Posted on 11/30/2009 7:58:55 AM PST by ETL
In short, there IS no evidence that CO2 has ever caused significant warming on Earth when the concentrations were within 10-15 times of what they are today. Water vapor is, by far, the most important greenhouse gas in the Earth system. Water vapor accounts for about 95% of the greenhouse effect on Earth. Earth's temperature variations are much better correlated with the Sun's solar activity/sunspot cycle than with CO2 changes.-etl
THE ACQUITTAL OF CARBON DIOXIDE
by Jeffrey A. Glassman, PhD
ABSTRACT:
"Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere [historically] is the product of oceanic respiration due to the well-known but under-appreciated solubility pump. Carbon dioxide rises out of warm ocean waters where it is added to the atmosphere. There it is mixed with residual and accidental CO2, and circulated, to be absorbed into the sink of the cold ocean waters. Next the thermohaline circulation carries the CO2-rich sea water deep into the ocean. A millennium later it appears at the surface in warm waters, saturated by lower pressure and higher temperature, to be exhausted back into the atmosphere. Throughout the past 420 millennia, comprising four interglacial periods, the Vostok record of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is imprinted with, and fully characterized by, the physics of the solubility of CO2 in water, along with the lag in the deep ocean circulation.
Notwithstanding that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, atmospheric carbon dioxide has neither caused nor amplified global temperature increases. Increased carbon dioxide has been an effect of global warming, not a cause. Technically, carbon dioxide is a lagging proxy for ocean temperatures. When global temperature, and along with it, ocean temperature rises, the physics of solubility causes atmospheric CO2 to increase.
If increases in carbon dioxide, or any other greenhouse gas, could have in turn raised global temperatures, the positive feedback would have been catastrophic. While the conditions for such a catastrophe were present in the Vostok record from natural causes, the runaway event did not occur. Carbon dioxide does not accumulate in the atmosphere."
http://www.rocketscientistsjournal.com/2006/10/co2_acquittal.html
_______________________________________________________________
The graph above represents temperature and CO2 levels over the past 400,000 years. It is the same exact data Al Gore and the rest of the man-made global warmers refer to. The blue line is temps, the red, CO2 levels. The deep valleys represent 4 separate glaciation/ice-age periods, approximately 100,000 years apart. Look carefully at the historical relationship between temps and CO2 levels (the present is on the right hand side of the graph) and keep in mind that Gore claims this data is the 'proof' that CO2 has warmed the earth in the past. But does this data indeed show this? Nope. In fact, rising CO2 levels all throughout this 400,000-year period actually *followed* temperature increases, lagging behind by an average of 800 years! So it couldn't have been CO2 that got Earth out of these past glaciations. Yet Gore continually and dishonestly uses this same data as "evidence" of a *positive* historical correlation between CO2 and temps. Furthermore, and importantly, the subsequent CO2 level increases (due to dissolved CO2 being released from warming oceans) never did lead to additional warming, the so-called "run-away greenhouse effect" that Al Gore and company continue warning us about. In short, there is little if any evidence that CO2 had ever led to any significant global warming when the levels were within 10-15 times of what they are today. -etl
_______________________________________________________________
"The above chart shows the range of global temperature through the last 500 million years. There is no statistical correlation between the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through the last 500 million years and the temperature record in this interval. In fact, one of the highest levels of carbon dioxide concentration occurred during a major ice age that occurred about 450 million years ago [Myr]. Carbon dioxide concentrations at that time were about 15 times higher than at present." [also see 180 million years ago, same thing happened]:
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=010405M
_______________________________________________________________
So, greenhouse [effect] is all about carbon dioxide, right?
Wrong. The most important players on the greenhouse stage are water vapor and clouds [clouds of course aren't gas, but high level ones do act to trap heat from escaping, while low-lying cumulus clouds tend to reflect sunlight and thereby help cool the planet -etl]. Carbon dioxide has been increased to about 0.038% of the atmosphere (possibly from about 0.028% pre-Industrial Revolution) while water in its various forms ranges from 0% to 4% of the atmosphere and its properties vary by what form it is in and even at what altitude it is found in the atmosphere.
In simple terms the bulk of Earth's greenhouse effect is due to water vapor by virtue of its abundance. Water accounts for about 90% of the Earth's greenhouse effect -- perhaps 70% is due to water vapor and about 20% due to clouds (mostly water droplets), some estimates put water as high as 95% of Earth's total tropospheric greenhouse effect (e.g., Freidenreich and Ramaswamy, 'Solar Radiation Absorption by Carbon Dioxide, Overlap with Water, and a Parameterization for General Circulation Models,' Journal of Geophysical Research 98 (1993):7255-7264).
