devilsadvocate wrote:Agreed Punky.
'Greenhouse emissions' have been occurring rapidly for the last 100+ years. Realistically, ever since the industrial age, coal has been burnt like noone's business. There's no receords of oceans rising even 1 cm in that time.
I've heard a couple of alternative theories on global warming and truth be told, I don't beleive either the global warming believers or synicists.
The other views are:
1. that when studies on GW are done and they report that 99% of scientists agree that global warming is an issue, they doen't actually pay the scientists that are GW detractors to perform studies, and therefore only those scientists that believe GW is an issue get to do some research and report their views, which distorts the credibility of such claims.
2. that carbon emissions are actually balanced out in the atmosphere by absorption into water. Given that our planet is 2/3rds water, the rate of absorption will always exceed emission.
As I said, I don't believe either. The proof is in the pudding and when my place in the hills is prime real estate with sea views in all directions, then I'll believe in global warming.
Thanks for the alternate views. I know you said you don't agree with them, but seeing that you have written them I am going to respond.
First, about coal (fossil fuel) emissions, I agree that they did increase rapidly around the time of the industrial revolution. My apologies for the following science: the level of CO2 in the air is measured as parts per square million (ppm) of the overall atmosphere, and to give some perspective: the level of CO2 during the last ice-age was 180 ppm. Before the industrial revolution the level was 280 ppm. In the last 150 years the level has risen to 381 ppm. So in short, since the beginning of the industrial revolution we have been increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, but it is only recently that we are noticibly feeling the effects. NASA scientists report that of the 20 hottest years on record, 19 occurred in the 1980s or later.
2005 was the hottest year in more than a century. One can easily understand that the level of fossil fuel emssions has skyrocketed with the motor age, the demand for electrical appliances, and with the huge markets opening up in Asia. The most populous people on the planet can now afford cars, this problem is going to get worse.
Your 1st point from the cynics doesn't add up. Governments would much rather the population had never heard of GW, as the Greens are the ones that cause waves in economic policy. The most powerful people on this planet are chasing fossil fuels (OIL) at an unprecedented rate (wars for oil). For many years these people in all probability paid off scientists to spout the opposite to GW so that a duped public would still believe it is OK to guzzle up more and more oil. These scientists are becoming fewer and fewer as the sheer mass of evidence becomes harder to deny.
2: I have never heard of Carbon emissions being absorbed in water. But carbon is contained in perma-frost in the form of ancient decayed matter that has lain there since before the ice age. When this perma-frost melts it releases this ancient carbon into the atmosphere, causing the planet to heat up even more. This is what is known as a "Feedback Loop" ie. the more ice that melts, the more carbon that is released, the more carbon that is released the more ice that melts. There are many......many.... feedback loops.
Again for the perspective: Human beings release 7 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere every year. One estimate has the amount of carbon in the Arctic circle alone at 200 to 800 gigatons.
Most of this information I am quoting from the 2006, April 3rd edition of TIME Magazine, in case anyone wants to check this source out further I am sure the bigger libraries around Adelaide would have old editions.
Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 4:33 pm
