OT: The Revolution Has Begun
- Thread starter TigerEE91
- Start date
Denying there is change is stupid. My question is honestly what evidence is there man has caused it? I've gone to two global warming websites and done the math. Using there own numbers man is contributing less than 5 parts per trillion to CO in the atmosphere. Did I figure this wrong? Someone please do math for me. CO comes from many sources, also increased CO means increased plant growth which means they produce more oxygen as the result of increased photosynthesis. Am I wrong here? I'm no scientist but I can move decimals and convert fractions and I just don't see the evidence according to their numbers that mankind is a significant contributor to CO levels and there fore climate change. I would welcome some help here if I'm wrong from some proponents of those saying man is causing climate change or is a significant portion of the change in temps world wide.
clemspzenbill, do you have the link(s) to those websites and how you arrived at those numbers?
According to IPCC data (3 years ago), an estimated 500 billion metric tons of carbon has been burned in the last 150 years (our industrial age). This has brought the CO2 concentration from 280 parts per million to 390 parts per million. In actuality, the 390 parts is actually low. It should be closer to 500 parts, but the ocean absorbs much of this.
This is an important time to bring up a few independent observations. How do we know that's all on us, and not through natural processes? Intuitively, but certainly not scientifically, we know that our industrial age has brought out unprecedented forest clearing and fossil fuel burning. However, we also have the ability to measure the concentration of different Carbon isotopes in our atmosphere. These different isotopes tell us how the carbon was generated. For example, burning fossil fuels produces a specific, heavier, Carbon isotope. Plants actually prefer lighter carbon isotopes, so burning fossil fuels doesn't necessarily mean more plant growth/uptake.
These concentration measurements can also be chronicled via tree rings throughout the globe. Amazingly, these tree rings all paint an identical picture of what the different concentration levels were at various times. And if that wasn't cool enough, ice cores also trap these carbon isotopes and paint a picture that validates the tree rings data!