The remaining portion comes from carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, ozone and miscellaneous other 'minor greenhouse gases.' As an example of the relative importance of water it should be noted that changes in the relative humidity on the order of 1.3-4% are equivalent to the effect of doubling CO2.
http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/
_______________________________________________________________
Water Vapor Rules the Greenhouse System
Water vapor constitutes Earth's most significant greenhouse gas, accounting for about 95% of Earth's greenhouse effect (4). Interestingly, many 'facts and figures' regarding global warming completely ignore the powerful effects of water vapor in the greenhouse system, carelessly (perhaps, deliberately) overstating human impacts as much as 20-fold.
Water vapor is 99.999% of natural origin. Other atmospheric greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and miscellaneous other gases (CFC's, etc.), are also mostly of natural origin (except for the latter, which is mostly anthropogenic).
Human activities contribute slightly to greenhouse gas concentrations through farming, manufacturing, power generation, and transportation. However, these emissions are so dwarfed in comparison to emissions from natural sources we can do nothing about, that even the most costly efforts to limit human emissions would have a very small-- perhaps undetectable-- effect on global climate.
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html
_______________________________________________________________
Water Vapor Confirmed As Major Player In Climate Change
ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2008) — Water vapor is known to be Earth's most abundant greenhouse gas, but the extent of its contribution to global warming has been debated. Using recent NASA satellite data, researchers have estimated more precisely than ever the heat-trapping effect of water in the air, validating the role of the gas as a critical component of climate change.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081117193013.htm
No cushy UN job for YOU!
These "scientists" confine themselves to particular chemical compositions....discounting a billion other parts of the universe.
Seems always that way. Two of the biggest poisons alone, when combined together are used every day by humans and animals, it is called salt.
Waaah... up CO2 to 1000 ppm ... studies have shown in China and at Cornell (Algoria north) have shown increasing CO2 increases Crop Yields up to 400%. Slight increases of CO2 in same studies increase crop yields by 20%.
BRING IT ON...
Yes, they play off the reality that CO2 IS in fact a greenhouse gas but 'conveniently' ignore that there is no historical evidence that supports it being a problem at levels even close to what we are capable of producing. Perhaps, in a few 10s of thousands of years it might build up enough to be a problem. But by then we will almost certainly be onto to some new and more efficient means of energy.
LONG before then I should have said.
Um, it seems ManBearPig ate my data.
Sorry,
AlGore
The first chart with the red and blue seems to show that CO2 levels are substantially higher now than at any time in the last 400K years. I’m not sure what you mean by being within 10-15 times the levels they are now? Are you referring to millions of years ago?
Repeat after me students: Correlation DOES NOT = Causation!
How can plant food in the form of 0.04% of the atmosphere be a creditable source of climate change? If one realizes how small of an amount of carbon dioxide is in the earth’s atmosphere, even the unwashed can use common sense and know more than the “educated” scientists.
Its not about climate, that was just the excuse they seized upon in order to redistribute income from wealthy nations into the pockets of a few people like Al Gore, Georgie Soros, and the UN.
I hope they all burn in a hell of their own making.
Even there the CO2 spike didn't precede the temp spike. ie, rising temps came first.
Especially when it's a *reverse* correlation! (rising temps preceding rising CO2 levels).
Precisely. CO2 is toxic to animals. It is nutrition to plants. As most hobbyists who have maintained aquariums know, CO2 is vital to the health of an ecosystem. The higher the CO2 level the better the plant growth.
The assumption that a species can imbalance the global biological system is based not on science but on atheism. Only in a godless universe would it be possible for a species to assume godlike proportions and dominate creation.
If we were to burn ALL oil, wouldn’t we simply return the atmosphere to the state it was in millions of years ago? Seems like life survived just fine back then.
The red and blue graph actually shows something I have been saying for years... CO2 levels increase in response to temperature increases, not the other way around. Why? Because God is such a good designer that He gave the Earth self-regulating processes. The increasing CO2 levels help to cool a heating planet. Besides... IT’S PLANT FOOD! Only the insane would consider it pollution.
Plants NEED CO2 in order for photosynthesis to work. With a higher CO2 level, plants won't have to work as hard to get the CO2 they need.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.