danger" was the "Cold War!" Danger sells on TV - human beings destroying the world is the new danger! Going green means more money for certain companies (like GE for instance) who stand to make billions off this new "danger!"

    There are as many scientists that say a warmer earth means longer growing seasons and less starvation in the world! Cow farts contribute to more problems with our air than burning fossil fuels. If a person is so involved in blaming human beings for "Global Warming" then they should also become vegetarians and not eat meat! The production of "meat" pollutes the air more than cars!

    The earth gets warmer and it gets cooler - it's normal! In the U.S. we have more forests now than 1000 years ago - believe it or not!

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