Originally Posted by WYLD  ..... We also know that burning hydrocarbons releases CO2 into the atmosphere. We have not established that the rising amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is a recent phenomenon or a reoccuring condition..... |
I understand that ice cores taken in both Greenland and Antartica show that CO2 levels have varied cyclically in the past so it is possible to make the claim that the current increase is not out of the ordinary. However, the isotopic make up of the current atmospheric content has changed in a manner that suggests most of the increase is due to fossil sources of carbon that have been sequestered away for millions of years so it is also valid to make the claim that the current increase is caused by humans.
But it really does not matter whether it is a natural change or a man made change it is pretty well impossible to do anything about it. Even the IPCC gurus say that no matter what is done the current CO2 levels will continue to cause increases in temperature for about the next hundred years. The increase at the end of the hundred years will be less if CO2 emissions are cut in half but for the next fifty years the temperature increase will be more or less the same whether anything is done or not. At the same time these gurus predict that catastrophic irreversible changes will occur within twenty years if we do not do something. It does not compute...if we cannot have any influence ess than fifty years how can we have an influence in less than twenty years?
And all this overlooks that it is impossible to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% without causing a mind boggling disruption in the world economy and everybody's way of life. Energy consumption is embedded in everything we do and the only way to reduce CO2 emission is to reduce energy consumption. Look at post 14 in this thread;
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36211
It is a semi-flippant discussion but I have yet to find anyone who can find a flaw in the underlying premise.