Quote:
Originally posted by ASEI@Sep 1 2004, 01:26 AM
You saw the numbers on actual CO2 emmissions. Numbers are very difficult to pin down in these debates, no one likes to talk about relative quantity or establish perspective in their doom prophecy.
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There is a balance in nature. If natural sources produce and consume 220 billion tons of carbon per year, and we add 5 billion, then there's 5 billion tons of carbon in the atmosphere at the end of the year. You seem to be saying that this doesn't matter, or that you hope that nature will adjust itself to absorb that extra 5 billion tons (or whatever value it really is). But the evidence is that this is not happening.
You want numbers? Lots of numbers???
CO2 Data has been recorded monthly at Mauna Loa since 1958. Check it out.
In 1959, the atmosphere contained 316 ppm CO2. It has gone up each and every year since. In the monthly data, you can see seasonal variations, as the plant life in the northern hemisphere absorbs CO2 in the summer, and gives it up in the winter, but the average moves up EVERY YEAR. In 2003 it had reached 376 ppm. That's a 19% increase in 44 years.
Are we the cause? We certainly could be, and there's no other suspect nearby.
Is it necessarily connected to the recent changes in climate? It certainly could be. If it isn't, then the change in climate is quite a co-incidence, no?